“Paris is always a good idea.” –Audrey Hepburn

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” –Ernest Hemingway

So we only “lived” in Paris for four days, but our experiences will definitely stay with us. We had three full days to see and take in as much as we could, and they were definitely FULL days! We continue to be amazed at our boys’ stamina and gratitude. We drag them along day after day on these 10ish mile walks trying to see what makes each place special, and they continue to thank us for it profusely! I think they’ve had enough adults earnestly look them in the eye and tell them how lucky they are and to enjoy every moment of this trip that they’ve really taken that message to heart. So, we packed our time in Paris to the brim, knowing we would all love it and then leave it totally exhausted (turned out true on both counts).

Our first full day we started by walking across the Pont Neuf to the Île de la Cité to see the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was devastated by fire in April of last year. We spent some time walking around the temporary wall they’ve set up outside the perimeter where they have pictures and explanations of what happened and how the clean-up and restoration process has gone. It’s incredible they were able to save the structure and was really sad to see the damage that was done, including the collapse of the spire. Our next stop was the Shakespeare and Company bookstore where William bought a beautiful edition of Les Misérables and we all enjoyed walking through the funky rooms. After that we visited Les Invalides and saw the outside of Napoleon’s tomb (they were not allowing tourists to enter) before moving on to the Musée d’Orsay where we spent a couple hours seeing masterpieces from Monet, Manet, Rodin, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gaudin, and others. We ended our day by taking the metro to the Montmartre neighborhood to walk around there and visit Sacré-Cœur as well as the Wall of Love where “I love you” is written in 250 languages.

Our second day was set aside for touring the Palace of Versailles, which is about an hour metro ride from the city center. One obstacle that made our visit especially memorable is that we had tickets for noon on a Sunday, which meant leaving our apartment by about 10:45, and we couldn’t find any food before we left because most places were closed on Sundays and those that would be opened were opening pretty late. We had hoped a food market near the palace would be a good option (it wasn’t), and then we had hoped the restaurant inside the palace would do (it didn’t), so we ended up touring Versailles on empty stomachs and had our first bites of food in the middle of the afternoon after we finished our tour…not exactly how I pictured the day going, but it will stick with us! Seeing the old home of the French kings and queens was interesting, but between the heat (it hit 102 that day), having to be masked-up, and not having had any food, we made quicker work of the palace than we otherwise would have. After finally eating, we headed back to Paris and treated ourselves to some crepes and a few hours of rest at our apartment. Side note: our apartment turned out to be owned by Ben Sidran of the Steve Miller Band, which was a funny surprise.

Our third day was reserved for experiencing some of the most iconic sites of Paris: the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, and Place de la Concorde. It was a lot to take in during a single day and turned out to be one of our longer walking days at 12.5 miles, but we loved looking back on that day and thinking through all the important places we’d gotten to see. It felt strange to stand in the Place de la Concorde and try to imagine how that could be the place where the public executions of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, and others occurred during the French Revolution, especially after just having visited their palatial home the day before. We were grateful to be there under much more peaceful circumstances. We ended our day with a very traditional French dinner, which was so special it will get its own post!

“Paris is always a good idea.” –Audrey Hepburn

Pont Neuf, Île de la Cité, and Notre Dame Cathedral:

Shakespeare and Company bookstore:

a few pieces from Musée d’Orsay

the Palace of Versailles:

Les Invalides

the Louvre:

images from our walk around Paris:

in Montmartre, near Sacré Cœur

Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomph:

Sacré Cœur: