Paris Recap: part one

Bonjour, friends! I'm back with a long overdue recap from our Paris trip (we were there Nov. 10-17) but I figured better late than never. I'll be sharing randomness about our trip over 3-4 posts so if you have any questions at all, please leave them in the comments or shoot me an email at thehellohoneyblog@gmail.com and I'm happy to answer! The trip came about months ago- instead of throwing a big 30th birthday bash or getting an expensive gift, I told Zach that I'd love to take a trip for my 30th. We usually go on one "big" family trip a year so this could double as that, and I thought Paris was a long shot but when I suggested it, Zach made it happen (I'm a lucky girl, I know). My birthday was back in July so we'd had the trip planned for awhile, though we didn't start doing much research until about a month out. It all worked out and we had the most amazing time in the city of light!

DRESS | BERET | BOOTIES

photos by Alina Sepp Photography



We flew out around 4pm on Friday evening and got to Paris around 9:30am that morning since the flight is 9 hours and there's a 7 hour time difference. We slept some on the plane; Bear especially did AMAZING and I didn't swell into a giant blimp like I thought I would (#pregnancyprobs) so we we were off to a good start. We checked into the hotel, grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe (I had to get a real French crepe ASAP), and headed to the Eiffel Tower for our first big excursion. By this time it was already getting dark (it gets dark in Paris around 5pm in the late fall/winter) which was actually pretty magical. The only downside was that it was raining- it rained nonstop our first two days in the city. We didn't let it stop us though, and luckily Bear and I packed our rain boots. I highly suggest taking a pair as it rains quite often in Paris. Anyway, we had arranged to take a tour of the Eiffel Tower so we went up to the second level- the views of the city lights were absolutely breathtaking. I can't say what it looks like during the day but I would definitely do it again at night; the tower lit up and twinkled on the hour all around us and in Bear's words it was "epic". The only thing I'll warn you about is the crowds- there were SO many people up there that we waited in line for about 30 minutes just to take the elevator back down. By this point we were starving so we walked about a mile to the cutest cafe and had dinner before going back and crashing at our hotel.

Sunday and Monday we roamed the city freely since we'd pre-purchased 2 day museum and bus passes. The Big Bus Tour was the absolute way to go as it's a "hop-on hop-off" bus that stops at all the major sites around the city. There are actually two routes, a blue route and a red route, and we did both several times. The bus is double-decker (the boys like going up top but I always stayed in the warmer bottom level!); you're given headphones and a pre-recorded guide explains all about the city (in English) as you go. Our favorite stops were of course the Louvre (had to see the Mona Lisa!), the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de Trocadéro (BEST spot for Eiffel Tower pictures- we took our family photos here), Notre Dame (we climbed the 387 steps to the top so Bear could see gargoyles up close), and the Eiffel Tower along the Seine River. We did a river cruise one day that had gorgeous views of the city and had the BEST hot chocolate at a little street stand after.

Paris has endless sites to see and things to do, but my favorite thing of all was sitting in the quaint, picturesque cafes, enjoying a hot cup of cappuccino and a Nutella crepe. The people watching was like something from a movie- everyone in Paris is so fashionable and chic (we stood out like obvious tourists- Zach even busted out the I heart BBQ shirt one day). There are literally thousands of cafes around the city and every one we stopped at was just as delicious and picture-perfect as the next. I probably ate over 30 crepes in the 7 days we were there, no joke, and never had a bad one! And now I'm officially starving. 
I'll be back soon with more details on the rest of our trip. Hope you've all had a great weekend!
xo, Britt