Expatriotical

Episode 60: The Highlights of Paris- Part 1

• Chandra Alley • Season 1 • Episode 60

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Bonjour! And welcome to the premier episode in a three-part mini series about the highlights of Paris! Join Chandra as she shares her favorites, some known, and some unknown- even to many Parisians. This is a great episode to help you plan your future vacation to Paris!

Plus listen in for a great "Chan Select" that offers fresh food "on the go" when you are promenading on the streets of Paris. Listen in!


Like what you hear? Text and tell me!

"Live and Travel in the Know" with Expatriotical!

Bienvenue, Benvenuti, and Welcome to Expatriotical, the podcast for expats, travelers, and other adventurous souls. I’m Chandra Alley and after living as an expat with my husband and 4 children in two different countries for 6 years, I’ve learned the arts of pivoting during pitfalls, traveling tastefully for less, and soaking in amazing new cultures without losing your own.


Join me, as we dive into the joys and challenges of travel and the expat life in every episode!


Hello everyone and welcome to another different type of episode, but one that I think you will find really enjoyable! It occurred to me recently that I should probably talk to you more about Paris in case you ever want to come visit. And so this episode is going to be entirely about things I think are enjoyable and things that I have loved doing.


Granted, you have to understand that I see all of this through the lens of being a mother of four children, so for example, when we're talking about places to stay, I usually have to go with larger accommodations, so I might not be in the center of Paris. Or I might be sharing something from the perspective of having done it on one of my tours with Xenia, so in that case I went and did it as a single person.


But regardless, I think that all of the stuff is really helpful. In fact there is so much information that this will be a three part episode series. Just to keep things on the shorter side and to be respectful of your time!


But the way I decided to do this was to break things up into categories. I guess that's just how my mind works, I like to make lists. So I created nine different categories and then I will talk about the things I've listed in each one of them.


I also have to say that there are some categories that are not listed, but that I did think about. One of them would be shopping. I am not a shopper, though my husband, Chris, would beg to differ. But I'm not a very fashionable person in my opinion. I don't keep up with the latest trends, which is really sad because I do live here in the fashion capital of the world, so I'm not going to list that sort of thing because I wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction.


But I will say that if you are interested in shopping from a historical perspective, you should visit some of the Grand Magasin, which is spelled like “grand magasin” which are basically department stores. It is arguable that Paris or France was the first country to come up with department stores. But they are beautiful, and you can find lots of shopping inside of them. The names of some of them are: Printemps (which in English looks like “prin-temps”, Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, Samaritaine, and BHV in the Marias.


Personally, I've only been to Samaritaine, but it is beautiful inside. And if you come at Christmas, those stores all have gorgeous window displays.


OK, I said I wasn't going to talk about shopping, but then I did. Moving on with the first real category, is “things to do”.


Obviously, you need to weigh these by what is really important to you, how much time you have, and what you really want to see. But in general, people usually want to go to the Louvre Museum. I know I certainly did the very first time that I came to Paris because I desperately wanted to see the Mona Lisa as I had studied about it in university. And I mean come, on it's the Mona Lisa.


I have since that first time been to the Louvre three more times. And I honestly can say that I don't feel like I ever need to go again at this point. I don’t want to sound conceited, but four times, it’s a good amount. But it's definitely one of the highlights. Just make sure you book your tickets in advance, and know that it's closed on Tuesdays, and I'll be really honest that when we bought the audio guide- the first time we went, I really didn't love it. It was hard to work with and it wasn’t my favorite. There are also a lot of people in the Louvre and it's huge. So if you don't like being around big crowds or lots of people, this is one that you may need to sit out for.


Within the Louvre, my favorite things to see are yes, the Mona Lisa, and Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, also the painting of Napoleon's coronation is amazing, and there are many other paintings by Leonardo, the Napoleonic apartments are super cool, and if you go down to the bottom, seeing the fortress that was discovered when they were excavating for the metro stop that goes to the Louvre is really cool as well.


I would say that the next museum that I like a lot more actually, than the Louvre is the Musee D’Orsay. It's super cool because they repurposed an old train station that is right along the banks of the Seine river and turned it into an art museum. It has the largest collection of impressionist paintings in the world. And I'm pretty sure that's why I like it so much. You can see a ton of paintings by multiple different painters, but Monet, Manet, van Gogh, and many more all have some of their work displayed there.


And if you're really into impressionist paintings, the next thing on my list is the Marmottan Museum and I recently went there with my mom and it has the world's largest collection of Monet's paintings. It was pretty cool, as it's in an old mansion, and so it feels intimate, and it's not very crowded.


Another “must see” if you're into history and specifically Napoleon, is Hotel Invalides. I actually haven't been through the entire museum. Part of it- the war museum is there. I only went to Napoleon's tomb, but I have to say it is extremely impressive. And I don't want to give anything away, but if Napoleon really did have a complex, it can be seen in his tomb.


Another must see, especially on a clear day, is to go to the area of Montmartre. It's extremely artistic, maybe you could even say Bohemian, and you can visit the cathedral there called Sacre Coeur- which means sacred heart, and have a gorgeous view of the city. As a little tip, there is a funicular that will take you up the the hill that the cathedral is on and it only costs a metro ticket to go up in case stairs are a challenge for you. Monmarte is also the area where the Moulin Rouge is.


Another obvious “must see” is the Arc de Triomphe. You can pay to go to the top of it, which I actually haven't done yet, or on the first Sunday of the month it's free. Actually, for a lot of the museums, (not the Louvre though), the first Sunday of the month has free admission, but a lot of times you still have to book your ticket in advance for that Sunday, it just doesn't cost anything, you just have to book it. For the Louvre admission is free on the first Friday of the month after 6 PM.


And while you are at the Arc de Triomphe, if you feel like shopping, the Champs Elysee is right there and has a ton of designer stores along its route. Just thought I should mention that.


Another absolute must see, which is finally open, is Notre Dame. I was surprised and happy to find out that it's actually free to go inside. So my mom and I stood in the line just a couple weeks ago and the line appeared long, but it actually moves really rapidly, so we maybe waited for a maximum of 10 minutes before we got inside. And seeing the newly restored sanctuary and the love and labor that was put into it, was really really wonderful.


Another thing to do if you have the time, and the money, is to visit the Opera Garnier. The building is absolutely gorgeous on the outside, though currently it's covered with scaffolding and advertisement, on one facade, but the inside is absolutely exquisite. So whether you take a tour, or see an opera or a ballet, I highly recommend going inside.


And I was not going to include this, but I think I should mention that if you want to do a transportation tour, whether that's a boat tour on the Seine, or a bus tour around the city. I would recommend the bus tour. Yeah, the boat tour is cool and maybe if you do one of the dinner tours, it would be more worth it, but you can't really see a whole lot. With a bus tour, however, you can. And you can even do a food bus tour, which Chris got me for my 40th birthday a couple years ago or almost a couple years ago, and I absolutely loved it! The only problem with the Gastrobus is that there's no commentary on that bus. But the other hop on hop off bus tours, well at least BIG BUS brand, do have commentary and you learn quite a bit.


And finally, the number one “to do” in my opinion, is to have a picnic on the Champs du Mars- which is the grassy area, in the evening and watch the Eiffel Tower light up. I think I saved the best for last because she, the tower, really is beautiful. She is stunning! But when she sparkles, it takes your breath away! I will say, though, that a lot of times during the winter the grass on the Champ du Mars is fenced off to protect it I guess, this actually happens in lots of parks in Paris, so it can be more challenging at that time, but there are other places, and for example, near the base of Trocadero where you can still have a picnic and enjoy the lights if you want to bear with the cold if you're here in the winter or during a cold spell.


Another tip is to bring your own wine, if you're a person that likes to enjoy wine, on your picnic. There are people peddling wine there, and they will ask you to pay €30 for a three euro bottle of wine. So just make sure to purchase that ahead of time.


Also, another sidenote, I know this from personal experience, if you are planning to go up the Eiffel Tower do not have a bottle of wine with you, because glass is not allowed up there. They will make you put it in the trash before you go through the final security posting.


And maybe I'm doing this out of order but the next category we're going to talk about is “places to stay”. This should be pretty brief and the first one that I mentioned you can check it out or hear more about it at the end of Episode 3: Traveling Tastefully for Less. Before I mention it, I wanna say I've stayed at all three of these places, and I've also booked an Airbnb apartment. So just go off of your budget, of course and what you find best accommodates you. And when I say AirBnB, I don’t actually mean I always book through that website. I just use it as a colloquial term. I use booking.com a lot and all of that sort of thing.


The first place is- of the places to stay- the Meininger Hotel, it's the place that we stayed at when we very first came to Paris just as visitors, and we really have enjoyed not only staying at Meininger Hotels here in Paris, but across Europe. There’s actually a lot of them.


The next place is called Le Meridien, and it's located in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. We stayed there because it was closer to my kids’ school, but also easily accessible for Chris to drive to work, and it was the last place that we lived in before moving into our apartment. The staff was lovely, the breakfast was delicious, and it's in a really good location. You can literally walk to the Arc de Triomphe in 10 minutes, maybe less.


And the last place that I mention is actually a little bit farther out, but that will help me separate into the next category. This is the first place that we actually stayed at when we moved to Paris and we were in our temporary accommodations and it is the Marriott Village d’Ile de France. But it's easier just to say the Marriott Village by Disneyland. We stayed in a fun little townhouse, and the kids really enjoyed the playgrounds there, the pools, and I really appreciated that they had a market there. But it's actually really well located next to a nice little town and after our first night or so we were able to walk in and buy food from there at an actual market, and avoid the slightly higher prices of the one in the Marriott Village.


This is a good place for me to say I am not an affiliate of any of these places, so I'm not going to get paid for any of this and I also don’t want to get blamed if you end up having a bad experience. I am only relating places that we did have good experiences in, in hopes that you will have a good experience as well.


Now using the Disneyland segway to talk about things that are great to do with kids. And Disneyland Paris is one of them. We went to Disneyland when we first visited Paris in November 2021. And after we moved here, we waited a good seven or eight months and thought about it before we decided that we wanted to buy an annual pass or annual passes. That might sound kind of bougie, but at the time, and even now, the passes for Disneyland Paris were way less expensive than Disneyland in California. I mean, we bought all six of our passes for the price of two annual passes at Disneyland in LA.


But regardless, we have had multiple friends that have been to both Parks, Disneyland in LA and actually Disneyland in Florida as well, or Disney World, and said that Disneyland Paris is definitely a blast!


And as a tip, if you buy just tickets to Disneyland and then decide “Oh wait!”  you want to go over to Walt Disney Studios (which is the park right next door), there's a little side office and it only costs 20 or €25 to upgrade your ticket. Now that's a ticket not an annual pass. And a little secret I think that my favorite rides are actually in Walt Disney Studios, but don't tell the Disneyland rides I said that!


Another fantastic thing to do with kids is go to the Jardin d’Acclimitacion. It is basically a renovated amusement park that was first established in 1860. The rides are friendly for kids of all ages, and of course there are high limitations to some of the rides, but even now my six-year-old, who is tall for his age, but he can now ride on any ride now without a parent.


It's seven euro to enter the whole park area, and then if you want to buy just a couple of tickets to ride rides, you can, but they also have a wristband for unlimited rides. And I recently discovered that if you will simply go online ahead of time you can purchase them for a lot less than if you purchase them on the day-  inside the park. In fact, you can get tickets as low as €15 per person for unlimited rides if you book in advance and book during a weekday, and probably also not in the summer, but I haven't done extensive research of that. We celebrated my son, Isaiah's, eighth birthday there just a month ago and tickets were only €25 apiece, and if you bought four of them, you got all four of them, for the price of three. So there was a discount.


There are also animals in the park that you can see and a petting zoo, and in the summer, a really great splash pad next to a huge playground.


Another thing that's great to do with kids, especially, I would say if the weather is not great, is go to the Atelier des Lumieres. Which means “workshop of lights”. It’s basically like a museum exhibit that gets projected onto the walls. And the images that you see shift and move and change, and music plays, and it's a very visceral experience. The first time I went was with my daughter when we came to check out schools in February 2022, she was only eight years old then and she absolutely loved it!


And then I finally got a chance to take all of my kids there and my mom too, in May of last year, which was 2024. And that exhibit was like a history of Egypt and the pharaohs exhibit. And the kids loved it! The Atelier des Lumieres is in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, which is maybe not an area that people would normally think to go to, but it's kind of cool and there's lots of fun food, and I have enjoyed it there a lot.


Ok, this is where we will stop for today and pick back up in next week’s episode. Like I said, I want to be respectful of your time. But I won’t leave you before sharing a yummy and cost-effective “Chan Select” that you can enjoy while you're in Paris and when you don't have time for a full service cafe or restaurant.


It’s called Paul or as the French say “Paul” and it's a boulangerie, or bakery, that has been around since 1889. I love it because it offers fresh sandwiches, quiche, pizza, salads, that are reasonably priced, and ready to grab when I'm on the go. I usually will just stop by Paul for a coffee when I'm shopping at the mall nearby or a sandwich if I haven't eaten yet, and I need to keep shopping or head home.


I also have recently discovered though that their desserts are delicious too. One of my really good friends had told me that her favorite from there was the lemon meringue tart, and I finally tried it a few weeks ago and she is right, it is excellent. And then she and I had lunch just last week and I tried their strawberry tart and it was delicious. The strawberries were succulent and perfectly sweet, and I really enjoyed it!


Another great thing is that it's a franchise business, so you find them all over Paris, and the quality of the food is always the same. It’s great!


And finally for our quote of the day. It comes from actress Audrey Hepburn, whom I have quoted before, but that was before I started putting the quotes in show notes, which was a brilliant idea given to me by a friend, so I can’t tell you which episode.


But regardless, this a different quote entirely. Though Hepburn never lived here in Paris, she fell in love with the city and was in five films that were filmed here including: Sabrina, Charade, How to Steal a Million, Paris When it Sizzles, and Funny Face.


This quote comes from Sabrina, which was the first film she made in Paris and definitely expresses her love for the City of Lights and she said, “Paris is always a good idea.”


That’s it for today everyone! Tune next week when we explore more highlights or “must sees” for your next visit to Paris! In the meantime, if you haven’t yet done so, would you please take a moment to share the podcast with a friend or family member? Or maybe even a coworker who is dreaming of going to Paris? This little episode series might be just what they need to kick off planning their Paris vacation.


Thank you all so much and thank you for being here and being a part of this community and I am so excited to meet you back here again next week. Until then, this is Chandra Alley reminding you to “Live and Travel in the Know” with Expatriotical.