Adventures in Paris, part 1 / Texas Sarah

The thing about vacationing in Paris is that we spend a large part of our time catching up with friends and family that we don't always have time to completely enjoy some of our favorite parts of the city. We usually stay with family just outside the périphérique and spend a good deal of time in the car going around to see people and getting back to the suburbs for moments in-between. So, this time around, we decided to stay in a hotel right in the middle of Paris instead of outside the city center with family. This way, we were really able to take advantage of our down time by catching up with our people in Paris and being a short metro ride away from the home-base (which turned out to be really convenient at nap time).

We all loved our stay at Hotel Henriette so much that it was almost a treat to go back there in the middle of the day for naps or to meet up with friends for a quick coffee before setting off to explore ( ↑ Do you see that view?!). The room we stayed in was the perfect size and the staff were so helpful and pleasant that we could not have felt more welcome if we had been staying with friends. The whole property is so perfectly curated in a way that feels more like someone's home - from the large, self-serve breakfast spread to the comfortable vintage-style rooms. Especially on those dreary, grey days, it was almost too tempting to stay in bed and have a coffee and croissant sent up. But, alas, there just isn't any time to be idle in Paris!

Avienne spent the first two days of our week-long stay at a summer camp held at her former school, which freed Gui and me up to have a few fancy lunches and explore at our own pace during the day. We grabbed breakfast and leisurely coffees at two of our favorites, Fragment and Boot, walked around the Marais to sightsee, had three-course meals with wine pairings for lunch and just enjoyed our coupledom for a few hours.

Except for a light shower for the first day-and-a-half, we were mostly lucky with the weather this time around. I was so relieved to have had the hindsight to pack sweaters and jackets which came in so handy on a couple of frigid mornings.

When school was out, we met up with Avienne's Nana and Tata at one of our favorite Paris spots, Le Jardin des Plantes. Leading up to our Paris trip, whenever I would ask Avienne what she was most excited to do in Paris, her answer always included three things: see Nana, take the bus and ride carousels. So, we took the bus over and riding the carousel was the first thing we did when we arrived at the jardin and what we continued to do nearly every day of our trip. It's just too hard to pass up a chance to see that little face light up with such pure and honest joy from something so sweetly simple.