Within a few minutes, we were in love with Paris, and within the same minutes, we understood that this is a city you can’t just visit once when having a weekend or just a few days here. There’s no way you can cover all things worth seeing and experiencing in that time. This is Sticks & Spoon's 3-day Travel Guide and Travel Itinerary to Paris!
First day in Paris! The Hotel Therese was perfectly located and within just minutes of walking, we had some nice destinations, sights, and restaurants in the area. We met up with one of Sticks San Francisco's friends that also was at the Wine Yard Wedding for a tasty Thai Dinner at Restaurant Bambou.
Dinner at Bambou
Afterward, we just strolled around the neighborhood and made some plans for the upcoming days. We soon realized that we needed to do this first Paris visit with a tight schedule.
The exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work with the Opera House was very interesting with some extraordinary works like the Picadour above
So we did the only right thing to do on day two after a visit to the beautiful Opera House Garnier; we took a tourist tour with Big Bus and their Hop-on-Hop-off buses! That’s doing it like a tourist and something we usually do not do. We love to walk when visiting new cities but with such a big city as Paris you must plan differently we guess. And it's totally worth it! With a 24-hour ticket, guide in headphones with a lot of history and facts as well as Bus Stops at all the major landmarks and spots worth visiting, it's such a convenient way to get around and see a lot!
Eiffel Tower - makes one of the most iconic city silhouettes in the World
Notre Dame Cathedral
Moulin Rouge
Top experiences like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Montmartre, the Towers of Notre Dame Cathedral, Opéra Garnier, Moulin Rouge, Grand Palais, Place de la Concorde, Les Invalides, Pont Alexandre III, and many, many more attractions and sights are available (not in that particular order though) when you take one of these tours.
And actually; it’s a great idea to take a 24-hour valid ticket on one of all Hop-on-Hop-off bus tours. If divided into two days with an afternoon tour and a morning tour the day after you can cover the most obvious must-see city sights when it comes to history, architecture, culture, and landmarks. We made both longer and shorter stops on a few of those.
The Udon Bistro became full as soon as they opened the doors
After dinner at Udon Bistro Kunitoraya, we felt like walking so we took an Uber =) to check out the area from one of our favorite films Amelie from Montmartre.
An evening in Montmartre with blue and jazzy tunes
One thing that has become a given activity for us while traveling is hunting for Street Art and Mural Paintings. In Paris, we realized that they are far apart from each other and not connected in a walk-friendly area like the Street Art in Budapest. We went to Montmartre and found a lot of Graffiti, Sticker Art, and likewise but no big Murals.
We also found a great and funny cocktail bar on the outskirts of Montmartre called Dirty Dick (Erhhmm….?)! You must try the cocktails big enough to share on a whole table with long straws or go for their signature cocktails and drinks!
Fair warning; they free-pour most of the spirits in them so they are quite strong – even if the strongest one we saw made was served to the bartenders that worked this evening.
The Pyramid of the Louvre
Busy day at the Louvre Museum
Great painting of Alexandre the Great
Studying Art
Aménophis IV - Akhénaton
Napoleons Parlor Room at the Museum of the Louvre
Aurora Borealis
Psyche and Cupid
We gave The Louvre a longer visit on day three and it’s a remarkable museum with a million paintings. However; we’re not sure if we understand the marvel of Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa. That room was so crowded! And…yeah, there she hangs. Ok. What we’re trying to say here is that there are a lot of other paintings that impressed us more.
After the Louvre we went shopping and Sticks got her 30th Birthday present, we bought some wonderful Macarons and headed back to the hotel for a power nap – a cultural coma combined with shopping can be tiring.
In the evening we went to the restaurant Ao Izakaya and ate Chef Yasuo Nanaumi's tasting menu ”Carte Blanche” (interesting that he had the same menu concept and name as one of Spoon's ideas...) and it was a mix of great tastes and more plain ones. Overall great food and a nice last dinner in Paris.
And we will visit Paris again! It feels like we’ve just scratched the surface of a city we both will love to return to! On our travel day, we slept long and just chilled before we went to the airport. We had to take a flight to Copenhagen and take the train to Gothenburg. Even if it sounds like a messy journey back home it’s convenient and for us living so near to Copenhagen as Gothenburg it opens up even more flight choices when planning trips!
Au Revoir Paris, à bientôt!
// Sticks & Spoons Food Travel
