Story by Nicole

Let’s be honest: I’m not going to be able to tell you anything that is new or particularly insightful about Paris. Incredibly talented writers have been coming here for centuries and attempting to explain the city’s charm to others. What I can do is reiterate some of the elements of the city that I found so wonderful (because all those writers have been absolutely right; Paris is a gem).

Part of it is the dichotomy. You’ll be walking down a normal city street and happen across an absurdly old church, or a Roman amphitheater (we saw the Arènes de Lutèce). Even the normal buildings here are interesting, with their old world charm and hidden courtyards.

The Temple du Marais, about a block from our apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stumbling across pretty things (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable old Fiat 500 (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Varying levels of antiquity on a street corner (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The fastest pizza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One great thing about Paris is that groups of friends take bottles of wine, sit in a park or by the Seine, and talk for hours. When we were sitting in a park near the Eiffel Tower, someone carrying an ice bucket of champagne bottles offered to sell us one. The parks themselves are amazing.

Hanging out at the Place des Vosges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A walkway on the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny corner park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sitting and drinking along the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The wine bottle recycling bin was too full (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the beautiful canopies in the parks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our apartment in Paris was perfect. Located in the 4th Arrondissement near the Place de la Bastille, it was a great central location for exploring and also provided a charming place to nap and regroup. To get there from the street, we went through a large, old external door on the street, then opened a gate into an interior courtyard. Then we walked through the courtyard, climbed four flights of stairs, and found ourselves in a 400-square-foot flat with lovely windows.

Our apartment courtyard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In a shocking twist, Nicole made friends with our courtyard cat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Since our apartment was fairly close by, we visited Notre Dame on our first day. You already know it’s incredible. Here are some pictures to further solidify that thought.

The rose window (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The courtyard area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant cathedral, a lot of sky, and a bird (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the things we decided before coming on the trip was not to spend hours waiting in lines to see the famous monuments. It’s more important to us to wander around the city and get a feel for the culture than to see the inside of a specific cathedral or museum.

Wednesday was our big walk around the central city (17 miles of walking instead of our usual 8-10). We began by walking to the Louvre to see the impressive exterior. Even from the outside, the Louvre is insanely large and imposing. From there we backtracked slightly after realizing that we had missed Le Palais Royal and explored that area as well. From the Palais we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is a wonderful park in the center of the city. It’s lined by shops and restaurants, like most of the big parks, and includes the ever-present green Paris park chair that we grew to love.

The Louvre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A banner promoting the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the Hôtel de Ville (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Art in Le Palais Royal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Water fountain selfie (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Along the north side of the Jardin des Tuileries you can find Angelina, home to some of the world’s best hot chocolate. It’s more of what you’d call a drinking chocolate in the United States – very thick and intense. It was delicious, but I had to put some milk in mine to tone it down a little. From Angelina we headed toward the Champs-Élysées, but quickly got distracted by the aptly named Grand Palais.

Pouring the hot chocolate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I convinced Jason to go into the Grand Palais because I wanted to go under the large, greenhouse-style roof, but when we couldn’t read French we guessed that the exhibit that we wanted to buy tickets to was the garden exhibit, which was actually not in the main exhibit area. However, the gardens exhibit turned out to be really cool. Surrounded by older French people, we wandered halls displaying various sorts of art relating to gardens. This included a couple of paintings by Monet and a Picasso, as well as sculptures and plant samples. To our amusement, they were also playing garden-related clips from a few American movies, including The Godfather Part II and Edward Scissorhands. Overall, it was a very pleasant surprise.

An art exhibit of French soil samples (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From there, we began the walk down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a broad street, lined with expensive shops, that ends at the huge stone arch, which is in the middle of a roundabout. We couldn’t see any way to get to the Arc, but there were people there, so we decided to run across traffic. Two notes: 1) if you’re going to run across a Paris roundabout, go fast; 2) if there’s a touristy monument in the middle of a busy roundabout, there’s an underground way to get there. We found the tunnel under the road in order to go back to the street and continue our walk.

The Arc de Triomphe (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Someone had told Jason that the best view of the Eiffel Tower was from the Jardins du Trocadéro, so we walked there next. It is a great view. From across the Seine, you can see the whole tower in all of its glory, as well as the cars bringing people up and down. We sat in the park for a while to rest in the shade before heading across the river to walk through the Champ de Mars.

First real view of the Eiffel Tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another view of the tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last stop on our city stroll was the Luxembourg Gardens. On the way there we stumbled upon an adorable small park full of Parisians and their kids. The tiny parks scattered throughout the city are wonderful to wander into. Once we finally got to the Luxembourg Gardens, we sat in the ever-present green park chairs to contemplate dinner.

The Luxembourg Gardens (and the green Paris park chairs) (Photo/Jason Rafal)