glimpses of Paris: from montmartre to le marais
Hi friends and readers. Happy almost-summer, everyone! It’s been a busy spring season. We had my sister’s wedding in April – an epic celebration that included shuffleboard, a full pink moon, a surprise vocal performance from the groom, and some wedding crashers; many adventures in house-hunting; and we recently returned from almost two weeks abroad in Berlin and Paris.
This particular trip came about for several reasons. Besides our general affinity for spending our vacations in Europe, visiting Paris together has been on our travel bucket list for a while, and since Paris is also a central location in a new novel I’m working on, it felt like the perfect time to go.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Paris during my year teaching abroad in the tiny town of Montargis, just an hour train ride from France’s capital city. During that formative year, Paris became a city very close to my heart. When Montargis was too quiet on the weekends, I would often go to Paris for a day or book a last-minute overnight stay in a hostel. On many occasions, I stayed a night in the city on my way to or from a bigger trip. During the holidays that year, my parents and sister came to visit me, and we spent Christmas week traipsing around the holiday market on the Champs-Élysées, visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, and other iconic monuments.
In short, Paris is a city I’ve experienced in every season and in which I’ve made memories that are very much a part of me. Ted, who also took French in high school, has never been, though we’d always talking about visiting together. So, eleven years since I’d last set foot in Paris, I was back.
Much like any beloved place you return to after a long time away, a lot feels the same and a lot feels different. And like any great city, Paris is constantly evolving – growing, breathing, becoming something new. Each time I return, I see it through different eyes, and this time, I saw the city partially through the perspective of my urbanist husband.
One of the biggest changes I read about beforehand and noticed upon arriving was the major increase in bike lanes and pedestrian streets. Under "Plan Vélo" (instituted in 2015), Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo added 1,000 km of bike lanes, instituted “limited traffic zones” in the central arrondissements, and has continued to add green, car-free streets just for pedestrians and bikes.
Of course, upon hearing about all these sustainable transportation improvements, my city-planner, transportation-enthusiast husband wanted us to experience them for ourselves. So, we signed up for a three-day pass on the city’s bikeshare program, Vélib (vélo + liberté!). We lucked out with pretty amazing weather, so on our first day, we jumped on the bikes. We rode some of the many new bike lanes down to the Seine, where we hopped on one of the new pedestrian greenways, making our way over from our hotel in Le Marais to the Eiffel Tower.
We docked our bikes a little ways from the tower, walked along a pretty greenery-covered wall outside the Musée du Quai Branley, then we admired the Eiffel Tower for a bit from the gardens below it (we didn’t want to deal with the crowds and long lines to go up). Afterwards, we crossed the Pont d’léna and enjoyed the view from Place du Trocadero.
Our next stop was one of my favorite neighborhoods in Paris. Charming, lively, and home to many students, the Latin Quarter stole my heart the first time I stumbled into the Place de la Contrescarpe, a famous people-watching spot at the top of pedestrian street, rue de la Mouffetard. This quintessentially Parisian circle also happens to be around the corner from the apartment building where Emily lives in Emily in Paris (fun fact: Gabriel’s restaurant is also nearby!). Yes, these locations are now highlighted on Google Maps, and we got in a very short line to take the photo below (#worthit).
The rest of our afternoon exploring the Latin Quarter included a peaceful stroll through Jardin du Luxembourg, where there are stunning gardens, a fountain where kids (or adults) can rent sailboats to race around, an antique carousel, and beautiful statues, including a small version of the statue of liberty (which is, apparently, one of 3 mini-libertys in Paris).
Of course, we did most of the major highlights — the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Champs-Élysées (which we biked down), Notre Dame, and Montmartre. Seeing the majestic Notre Dame was stunning - the renovation post-fire is truly impressive, and in all the times I’ve been to Paris, I can’t believe I hadn’t been inside it before.
We also greatly enjoyed the artistic haven of Montmartre. While we were sitting down having a drink in the Place du Tertre, a famous square where artists work around the corner from Sacre Coeur basilica, an artist approached us. He complimented my husband’s shirt - a colorful vintage item that looked like it had been streaked with paint - then asked if we wanted a portrait done. We were hesitant at first, but he convinced us (he “really wanted to paint Ted’s shirt”; we “didn’t have to buy it unless we liked it”). He told us it would be a “silly” portrait, so we were curious. We sat there, sipping on our drinks as he began drawing, and pretty soon a crowd started gathering, intrigued by his artwork taking shape right before their eyes.
Another highlight was our Seine dinner cruise. Although it’s the type of touristy excursion we usually don’t gravitate towards, a scene from my novel-in-progress involves two of my characters on a date on one of these cruises, so I had to experience it to get the full effect. And I’m so glad we did! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. After doing a bit of research on the Bateaux Mouche cruises, I booked ours on Maxim’s sure Seine because of their good reviews of the food, small size of the boats, and on-board entertainment in the form of a pianist and singer. It was a delightful way to take in Paris at golden hour and nightfall, appreciating the beauty of each unique and historic bridge the boat would glide under, and even getting to float alongside the shimmering Eiffel Tower at the end of the ride. Sidenote, sunset in Paris was quite late - around 9:45 pm - this time of year, so I was super glad we, and Ted especially, were able to see the sparkling tower at the tail end of this cruise.
All of the iconic sites of Paris are just that: unmatched in their grandeur and beauty. Astonishing and unforgettable. But it was the softer, quieter moments I’ll remember most about this trip. Having a picnic on the banks of the Seine after we visited Notre Dame; cozy dinners in the perfectly cloistered streets of Le Marais, Villiers, or Montparnasse; popping into many patisseries and boulangeries to sample decadent varieties of French pastries; and simply doing what Parisians do best — basking in the afternoon sun at an outdoor cafe, watching people brush past and listening to the pulse of the city.
