Adventures in Paris, France

Our final stop on our honeymoon adventure was the city of love, Paris, France!

Things To See:

Both Mike and I had been to Paris already but there were several things we wanted to see in and around the city so we decided to finish up our trip in Paris.

• Eiffel Tower: We didn’t actually go to the base or up this time around although we meant to. Mike gave me the challenge of finding the best lunch locations with an amazing view of the tower and I didn’t disappoint. See the Where We Ate section below for my 2 finds. 
• Arc de Triomphe: Always an amazing place to see, I’ve gone up once before for a view of the city but this was Mike’s first time up top
• The Catacombs: A tourist attraction that neither of us had seen before, very macabre but cool to see none-the-less. Tip – line up around 9am as it opens at 10am. If you want you can purchase your ticket ahead of time and they let around 10 people from each line in at a time. 
• Le Louvre: I’ve been twice but it’s always a good idea to go. There is always something to see. While the tourist numbers were quite ridiculous it was nice to see several exhibits. 
• Vimy Ridge: Canadian land gifted to Canada from France because of our history in the battle of Arras and winning the Ridge over 3 days during the First World War. We rented a car to drive up to see it and was pleasantly surprised to see it being run by Veterans Affairs students on placements to provide tours of the trenches & tunnels. 
• Champagne Region & Parc Arboxygene: We had planned on going to Guedelon Castle the day after we stayed in the treehouse but had to head into the city to meet our AirBnB host mid-afternoon so we decided to just go to the castle on Weds. We discovered later that day it was closed on Weds so we had to extend the car rental by one day. I was searching for tours to do around the city and realized the Champagne region was a close drive. I previously worked for LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessey Group) when I was in advertising so I thought it would be neat to see where Moet champagne is made. We went on a tour of the cellars and a tasting and it was quite cool. We purchased a bottle of the Ice Imperial to enjoy back in the city. Before heading back I had found a really cool champagne tasting in a treehouse and since we have a love for all things treehouses we drove up to see it. Upon arrival, we found out it was by appointment only but stumbled upon a tree ropes course so we spent the evening tackling the difficult course. It was hard, fun, hard and a good spontaneous choice on our trip. 
• Guedelon Castle & Chateau Fontainbleu: Mike had seen a Facebook video of this castle being built in France with only medieval tools. They started back in 1996! It was a 2.5-hour drive from Paris so we took an entire day to head down there, wander around the site and then drove back to Paris stopping at Chateau Fontainebleau for a tour as well. 

Where We Stayed:

First Up! The Epic Treehouse. One day I saw this amazing place on Instagram called Cabanes Grands Chenes. As we were planning our tour of Europe I decided to see where in France it was and then discovered it was only 30 mins outside of the city! We booked one of the Duo Cabins, Spa Lov’Nest’s which included a sleeping pod and a cabin with a hot tub!

We rented a car from the airport and drove north to Arras and Vimy Ridge on our first day and then headed back down to Raray to check into the treehouse for dinner and the night. You drive in towards a castle…

park to the left of it, check in and then walk the golf course grounds to your cabin for the night. They deliver dinner & breakfast picnic baskets to your cabin to pull up on a pulley system.

Our favorite things was waking up in the sleeping pod in the morning to rain, opening our door and just lying in bed, having coffee and listening to the rain on the skylight 🙂 We leisurely ate breakfast, drank coffee and relaxed in the hot tub until checkout time!

Next up is where we stayed in the city…

Our AirBnB: We found a really great place close to the Eiffel Tower (we could see it out the bedroom window) near Gare Montparnasse. We were easily able to park our rental car in an underground parking garage while we had it for adventures outside of the city. 

Where We Ate:

• Coutume Cafe (Middle of the Map): We had breakfast there one morning, amazing coffee!
• Les Fauves (Bottom of the Map): Great dinner near our Airbnb one night. I made reservations using the app “The Fork”
• La Creperie de Josselin (Bottom of the Map): I found a creperie near our Airbnb that had buckwheat options! We actually ordered one for dinner, Mike had one for dinner & dessert and then we ordered 2 more to go to eat for breakfast the next day!
• Cafe de l’Homme (Top Left of Map): First stop on my quest to get Mike an amazing lunch with a view of the Eiffel Tower. 
• Les Ombres (Top Left of Map): Second stop on my quest to get Mike an amazing lunch with a view of the Eiffel Tower. This restaurant was surprisingly not busy. We had a three-course meal and enjoyed amazing (strong) cocktails here.
• Le Perchoir (Top Right of 2nd Map): 
• Laduree (Top Right of Map): I have yet to try macaroons in France so we opted for the most popular place near the Louvre)
• Chambelland (Top Right of 2nd Map): I had seen this place on one of the ladies I follow on Instagram who lives with an auto-immune disease as well. They are a gluten-free bakery and the carrot cake & pear tart I tried were divine!
• Cafe Madeleine (Top Left of 2nd Map): Quick breakfast stop before heading to the Louvre one day. 
• Noglu (Top Middle of 2nd Map): We had dinner here one night because it was recommended as a gluten-free restaurant. It was incredibly hot upstairs and the food wasn’t that great. 

An amazing trip, and an amazing honeymoon. We are so thankful we got to spend three weeks travelling together.