Paris Girls Weekend: Day 1
This recap of our weekend in Paris contains details of our itinerary and affiliate links.
The first time I flew to Paris I was seventeen, just barely. My mom, best friend and I arrived off a red eye, early in the morning. We headed straight for the Louvre, with a quick stop for croc misueres and a chance to practice our French. The rest of the weekend was a magical blur of crepes, and art, and snippets of conversation. We spent hours on Sunday afternoon chatting in Angelina’s and were giddy after a long bus ride with a kind African woman who spoke to us in French for almost an hour.
I was convinced this trip wouldn’t be as magical, believing the magic of that long weekend a decade ago was due to youth, or naivete, or inexperience.
I was wrong.
Paris is still magic.
Students at HBS had a long weekend so on Wednesday night, fourteen of us boarded a flight, leaving the 27 kids between us home with their dads’ for the weekend.
There were lots of different itineraries for this four day trip. With some who had lived in Paris, some who had visited multiple times, and a couple who had never been, it was impossible to come up with the perfect schedule for everyone. Here’s how I spent the 4 days in Paris, with lots of pictures (days 2-4 coming over the next week).
Paris in 4 days: Day 1
With a flight delay out of Boston, we arrived off of our Norwegian red-eye around noon and we shared two van-sized taxis into the city. The ride is estimated to be about an hour but thanks to our aggressive (and crazy) taxi driver we managed the ride in about 40 minutes, almost taking out a handful of pedestrians in the process.
We checked into our airbnb in the heart of Paris. We had just a few minutes to drop off of our stuff, brush our teeth after the long flight, and grab a purse before running out to meet our guide for a bike tour.
One friend had flown out on another flight a few hours earlier and she met us in the Place Vendome with Pierre Herme macarons, the perfect welcome to this beautiful city (thanks, Laura!).
The rest of the afternoon was spent biking around Paris, stopping at landmarks like the Louvre and Notre Dame and ducking into lots of bakeries for croissants and macarons.
When we wrapped up the bike tour we headed over to Rue Cler for dinner at Cafe du Marche. I shared a delicious beet and goat cheese salad along with chicken and duck with a few friends and snuck lots of bites of French onion soup. After dinner we ducked into Amorino Gelato, just across the way for a sweet treat (coconut, pistachio, and melon).
Some rain had started to fall but we ran to catch the twinkling at the Eiffel Tower anyway. And dancing, wet hair twirling, with 13 of your girlfriends infront of a glittering Eiffel Tower was as magical as it sounds. We were giddy with exhaustion and excitement and it was the perfect start to our weekend.
After ubering back to the apartment we showered or collapsed into bed, happy, full, and so tired.
Day 1 pastry count:
- 2 pain au chocolats
- 1 almond croissant
- 3 macarons
- 1 hazelnut and almond sweet bread
^Laura told us Pierre Herme were the best macarons in Paris … and after four days of eating them from various bakeries, she is right. 
^have you ridden an electric bike before? nothing makes you feel quite as fit as riding one of these up a steep hill 🙂 
^this tour guide was SO animated and fun
travel outfit details:
striped tee (favorite basic tee): Jersey Slub Tee from H&M (more striped tees here)
leggings: 7/8 under wunder from lululemon (I flew in these and they were great for a redeye) – (more leggings here)
black sneakers: Cole Haan – loved these for walking around Paris all weekend (more cute sneakers here)
black crossbody bag: Rebecca Minkoff (more crossbodies here)