After a long night of dinner, bar, club plans on Saturday night in Frankfurt, Sam and I retreated back to our hotel room to sleep before our train to Paris in the morning. Technically, it was already three in the morning so we would have to wake up in a few hours to head to the train station. We were also supposed to meet a couple friends at the train that wanted to join us on our little adventure to Paris as well. I guess getting on the train one minute before it was leaving should have been an omen of our trip there but how could we have known?
I guess I should mention the quality of the trains in Germany is top notch and you can leisurely plug in devices, take a nap or visit the food cart for a beverage or snack. Seeing as we were all exhausted, it was a quiet four hour ride to Paris as most of us slept. The closer and closer we got to Paris the more and more beautiful the scenery outside the window became. Rolling hills, green and gold meadows, adorable farm houses and quaint little towns flashing before our eyes as the train pushed towards Paris.
I have to say, this was my first trip to the city of light and even in my sleepiness, I couldn’t have been more excited! After pulling into the station, I quickly located the first phone store I saw and bought a SIM card for data. Having data is so necessary for work that it’s the first thing I do when I land in a foreign country. After I was all situated and able to access my email, we all got a taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Design Secret De Paris, a four-star hotel that was more than adequate for our 24 hours stay in Paris. It was a cute boutique hotel where you can pick different city scenes from Paris as the decor. Sam and I had the Eiffel Tower and our friends had the Moulin Rouge room. As our rooms weren’t ready when we first arrived, we left our luggage there and headed to breakfast at a nearby café named Coquelicot Boulangerie – Bistro. We all got the same exact breakfast and coffee and proceeded to take in the street scene. I have to mention, Parisians mainly have pastries and a coffee for breakfast which is something I’m not used to. I love to have a hardy meal in the morning with eggs and some sort of meat. Regardless, Paris was literally everything I had imagined! Everywhere we went, it was like one big movie set. Everything was so pretty and put together. I was in heaven.
After breakfast we visited the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, located in the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city and also did a little shopping. We hit the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile before heading back to the hotel room to nap. By the Arc de Triomphe you can also walk along the Champs Elysees and do some shopping if that’s your thing. Our late night was slowly catching up to us and we badly needed a power nap so we headed back to our hotel and laid down for a bit.
Later that evening, we went to The Hotel Costes bar for drinks and then Terroir Parisien for dinner. Dinner was beyond amazing and I literally had the best brioche of my life there! A little tipsy and very full, we went to check out the Eiffel Tower at night. I was told I have to see it at night and during the day because it’s a totally different experience and I’m so happy I did! It is so much more impressive in person and I loved how they wrote the people’s names on the iron that contributed to building such an architectural masterpiece.
The next day, we got some pastries and coffee and set off to make the most of our last day there before heading back to the train station. We accomplished quite a bit by walking around and taking the subway. I would highly recommend the subway for getting around town! We visited Notre Dame Cathedrale and the Eiffel Tower during the day and had enough time to try escargot for the first time at the historic Bouillon CHARTIER restaurant. I could rave about this restaurant for days! It’s definitely a must if you are in Paris. We also went to the Trocadero part of town to get that post card photo with the Eiffel Tower unobstructed in the background. Twenty-four hours later, we headed back to our hotel to gather our belongings and head to the train station. We got there 20 minutes early so we decided to get some macaroons and a coffee. While waiting for our coffee, we didn’t even notice it was close to our time of departure. Once our friend alerted us it was literally a two minutes before the train was supposed to leave and we completely missed it! I couldn’t believe it!! We were twenty minutes early to the station and we still miss the train. Our two friends had to get back to Frankfurt that night because they had practice in the morning and Sam and I had a hotel reserved in Frankfurt so we decided to see if we can get our tickets switched for the next train. To our surprise, our train was the last direct train from Paris to Frankfurt and we would have to take a very convoluted route to get back. Switching 4 different trains and a layover in a random city for three hours. The boys had no choice but to take that route but Sam and I decided it was fate wanting us to spend a second night it Paris. So we did just that!
We booked the Hotel Grand Amour on Hotel Tonight (use the code ABOLBEA to get $25 off your next booking) that was relatively close to the train station just so we don’t miss our second train the next day. Once we were settled into our room we were a little sad about missing the train so we decided to walk back to Bouillon Chartier and eat our feelings. So we ordered five desserts, a bottle of wine and a few appetizers. Very full and slightly tipsy, we walked back to the hotel and woke up the next morning to head back to Frankfurt.
What do you think?