For my second visit to Paris, I rendezvoused with one of the best people I met whilst living in Bangkok for the weekend. She came to visit her favorite city from back home in the USA (she’s now an ex-expat). We have a LOT in common and not surprisingly feeling ALL THE FEELS for the romance and charms of Paris is one of them.
Day 1
I flew in Saturday morning to a rainy day and took the metro to our hotel where I freshened up and walked up past Notre Dame and across The Seine in Le Marais where my face got all wet and we’ll blame it on the rain (but you and I both know that it’s because somebody was overwhelmed by the perfectness of the city).
I met her in fringe coffee where we shared the most amazing, delicious, and wholesome grain bowl, salad, and beet soup and had a much needed catch up over wholesome food and coffee.
Finally, we traipsed through the rain to Centre Pompidou, but were immediately turned off by a massive line. Instead we headed in the direction of another museum, but got sidetracked by Boneshaker Donuts and BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) Richelieu – a modern day cathedral dedicated to the worship of books.
Finally, it was acceptable cocktail hour, so we stopped in one of the utterly perfect cliche Parisian cafes and ordered some cocktails. We then realized it had been a long time since our brunch and some proper food was in order (especially if we were going to celebrate Paris Cocktail Week properly). We immediately thought of a pizza place that had handed us an amazing free sample of truffle pizza as we walked by. They got us good. We went back and ordered what we thought would be 2 slices but turned out to be an entire pizza. But hey, we weren’t too mad about it.
We then headed to Jefrey’s Bar for another cocktail. They were…bold and interesting. Mine was served in a golden pineapple and strongly featured peanuts. My friends was essentially a V8 with gin. But unfortunately, it also included egg white which was not included on the ingredient list which she is allergic too, so we called it an early evening.
Day 2
Grabbed a cafe creme at the nearest cafe to fuel our wanderings through Le Marais in search for brunch. It was Fashion Week, so we had a hard time finding tables at a couple of promising spots, so we quickly agreed to head back to fringe coffee because it was SO good. Somehow, it was even better today.
We spent so long enjoying it that as we walked around Le Marais and walked by an adorable wine bar it was totally acceptable to stop in for a glass of wine. And hey, why not a cheese plate. After all, this is France!
We spent the rainy afternoon chatting away at our little window table, a perfect Sunday afternoon in Paris. Finally, we made our way over to Le ComptoirGénéral our final destination for this perfect Parisian weekend. I didn’t realize that it was kind of a Speakeasy, so I was walking down the street and suddenly was like “It should be here” despite the fact that there was no visible sign of an establishment. Basically my hip bar spidey-sense was activated. (And seriously, if anyone can think of a marketable application of this weird skill, let me know)
For anyone familiar with The McKittrick Hotel in NYC, aka the home to the Sleep No More immersive theatre experience, Le Comptoir Général is kind of like an African themed version of that. We walked around scoping out all the lovely little seating tableaus (no, this is not a typo, they were not just tables they were scenescapes). Then we grabbed our drinks from the bar, I was a bit disappointed by the basic & limited cocktail menu (think mojitos or simple punches), the bar is a boat, so that is pretty impressive. We headed upstairs to sit on the top deck of the ship and sip our cocktails and chat.
Finally, it was time to go, so we walked back through Le Marais to Notre Dame where we said our adieus to one another (well really, a bientots).
Then I crossed the Seine to the hotel to grab my bag and head to the airport with a second (and definitely not the last) weekend in Paris under my belt.
