After a wonderful family holiday, we decided to stop over in Paris for two nights on our way to visit our friend Yvonne in Amsterdam. The Eurostar ride back through the Chunnel was much better than the ride we’d had on the way there, when we thought we might get trapped in Brussels because of a death on the tracks somewhere farther down the line. Although the train to Paris left a little late, it did proceed as planned after that, and we had a delightful ride that included a nice meal and drinks.
This was Adam’s first visit to Paris, and Angie’s first time not traveling there as a chaperone for a school trip, so we wanted to be in a neighborhood that would have lots of good food options and be walkable and accessible to public transportation. For those reasons, we chose a small AirBnB in the Second Arrondissement, and it turned out to be perfect for us. The evening we arrived we just settled into the neighborhood and got dinner at a local bistro, but the following morning we set out to explore. We spent the day walking all over, seeing the sights from outside and checking out a couple of Christmas markets that were still open.
The morning was beautiful and sunny, but as the day wore on it turned to more typical grey Parisian winter weather. We were just arriving at the Louvre as a cold rain started to fall. Because we had so little time in Paris, we hadn’t planned on entering the Louvre, so we just snapped a quick photo. Can you tell we are being pelted in the face by rain in the photo? We headed off to find a place for lunch, and then as the afternoon wore on, we gradually made our way back to our neighborhood.
On the way back to our AirBnB, we took a small detour to visit one of the few remaining old covered markets. This one was filled with stamp shops! Apparently there are still stamp collectors in Paris, and they have a wealth of options for collecting in this market.
For dinner, we planned to head up to Montmartre. The rain had mostly stopped, and it was a beautiful evening for a stroll up the hill. We stopped off to see Sacre-Coeur Basilica on the way. In all, the evening was a lovely finish to a short Paris stay. Next up: Amsterdam!
