MichelleMunches

Bucket List:

1. Visit Paris
2. See the Eiffel Tower
3. Eat escargot in France

Y’ALL, *internally screaming*, I have been home for a few months now and I am still in shock that I went to PARIS. So, I’m here to debrief: how I planned for the trip, tips, tricks, and advice!

If you’re like me, you’re obsessed with Emily in Paris and thought that Paris would be everything and more. I’m going to be honest, while I LOVED Paris and it was absolutely beautiful, it was also very grey during February (yes, I know, it’s winter) and not entirely as glamorous as the shows make it out to be. Alls that to say though I had an amazing time and already want to be back!

A disclaimer: I was actually not even planning to go to Paris this year, but circumstances made it possible for me to go. So, I will preface this by saying that and acknowledging that I know that going to Paris is a VERY expensive ticket.

In 2022, I had actually planned to go to Bali in 2023, well due to personal reasons, I decided to cancel that trip and due to United’s return policy, I only ended up getting travel credit. Then, some things worked out in my personal life that allowed me to use that travel credit to go to Paris! Tickets to Paris were ASTRONOMICAL, so this is definitely something that would take some time/planning/thought if you were actually going to go. So, now that you know the back story of how I decided to go, let’s get into the actual meat of planning!

The Planning

Hotel:
​Now that I officially decided I was going and booked my flights, it was time to find a place to stay! I traveled with two other individuals and we needed a space that could accommodate 3 people. Something I learned while researching places to stay, Parisian hotels are VERY small (pretty much everything in Paris is small/tight). We knew we wanted to stay near the Champs Élysées, so that is where I centralized all my searches. Note: It definitely would’ve been a lot cheaper to book for two people, but because we were looking for places that accommodated three, it was definitely a bit pricier. Ultimately, I found this spot: Hotel Le Friedland

I cannot say enough good things about Hotel Friedland: from the stellar staff, to the clean and modern rooms, to the spacious bathrooms; you seriously will not regret staying here! I would definitely stay here again. Fred, the general manager and his staff in particular really made our stay magnificent. They went above and beyond with their service. Our first night there, we had an issue with our tub and Fred, himself came up and helped us out. They would always greet us and ask us about our plans for the day and give us recommendations and tips. They even remembered where we went that day and would ask how it was that night or the next day they saw us! I mean that is just really amazing hospitality.

Food:
So, if you’ve been here a while, then you know I’m a tried and true Yelp user. However, I actually found Yelp to be less reliable for Paris. I used The Fork primarily to book many of my meals, which is similar to OpenTable/Resy in the US. It was very simple to book through The Fork (web or mobile app) and you can even get discounts for booking through The Fork! I cannot recommend this enough because I did try booking through websites at first and found them to be very confusing and this was my saving grace.

Some things I learned about eating in France that might help you:

• Entree actually means appetizer/starter and plat refers to your main course.
• Many places will offer a prix-fixe menu for lunches which means they typically come with choice of entree + plat or plat + dessert; whether it’s more cost effective or not, I think it really varies and depends on the restaurant.
• Booking through The Fork is great because cancelling does not cost you and often I was looking for a spot very last minute and it made the experience much less stressful.
• The Fork also allows you to preview the menu to see what they have to offer, but I will say it doesn’t show you everything on the menu, mostly just a glance and I found the ratings to be very on point.
• Tipping is not required in France! They are paid a fair wage, so tipping is optional​.

Tips & Advice

• Be prepared to be in a living ash tray: honestly, pretty much anywhere I went it smelled very strongly of cigarettes (restaurants, streets, etc).
• Get to the museums right when they open if you really want to see a lot because within an hour or two every museum we went to became pretty packed.
• The Mona Lisa experience really isn’t that great because once you get through the line, you’re dumped into a mosh pit and people can be pretty rude, so I would say keep your expectations low and be prepared for that!.
• Paris is extremely walkable! For the most part, I walked everywhere and my hour walks honestly only felt like 20 minutes. Highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes because this really saved my feet!
• The best crepes are the ones from the cart in front of the Gucci store on the Champs Élysées. See pic below for reference.