Weekend in Paris

When I saw the promotion for a weekend in Paris, I could not resist. So, I packed my bags again to go and see the city of lights. Paris! And my friend Sabine was more than enthusiastic to join me on this adventure.

Although I have visited Paris many times, I genuinely think that it may require several lifetimes to discover all of Paris. I also believe that Paris in August can be a blessing or a curse. There are positives: less crowds, less cars, less Parisians – and some negatives: some shops are closed and you can suffer from possible heatwaves. In the summer, Parisians take off in hordes to the south of France or to their second homes somewhere en Province. And if they don’t own property, they bunker up with friends or family to enjoy a summer of Pastis, pétanque and St. Tropez. But since we were in Paris and it was 29 degrees, we decided to start off as Parisians do…a light lunch of salad, toast and foie-gras and a champagne-strawberry cocktail….

We just strolled around Paris, saw the Opera Garnier (one of my favourite buildings in Paris), had a drink on the terrace of Galleries Lafayette, shopped at ‘Le Printemps’, enjoyed a coffee at the ‘Cafe de l’Opera’ and had some fun on the Bateau mouche’. On the ‘Ile de la Cite’, it was so sad to see that Notre-Dame was still suffering from the fire. It will probably take years before she is fully renovated.

At Montparnasse we took some artsy pictures on top of the building on the 60st floor….what an awesome view of Paris! It was a very hot day, so time for another drink….

Since this time, we were on a tour, we had a hotel a bit outside of Paris. The originals Boutique, located In Rueil-Malmaison. To my delight the hotel was supercute, with imitation cushions of the dog painter Thierry Poncelet and wallpaper of toile the jouy. The hotel even had a wonderful garden. My kind of Boutiquehotel.