Planning a Paris trip? This is the first in a series recapping our ten-year anniversary trip — neighborhood by neighborhood, meal by meal, with the honest version of what made the list and what we actually did.
We flew to Paris on our actual anniversary, which felt like the right kind of poetic. We cheersed with champagne somewhere over the Atlantic — in the back of a full economy cabin, doing our very best to feel glamorous while packed in with the rest of the practicing-gratitude crowd.
The melatonin gummies I'd specifically researched and purchased for the overnight flight worked for approximately one hour.
Nevertheless: Paris. Hard to complain.
I should back up.
This was our ten-year anniversary trip, and it had been a long time coming. Motherhood is a beautiful, exhausting thing that had quietly depleted my planning energy for the better part of four years. I'd barely had bandwidth for the logistics of daily life, let alone a dream international trip. But this was the year. I finally felt like myself again. We'd been saving points, and the plan was happening.
I made a spreadsheet. Of course I did, see snapshot:
I researched restaurants for weeks, mapped neighborhoods, and built an itinerary with what I lovingly call "structured spontaneity".
I actually schedule blocks for wandering, because you simply cannot plan every second, but you can plan around the seconds you can't plan. (This is also how I approach most things in life, and I'm at peace with that.)
So. Paris.
A Note on Parisian Neighborhoods
Before I get into Day One, a quick orientation that would have helped me before I arrived.
Paris is divided into arrondissements — neighborhoods that spiral outward from the city center like a snail shell. Which is why the map looks confusing at first: the 11th arrondissement sits right next to the 4th even though the numbers aren't sequential.
The city spirals outward rather than laying itself out on a tidy American grid.
If you draw a circle around Notre-Dame, the general rule holds: the closer you are with your hotel, the better.
The 1st and 2nd have most of the major landmarks, but hotels skew either very expensive or not worth it — unless you're at the Ritz, in which case, carry on.
The Marais (3rd and 4th) is lively, walkable, and packed with excellent food. Arguably the most convenient neighborhood for first-timers who want to eat well without too much effort.
The 11th, right next to the Marais, is where a lot of the newer, genuinely exciting restaurant energy has landed. If you're a food-first traveler, file that one away.
The 5th skews more student-oriented, with excellent affordable grab-and-go options. And the 6th — Saint-Germain-des-Prés — is where the legendary cafés live, a short walk from Notre-Dame, and where a solid chunk of Emily in Paris was filmed. Which, if you're going to pick a reason to stay somewhere, is a perfectly valid one.
We stayed in the 6th, at Hôtel Saint André des Arts. Steps from Le Procope (allegedly the oldest café in Paris), around the corner from Café de Flore, and — I say this lovingly — entirely too close to the bars on a Friday night. More on that.
What I Had Planned for Arrival Day
I was intentional about keeping this day light. Delayed flights, jet lag, and general travel uncertainty are real, and I did not want to be the person who missed a reservation because our flight was three hours late. So the loose plan:
- Drop bags at hotel, quick change, wander to the Marais or grab brunch nearby depending on how hungry we were
- Brunch at Breizh Café (locations in both the Marais and Saint-Germain — built-in flexibility)
- Walk to Saint-Sulpice and the Jardin du Luxembourg
- Notre-Dame (free, reserve ahead)
- Musée Carnavalet for French history (free, 11am–6pm)
- Wander the Marais: shops, coffee, soak it all up
- Optional: Pompidou Center and/or Picasso Museum
- Dinner at Grouvie, Brasserie des Prés, or Le Procope
Ambitious, right? Arrival days always look that way on paper, and I padded it deliberately so we could drop items without guilt.
What We Actually Did
Coffee first. Everything else second.
After dropping our bags with the hotel concierge and changing in their tiny restroom (very Paris), we made a beeline for the Marais.
The Paris weather gods had apparently decided to bless us — I'd fully expected cold, gray, and drizzly, the kind of weather that's charming when you're inside a French restaurant with onion soup but considerably less charming when you're walking everywhere.
Instead, we got full sunshine and highs in the low 60s.
A genuine miracle.
We walked to the Marais for coffee at Sevenly Heart, which was absolutely packed for a Friday before lunch — always a good sign. Flat whites were excellent.
Fortified (as much as you can be on one hour of sleep and a small cup of coffee), we headed to Breizh Café for an early lunch.
I had the special with scallops and leeks — creamy, perfectly buckwheat-y. Nathan got sausage and potato in some sort of magical creamy cheese sauce.
We both cleaned our plates entirely. Breizh Café is a small, casual space — the kind of place where you can have a leisurely lunch or eat your galette and be on your way. We lingered.
After crossing the street to peek into La Mont Saint-Michel (very cute jackets, adorable dachshund logo), we wandered into a church and spent the next few hours in a pleasantly sleep-deprived haze through the Marais.
Shops worth noting:
- Le Nom — beautiful bags you can have customized on the spot; worth a peek even if you're not buying
- AXS — a curated shop with vintage homeware and ceramics, the kind where you pick up a dish and turn it over three times talking yourself out of buying it
- Jimmy Fairly — a sunglasses boutique with locations all over Paris
- Merci — a concept store with work from mostly local artists and designers, vast and airy and a little overwhelming in the best way
I'll be honest: clothes shopping in Paris didn't grab me the way I'd anticipated. Maybe I was tired.
Or maybe clothes shopping isn't my jam.
Kitchen shopping? The cookware and homeware stores? Another story entirely — but that was a different day.
We did the Carnavalet Museum next, which is great because it’s free and shows the history of Paris but when you’re tired and the rooms are warm and stuffy? Not the best. It’s definitely a cool visit and would recommend it if you have the energy.
By mid-afternoon we needed a proper sit-down, so we ducked into The Cambridge Public House for a cocktail around 2 or 3pm. It was quiet, the drinks were excellent, the service was phenomenal. A 10/10 spot I'd go back to without hesitation. I imagine it gets lively at happy hour — but the calm afternoon version was exactly what we needed.
The Sandwich Situation
A few blocks from where we stood was Caractère de Cochon — a famed jambon-beurre sandwich shop in the Marais that has made more than a few rounds on Instagram and TikTok. I cannot verify this personally (I don't have the app; my friends send me clips like I'm a millennial grandmother, which I effectively am), but multiple people had told me to go. So we went.
The experience: you walk in, one group at a time, and they walk you through a wall of refrigerated ham.
Cured or cooked? French, Italian, or Spanish? Basic, top of the line, extra flavor? There are also cheeses to choose from. It's theatrical in the best way — a whole production for a sandwich, which is exactly how it should be in a country that has elevated the humble jambon-beurre to near-spiritual status.
Nathan and I kept it simple: ham and butter, for research purposes.
We wanted a baseline before comparing it to Le Petit Vendôme, probably the most famous jambon-beurre in Paris and on the agenda for the following day.
I opted for a cured truffle ham from Italy. Nathan went with a French cured ham. The bread, the butter, the ham — I genuinely blacked out a little from how good that first bite was.
We wandered while eating and I have no memory of the route we took back to the hotel. That is high praise.
We ended the evening at Chapon for their famous chocolate mousse. We tried two of the three flavors — both excellent, both deeply rich. You could theoretically share one cone between two people and be satisfied. We did not do this. When in Paris, you try all the things.
By 7pm we decided it was a perfectly acceptable time to call it and went back to the hotel, where a magical hotel angel had already hauled our bags up to our room.
I'd braced for a closet-sized Paris hotel room and instead found a loveseat, plenty of space for our excessive luggage, and a view straight down the side street that holds Le Procope, Brasserie des Prés, and several very lively bars.
On a Friday night. A very alive Friday night.
I fumbled half-asleep for my white noise app — and failed to loop it correctly, which meant I was woken up three hours later by Taylor Swift in one ear and boisterous bar patrons in the other. Once we sorted the white noise situation, we slept fully and completely until morning.
✦ Pro tip: Figure out how to loop your white noise app before you need it. The 6th arrondissement on a Friday night is atmospheric during the day and genuinely alive at night. It's not unpleasant — it's Paris — but come prepared if you're a light sleeper.
Next up: the Louvre, a genuinely stunning set of gardens, and the definitive ranking of the best jambon-beurre in Paris after rigorous scientific field research.
Want more from the trip? I share the full series — plus studio updates, what I'm cooking, and the occasional thing I noticed about color — over in Studio Vibes, my twice-monthly newsletter. Join here →
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