Paris – The Arrival – Saturday September 9th

There’s no place like Paris. We loved it so much when we visited for a week in 2021, that we just had to go back and spend more time there. This time, we decided to do two weeks. One just wasn’t enough…it just made us want Paris more.

We flew out of Toronto on Friday, September 8th with a hefty itinerary that would make even the most hardy travelers weak in the knees. We were going to see it all, do it all, eat it all, walk it all…

But day one would be light. We would just take it easy, do a couple of things and have an early evening to avoid this mystical thing they call jet lag…something I myself have not yet experienced.

From the moment we first saw the reviews and images of our chosen hotel, Hôtel de Roubaix, we knew we had picked the right place…the right for us place! It promised funky, cool, boutique, off-kilter fun. And from the moment I entered the place, I knew that it had delivered its promise in spades.

I would highly recommend this hotel. It’s listed as a two-star hotel. It’s clean, it had GREAT air conditioning and a phenomenal shower. The rooms are small, but this is something we have come to expect in Paris. The air conditioning, I was not expecting. The staff were super friendly and there when we needed them. The front desk is 24hr service. There was a breakfast room downstairs, so you could pay extra to have breakfast included. We chose not to, but we toured the breakfast room and it was well stocked. I don’t think you’d be let down by the offerings. We just wanted to get out into the streets for breakfast.

We also walked our neighbourhood on our first day. The Centre Pompidou and the Tour Saint-Jacque are both only minutes away from the hotel.

After seeing a couple of things in our own neighbourhood, we walked down to the river to take in Le Grande Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris).

Still wounded, she is nonetheless beautiful. Seeing her from behind the curtains of fencing and scaffolding is almost just as grand. She’ll be back to her former self soon. We were happy to see her.

We had three more stops before our first dinner in Paris…a dinner we booked weeks in advance and were eagerly anticipating!

I had to go to Shakespeare & Company first thing! Of course I did.

And right beside Shakespeare’s cafe beside the bookstore, is a park. A park that houses the oldest tree in Paris. We paid it a quick visit prior to going to a little place on a street behind the bookstore.

Before supper, we would sneak in ONE pastry…a cream puff of sorts. If you turn down the little side street right beside the Shakespeare & Company Cafe, you can almost see Odette standing sentinel at the end of the street. It’s a little cream puff place that has become Instagram famous.

We only had one each! Talk about restraint.

We enjoyed Au Pied de Cochon so much during our 2021 visit, that we booked it for our very first meal in Paris this time around. We were not disappointed. LOVE THAT PLACE!

That was enough of our Day 1. After supper, we made it an early night and walked back to our hotel. There was a big day ahead of us! Our Sunday wasn’t going to be too full, but there would be lots of walking. We had one more day in Paris before our two days of Disney were to begin!

(I’ll be posting our days here over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for travel tips and suggestions.)

Direct Link to DAY 2