What I did for 3 days in Paris

Bonjour à tous!

I went to Paris for 3 days to visit a friend and I want to share some of the best spots he showed me.

I arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris from the Lille-Flandres Station and I bought my ticket on the SNCF app in advance. If you or anyone else plan to use the app, I would suggest against it UNLESS you have a french phone number, because in that case it can be super handy. When I arrived in Paris 3 days prior I bought the new Carte Avantage Jeune which was 49 euros. This card basically lets me have half price SNCF tickets while I stay in France (yay for 10 euro tickets to Paris!). I bought mine at a kiosk and was confused because I had the card and a passport photo but if you wait in line at the train station in-person kiosk then they will give you a sticky thing to add your photo to the card and a nice little holder for it. I haven’t had this happen yet but sometimes they come around on the train and when they scan your ticket, they will always ask you to show your Carte Avantage Jeune.

Now back to Paris. I arrived at Gare du Nord and rented a hostel very close to there. Whenever I travel I always try to get a place that is close to where I get on and off the train, at least when I am alone because I don’t like to drag my bag across the city when I don’t have someone to come with me. Not really sure why I do this but I prefer to do that and it makes the trip seem shorter for me.

Later that day I met up with my study abroad friend Matt who is one day going to be a legit parisien I swear and he showed me around Le Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and I had never been there before. This park is amazing and it offers great views of the city and off in the distance you can see Sacre-Coeur. It is less busy than Luxembourg and offers an amazing view and if you like running it seems like the perfect place for a jog. It is located in the 19th and Matt lives on the border of the 10th and 19th so it was an easy walk there.

After our stroll we decided to attempt to take a yoga class in Paris but low key failed because we showed up to the wrong studio haha! It was all good because Matt is a certified yoga instructor so we did a short flow in another park called Parc de la Villette which I highly recommend for a picnic in the 19th arrondissement. There was lots of open space and greenery and we were right next to the Bassin de la Villette which I believe is connected to the Canal Saint-Martin. The Canal Saint-Martin starts around the 10th arrondissement and goes up to the 19th and is like a highly underrated Seine.

That night we went to an empanada place near Le Marais which is a very trendy area in France I would say. I met a group of english teaching assistants in Paris and had some riveting and interesting conversations with them about their experiences (one of them was an assistant last year as well) and where everyone was at with their apartment search. That night we went to La Marine which is right in La Republique and very reasonable for Paris. There were 5 of us and we split 2 bottles of wine so about 3-4 glasses each and it was around 8.50 euros per person. This is why I love France haha!

To summarize the next day, Matt and I made breakfast at his place (ballin on a budget) and it was raining/drizzling out so we checked out the Panthéon which I have never been to and it was basically like a church that worshiped the French Revolution. There were tombs of many famous french people (Like Victor Hugo, Voltaire and Zola) there and we got in for free with our workers visa! For dinner we had baguettes and tartiner (le meilleur combo du monde!!) and met up with another assistant in Paris and attempted to picnic by the canal in the 10th but ended up getting rained on very suddenly lol! We were frantically running down the canal back to Matt’s with our open beer bottles and baguettes trying not to get too soaked. Then, that night we went to probably one of the most interesting bars I have ever been to called Lavomatic. The outside/inside looks like a laundromat and the door into the bar looks like a washing machine. It was almost like a speakeasy kind of vibe and they had incredible drinks and bartenders.

The last day I was in Paris I got pain au chocolat in the morning and then Matt and I walked to the Sacre Coeur and ate at a restaurant near the hill of Sacre Coeur, I believe near Montmartre. I highly recommend doing this because it was a relatively good deal and we had fun speedy italian like servers that care a lot about your experience. After this we decided to go basically across the city to get a quick peep at the Eiffel Tower before I headed out on the TGV at 4:15.

I had such an amazing time in Paris (s/o to Matt again for the hospitality and showing me spots I have never checked out before) and I know that this is just the beginning of my trips to Paris as I will be back there at the end of October with my boyfriend Jimmy

:)

À bientôt,

Kristin

Quick stop before I left! Even thought I have been to Paris 5 times, the Eiffel Tower never ceases to amaze me. Shot this with my Cannon Rebel T6

Shout out to Matt (who is basically parisian now) for showing me parts of Paris I have never been to!

Our meal in Monmartre after we went to the Sacre Coeur. I love drinking wine at 1 pm in the afternoon haha!

#Paris #travel #eiffeltower