In February, we went to Paris for a weekend of revisiting one of our favorite cities. Paris was the first place we visited outside of Munich when we moved to Europe (You can read about our first visit here), so it was so nice to go back and revisit our favorite places as well as try some new restaurants. We got incredibly lucky with the weather as Paris had unseasonably warm weather that weekend.
We spent a lot of time in the Marais area this time, which is also where we stayed. One area we explored that was new to us was the Montemarte area of Paris. One of our favorite things we did was visit the Les Puces flea market in Montemarte on Sunday morning.
Here’s the breakdown of what we did:
Activities (by neighborhood):
Marais: Le Marais is the closest you will get to the feel of medieval Paris and has more pre-revolutionary buildings and streets left intact than any other area in Paris
- Shop on rue Francois Miron or Rue du Roi de Sicile.
- Stroll through the market while walking Rue Montorgueil
- Relax at Place des Vosges
- Musée National Picasso-Paris
- Galerie Vivienne
16th arrondissement: This section of Paris is home to some major tourist sights.
- Walk around Passy neighborhood
- Pont de Bir-Hakeim (beautiful bridge with views of Eiffel Tower)
- Trocadero (great spot to view the Eiffel Tower)
Montemarte: Full of charm and probably the most famous Parisian disctric.
- Flea market shopping at Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves
- Antique shopping at Marché Paul Bert Serpette
- Sacré-Cœur
- Walk around and enjoy the street performers and the street artists.
Where we ate:
Peonies: The cutest little coffee and flower shop. We stopped here for coffee on Saturday morning and enjoyed our lattes surrounded by flowers.
Patisserie Stohrer: The oldest patisserie in Paris, since 1703! Patisserie Stohrer is in the Marais area near where we were staying. We stopped in here for chocolate and coffee eclairs on Saturday morning while walking around Rue Montorgueil. They were amazing!
Frenchie to go: While Frenchie is best known for their eight-course dinner menu, they offer a more casual option next door to their fine dining restaurant called French to go. We stopped here for lunch on Saturday and it was delicious.
Cafe Kitsune: Right next to the Palais Royale. We stopped here on Saturday for an afternoon coffee.
Chez Janou: An adorable French bistro in the Marais specializing in food from Provence. We both loved our entrees, and the chocolate mouse at the end of the meal was probably the best I’ve ever eaten. We will definitely try to come back here every time we’re in Paris!
Le Caveau de la hauchette: After dinner, we took a cab to Le Caveau de la hauchette. Le Caveau de la hauchette is a historical live jazz bar with 20s style jazz (14 euro entry fee, average price is 30 euros for a bottle of wine) Opens at 9:30 pm and it is recommended to get there early. We got there around 10 and it was already very lively and we had a hard time finding a seat. The dance floor was packed with people swing dancing and we really enjoyed the live music and watching the dancing. This was one of our favorite evenings in Europe.
Mata Mata Coffee Bar: We grabbed coffee and breakfast here on Sunday morning. Great people watching out of their front room window seats!
La Maison Rose: Such a cute little restaurant, right around the hip from the Sacré-Cœur. You may have seen pictures of their adorable pink facade on Instagram. We stopped here for lunch on Sunday and really enjoyed it.
Clown Bar: We had dinner here on Sunday night. This was a new restaurant for us, and it was SO different from all the other places we’ve been to in Paris. Clown Bar’s signature dish is veal brain, which we did not have the guts to try. We did enjoy everything we had though!
