JUNE 1, 2016

Paris Is Always a Good Idea

PHOTO JOURNAL

It’s hard to stay away from the city of lights for too long. It always finds a way to lure you back, whether it’s the countless new shops, cafes, and restaurants or the many places that are so familiar they envelop you in a warm embrace every time you’re there. New meets old, that’s my kind of Paris. 

We were fortunate enough to call this simple but elegantly furnished rooftop apartment home our first two nights in Paris, thanks to Apartments Actually. There’s something about having your own space in a city... Especially in this area in the Marais, one of my favorites. We were just around the corner from choux pastry shop Popelini (29 Rue Debelleyme), paper speciality store Papier Tigre (5 Rue des Filles du Calvaire), and near coffee places Ob-La_di (54 Rue de Saintonge) and Fondation Café (16 Rue Dupetit-Thouars). Concept store Merci (111 Boulevard Beaumarchais), Café Kitsuné (109 Rue Amelot) and Boot Café (19 Rue du Pont aux Choux) were just a short walk away.

It’s hard to keep up with the ever-changing specialty coffee scene but American-born Paris-based designer Anne Ditmeyer of the popular blog Prêt à Voyager introduced me to the recently opened La Fontaine de Belleville (33 Rue Juliette Dodu), just up the road from Ten Belles (10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles) and neighboring flower shop Bleuet Coquelicot. If you’re in the Canal St. Martin area, you can’t miss trying either a chocolate pistachio escargot pastry or an almond croissant at De Pain et Des Idees (34 Rue Yves Toudic). From there we biked past JR’s latest artwork at the Louvre, checked out the Seine’s high water levels on the Ile St. Louis, and biked on to Shakespeare & Company (37 Rue de la Bûcherie) for book browsing and Odette (77 Rue Galande) for choux tasting.

For our last evening we made our way over to the Montmartre area and stayed at the lovely Hotel Grand Pigalle (29 Rue Victor Masse), straight out of a Wes Anderson movie if you ask me Our room, impeccably designed to even the smallest of details, had a small terrace to enjoy an afternoon cocktail while the breakfast served the next morning was delicious; it's like they never want you to leave! But it’s right around the corner from the popular restaurant Buvette (28 Rue Henry Monnier) which looked incredibly inviting and down the street from the busy Rue des Martyrs, great for picking up your picnic favorites before heading up to Montmartre and watching the sun set over Paris.

We'll be back soon, Paris... For more of my photos from Paris, check out my hashtag on Instagram #pariswithmae.