3 week France itinerary
Our three weeks in France was a magical one. I feel like it was the perfect amount of time to see everything that we wanted to see. Most of the French people we spoke with and told our travel plans to gave us their stamp of approval on the trip. We still have lots of reasons to come back (France is big - by European standards of course). I’ve included everything that was in our actual itinerary, including the few extras that we could have fit in had we not been trying to keep things low-key (we spent almost every afternoon lounging around somewhere) and notes on some things I would change. I will be slowly releasing full posts on our trip, with all the details and tips, so stay tuned!
If you are familiar at all with the way I travel (maybe you’ve read up on some of my past adventures), you know I like to take things one country at a time. I wouldn’t call myself a slow traveler (yet), as most of my trips are between 2-3 weeks in length; but I don’t country hop anymore, so I can get to know a place. Another thing: I’ve found it best not to make a timed itinerary. Make a list, try to see as much of it as reasonably possible, but don’t worry about having it all planned out. Having a list allows you to knock off your top sights right away, and to see extra things if time allows.
So without further ado, here is our 3 week itinerary around France:
night 1 - Mont St Michel
We finally arrived in Mont St Michel after our 3.5 hour journey from Charles de Gaulle turned into a 6.5 hour trip (thanks to traffic and construction). Arriving just in time for golden hour, we quickly dropped off our things at the hotel and ran for the bridge to snap our photos of the Mont from afar. Jet lag was on our side and we awoke at dawn to explore the entire island before enjoying a complimentary breakfast at 8am (very helpful when almost nothing opens in France before 10). Our entry to the Abbey at 9am was perfect, as we got in before the crowds started. Our initial plan was to explore all day; however, as soon as we got out of the Abbey at 10:30, we checked out and left. The streets were crawling with people. Luckily we had a plan B: St Malo.
Stay:
Hotel le Moulon Blanc - loved our night here; so worthwhile staying on the island for priority parking near the shuttle service & seeing the island after the tour buses leave /before they arrive in the morning.
Sights:
The island streets can be walked in an hour, with an additional hour needed for exploring the Abbey (obviously if you are dining or shopping you would need more time). The Abbey is a must; if you don’t book it, you miss out on half of Mont St Michel. If you’d like to see the island from a distance, it’s best to book a local tour guide to walk the sands with (there are quick sands and fast tides, too dangerous to explore on your own). Personally, we just stayed outside the fenced off area to get our photos; however, we would like to go back and explore the sands with a guide on a future trip.
La Grand Rue - fairytale main street with shops and cafés
The Gates of Mont St Michel - mediaeval style gates
The Ramparts - for views of the village below and out to the mainland
Monastery - the Abbey Church, the monks living quarters, the Cloister; need tickets for entry, 9am is the best time to have the place to yourself.
Food:
food is expensive on the island, as there are only a handful of places to dine. It is recommended to grab food before/after if you are on a budget.
La Sirène Lochet - best recommended for the price, has vegetarian options, mostly crêpes (the island has almost only crêpe shops, as this is the food of Brittany. Savoury crêpes are called Galettes, and are typically enjoyed for dinner.)
night 2/3 - Rennes
taken from St Malo’s ramparts, looking out Môle des Noires.
For reasons now unknown to us, St Malo was branded as ‘meh’ from all the travel articles I had read prior to the trip. Our next stay after Mont St Michel was actually between St Malo and Rennes initially, as we had found great AirBnBs in both, but what I read turned me off St Malo. I’m glad the crowds pushed us from Mont St Michel on our second day in France, as we ended up getting to experience a very enjoyable day in St Malo! We had driven the long way there along the coast and arrived around noon, leaving before 4pm, and wandered up and down the old walled city. Afterwards, we drove to our next stay in Rennes.
Saint Malo - historic walled city and beach
With one full day in Rennes, we were able to wander the entire historic centre with ease. Rennes had an untouched charm - it’s a university city, not a tourist town. It was the only place we visited where they stuck to their guns and used French, regardless of my struggle (the rest of France insisted on switching to English, no matter how many times I responded en Français). I think one day was enough for traveling, however I think Rennes would make a great contender if you wanted to live in France and learn the language!
Stay:
we stayed at this stunning historic AirBnB in the heart of Rennes. If you don’t mind the creaky floors (we think they just added to the charm), it’s the perfect place to base yourself out of as you explore the city.
Sights:
Port Mordelaises - historic centre, town hall, opera house, Rennes cathedral
half-timbered houses - the most in France, along Le Chapitre street, Psalette and Saint-Sauveur street especially
Places de Lices market - Saturday morning, second largest in France
Thabor Park - central park of Rennes, 10ha with English & French gardens, caves, waterfalls, aviary and live music
La Vilaine à Rennes - waterfront pathways along river; canoe, paddle, bike; home to picturesque castles
Food:
** a quick note on the food in general: my partner is dairy-free and we both try to eat as plant-based as possible, hence all the veg options in my research.
La Saint George - the crêperie everyone is talking about
Les Fils à Maman - this is where we found brunch when everything else was closed on Sunday. It was very tasty!
Petite Nature - vegan restaurant, affordable
SYMBIOZH - vegetarian restaurant, looked very cute
Le Fournil Vasselot - boulangerie, highest rating
Parking:
if you want to park completely for free for several days, you have to go to rue Richard Lenoir. It takes about 10-15 minutes on foot to get back to the centre.
night 4 - Versailles
We left Rennes early on day 4 of our trip and made our way to the municipality of Versailles. There is more to the place than just the Palace, though many visitors arrive from Paris by train for the day. I would highly recommend staying the night, as we did, to save money on accommodation (much cheaper than in Paris) and to get to see more than the average tourist. Almost everyone I’ve chatted with about Paris wishes they had dedicated more time to Versailles. We actually made an error in our travel plans, and booked our stay for Monday night, only finding out far too late that the Palace is closed Mondays. This ended up working in our favour though, as the Gardens are still open (and free) and were nearly empty all day. We booked tickets first thing for 9:30 when the Palace opened Tuesday morning, and as most don’t pre-book, we found ourselves in the Hall of Mirrors with only two others (typically a room filled with hundreds of people).
Stay:
the most magical AirBnB only 5 minutes away from the Palace!
Sights:
Park & Gardens - free & open daily 8am-6pm
The Palace - 18€ & open 9am-5:30pm tues-sun
download the free app for a map & for all the info and special showtimes for things like the Musical Gardens!
Food:
La Mangette - simple & cute, was in a NYT article
Harry’s Limonaderie - sandwich shop
PAUL - we found this French Boulangerie chain here and fell in love. The amount of macarons à la pistache I’ve eaten from PAUL…well, I don’t want to talk about it. Honestly, Ladurée who.
Parking: https://www.interparking-france.com/parking-paris/en/park/car-park-cathedrale/
night 5/6/7 - Marseilles
To get to the South of France, we first dropped off our rental car back at CDG (car rentals charge you a one-way fee if you don’t drop-off at your pickup location), then took the RER B (the train line that runs from CDG to central Paris - it costs 10€) and transferred at Chatelet Les Halles to the red line, getting off right away at Gare de Lyon to catch a TGV train direct via Aix to Marseille.
Marseille was the city I think my fiancé Calin was most excited for, and the city we liked the least after our visit. It’s extremely noisy here, and notoriously dangerous. If I had a dollar for every cringe someone gave us when we said we were visiting Marseille, we would have a lot of dollars. Organized crime is just a thing in France’s oldest city, but thankfully we didn’t experience it. The noise, though, we did experience; it came from all the motorbikes running rampant throughout the city. After a few days there, we’re pretty sure bikes don’t have to follow any rules. The port was very touristy, and I wouldn’t recommend eating along it unless you want the cruise special (an overpriced, inauthentic meal). Photographically speaking, Marseille was stunning. I personally love a little dinge and considering the city has its roots in Ancient Greece, it’s anything but boring.
Stay:
our AirBnB was safe, comfortable, and had the most stunning view.
Sights:
Vieux (Old) Port - 3 sides of the promenade
Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde - church at the highest point of Old Town
La Corniche - views of Chateau d’If and the Frioul Archipelago, scenic housing near Corniche JFK, Vallon des Auffes
Le Panier - colourful historic district, Greek agora. This was my favourite district to walk through.
Boulevard Longchamp - walking district with historic buildings
Food:
**Marseille is famous for Bouillabaisse, a seafood soup. It’s extremely pricey, but definitely worth trying if you are a foodie.
Au Coeur du Panier - sidewalk seafood cafe
La Passerelle - highly recommended by Lonely Planet for French food
Maison Geney - pastries, light meals, and breakfast
LA CANTINE - mediterranean on a terrace
Green Love - vegan, aesthetic
Au Pain d’Autrefois - top boulangerie
Minoofi Bakery - top patisserie
La Fiancée - our favourite coffee shop in Marseille; we went here for breakfast twice.
Deep Coffee Roasters - another great coffee shop
night 8 - Les Arcs-sur-Argens
We picked up our rental car early on our last morning in Marseille, as we planned on stopping in Aix-en-Provence on our way to Les Arcs-sur-Argens (not to be confused with the ski village Les Arcs in Savoie). Our visit to Aix was too short. However, we are planning a separate, future trip to explore Provence, and this gave us a good taste.
Sights:
Aix Cathedral - 1100 Romanesque church
Old Aix - old Roman fountains lead the way through this mostly pedestrian old town
Cours Mirabeau - a tree-lined street, often with live music and market stalls
Atelier Cézanne - artists home, exactly how he left it 100 years ago (we didn’t get to see this as it was out of the way, definitely will on the next trip)
Montagne Saint Victoire - Lac de Bimont is a scenic place for views; we drove alongside the mountain as we went to Les Arcs, past many vineyards
Hôtels - streets of grand merchant houses, Rue Mazarine, Rue Goyrand, Rue Carinale; hôtels in France aren’t really “hotels,” they’re basically fancy rich people housing from a bygone era
Place Richelme - daily market
Flower market - alternating days at either Place de la Mairie or Place des Prècheurs
Food:
**Tomate Provençal - tomatoes stuffed with herbs; Calissons - sweet specialty. These are two dishes local to Aix
Aux Pâtes Fraîches - local grocer
Farinoman - best place for bread
Maison Béchard - best place for croissants
Mana Espresso - good for amazing coffee & fresh food; we literally made an hour detour to come back here on our way to drop off the rental car back in Marseille after the rest of our French Riviera road trip
We arrived at our AirBnB in Les Arcs at 3pm, bringing sandwiches with us from PAUL in Aix for dinner (yes, we were fully addicted at this point). La Sentinelle is an actual bed & breakfast - and the only reason we found ourselves in Les Arcs. I could find nothing about the town online, so when we arrived we had no idea what to expect. The mediaeval hilltop village immediately captured our hearts with its serenity and beauty (especially post Marseille), so much so that my fiancé had a change of plans and proposed here. That’s a story for another time.
The following morning, we had the most magical candlelit breakfast provided to us by our delightful host Simon; and after another stroll around the village, we were on our way to Villefranche.
night 9/10/11 - Villefranche-sur-Mer
There’s so much to see along Les Trois Corniches - three stunning roadways along the mountainside of the Côte d’Azur - so we decided to base ourselves in Villefranche-sur-Mer for a few nights. Staying anyplace besides Nice is going to save you a lot money (and honestly add so much charm to your trip). Nice was too pristine and touristic for me, as was Monaco (although it’s fun to add another whole country to the list - one that you can walk across in an hour). Èze, although stunning, was incredibly hard to find parking near (even during shoulder season), and we actually had to make a second attempt to visit. Menton was our favourite, and is the place I’d actually recommend staying. It was just so stunning, and had more to offer than Villefranche, which is very small due to its proximity to Nice (you can walk). I would highly recommend taking a bus between all the villages, as driving here is very stressful, and only becomes more-so the closer you get to peak season (June-August).
For itinerary purposes, here’s how I would map out a 3 night stay with all the following stops:
day 1 - stop in St-Paul-de-Vence for the afternoon, and then spend the evening exploring Villefranche after check-in
day 2 - spend the morning at the beach, and then take the bus to Nice for the afternoon/evening
day 3 - hit up Èze first thing, do a stopover in Monaco, and end with the majority of your day in Menton
day 4 - check-out & drive to St Tropez or Cannes (if that’s you’re thing) and spend time there
While this is definitely doable, if you want a more relaxed itinerary, here’s what we did:
day 1 - check-in to Villefranche and do laundry, before taking a leisurely stroll around the entire seaside village
day 2 - beach day
day 3 - slept-in, tried to stop in Èze but couldn’t find parking, detoured to Monaco for 2 hours, then explored Menton, hitting up Èze on the way back
day 4 - stopped in Nice for the morning on the way to La Ciotat
Villefranche-sur-Mer Stay:
our very convenient AirBnB with a free parking space.
Sights:
Old Town - featuring Rue Obscure , a 13 c. underground street as seen in many films
Port de la Darse - waterfront path
Plage de Mariniers - beach for swimming (the water here is incredible)
Citadel - fortress the best view of the Cote d’Azur
Welcome Hotel - a Wes Anderson fan’s dream
Food:
Market on Wednesdays and Sundays - Jardin Francois Binon
La Terrasse - french seaside, vegan options, really enjoyed this place
Loco Loco - seaside, affordable, has a niçoise salad, which is Nice’s special food.
NICE:
Sights:
La Colline du Château - hike with beautiful views, alps, & waterfalls, aka Castle Hill, divides the port and old town
Vieille Ville (old Nice) - place massena; Promenade des Anglais - seaside walkway; Marché Aux Fleurs Cours Saleya - Flower Market (we felt it was a little underwhelming after Aix)
Castel Plage - nicest beach
St-Paul-de-Vence - Mediaeval Hilltop Village between Cannes and Nice - would love to have stopped here, but decided to take a beach day instead.
Le Shapko - live jazz music bar
Food:
Cocktails at Hotel Negresco- we later found out you now have to actually be staying at this iconic Art Deco hotel to visit, blogs that I had read had said you could explore freely, this is no longer the case.
KOKO GREEN - the best vegan restaurant on the french riviera
Paper Plane - Greek, vegan, cheap, cute
AZZURRO - artisan ice cream
Fenocchio - world famous ice cream
KALOS - Mediterranean street food
Le Cafe de Turin - seafood
MENTON:
Sights:
Saint-Michel Basilica - old church
Jardin Serre de la Madone - a beautiful garden
Plage des Sablettes - boulevard with stunning view of the town
Food:
Marché des Halles - covered food market
Try to get a table along the seaside - pizza is good here as it’s right on the Italian border. Menton lemons are also a thing!
MONACO:
Sights:
Palais du Prince - if the flag is up, the Prince is in and you can’t visit
Monte Carlo Casino - setting of Casino Royale, flamboyant Beaux Art style
Musée Océanographique - one of the oldest aquariums in the world, basically hanging on a cliff in the ocean
Monaco Harbour - colourful, filled with yachts
Old Town - centred on Le Rocher (The Rock)
Fontvieille Park - view of the Harbour & green spaces
Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel - Art Deco hotel
Food:
Sans Souci - italian, affordable with a nice patio
Neptune Monaco Beach - bar right on the beach
EZE:
Sights:
Bella Vista - viewpoint before Eze
*you can walk around the whole village in less than 30 minutes
La Chevre D’Or - fancy hotel
Eze Church - scenic cathedral
Food:
Deli’ - fresh sandwich and salads at a reasonable price
ST TROPEZ:
this is a place I would have loved to stop at, but at this point in our trip, we were deciding to take things slow. We definitely had the time to stop in here on our way to La Ciotat, but had pushed back Nice for a beach day.
Sights:
Plage de Pampelonne - classic Riviera resort, Le Club 55
Place de Lices - luxury atmosphere and old charm
Vieux Port - colourful houses, chic cafes, yachts, old port
Musée de L'annonciade - 16th c. chapel turned modern art exhibit
Food:
Place aux Herbes - fresh veggies and fruit
Hobo - affordable restaurant with great seating
Pablo - trendy restaurant with tacos, ceviche, and tapas
night 12/13 - La Ciotat
After driving from Nice, we spent a quiet evening in La Ciotat in preparation for our hike to d’En Vau. It’s not an overly strenuous hike (we’re used to hiking in the high elevation of the Canadian Rockies), but it is pretty treacherous. Most of the walk is on jagged rocks, and at one point you are literally climbing vertical. The hike is well worth it, and it’s okay to take your time. I would recommend wearing closed-toe shoes for non-slip purposes, and packing all the essentials like food, water, and toilet paper for the day.
Stay:
we stayed at this AirBnB in La Ciotat, although I think Cassis would have been more ideal of a location for exploring Les Calanques. Although, we were really glad we ended up in La Ciotat as it’s a very cute, non-touristy town.
Sights:
Calanques National Park - d’En Vau (best beach in France), Trois Calanques de Cassis hike (Port Miou, Port Pin, d’En Vau; follow the white & red track)
Food:
Kitsch and Cook - provençal food
Le Patio - cute patio restaurant
Le Sloop - we had the best tuna steak dinner here, would absolutely recommend. It’s located on the Old Port of La Ciotat
Café Acacia - the nicest owners; they also have a very stunning B&B
Food Park La Ciotat - a modern dining hall with tons of foodie options; the burger place was amazing
night 14 - the bus
As we didn't have to drop off the rental car back in Marseille until later the following evening, we ended up heading back out to Aix for the day as we loved it so much. Aix is just a lot easier to park and explore than Marseille. Before returning the car, we dropped our luggage off at Marseille’s train station’s baggage holding facility (most places in Europe have these) - very handy if you don’t want to be dragging luggage across town. We could have spent more time exploring the ancient city, but we decided to do some photo editing in the train station’s Starbucks.
To save money on both accommodation and travel expenses, we had chosen to take a night bus that left at 11pm and would arrive in Paris at 9am. The bus cost less than $30CAD each. Was it worth the savings? Absolutely not. Unless you are a very broke college student or someone else on an extreme budget - don’t do it. The seats were smaller than a plane, we stopped almost every hour all night long so people could smoke and use the restroom, and it felt very unsafe (so did waiting at the Marseille train station until 11pm). I felt the need to sleep with one eye open all night as I feared for our luggage. We booked the BlaBlaBus (yes that’s what it’s called) and our earlier TGV ticket on RailEurope, as you only have to pay the $10 booking fee once when purchasing multiple tickets.
In the morning, we arrived at Bercy Seine bus station in Paris and paid for an Uber to take us across the city to our AirBnB (not bad - only 20€). After the night we had, we were not about to fuss with the Metro. Thankfully our wonderful AirBnB host was able to accommodate us that early in the morning, so we got to drop off our things and shower up before heading out into Paris to explore.
night 15/16/17/18/19/20/21 - Paris
Stay:
our first few nights were spent at this AirBnB in SoPi, a trendy neighbourhood south of Montmartre. It was nice for Paris standards, but remember in Paris you will pay premium prices and can’t expect the type of accommodation you would get elsewhere in the same price range.
our last few nights were spent at Hotel Bienvenue, also in SoPi. We only moved locations as we couldn’t find anything for the entire week that we liked within our budget. It was a spacious room, very clean. We did have a security issue (housekeeping left our door unlocked after straightening up the room, so we spoke to the front desk and kept the ‘do not disturb’ sign on our door for the duration of our stay). But for Paris, this place was a steal.
Sights:
I’ve arranged all the sights by neighbourhood. We focused on one area per day, but combined the Eiffel Tower and the Etoile & Champs Elysées categories into one day. This was more than enough time, and we always went back to our room for the afternoon to rest before heading back out for dinner. I think having 7 days in Paris is the perfect amount to get to know the city - any shorter and it’s just a taste; much longer and you might be overwhelmed for a first visit. Paris can get very redundant if you don’t know where to look (I would love to rattle off the history of Haussmann and explain why Paris is so uniform, but I’ll spare you this once).
Eiffel Tower
Views of the Eiffel to avoid: Trocadéro (steps), Rue de l’Université, Pont d’Iéna, Avenue de Camoëns.These places are listed on all travel blogs as ‘secret’ or ‘special’ views of the tower and let me tell you, there is nothing secret (or honestly that special) about them. Even early in the morning, these places were crowded, probably because all the insta girlies gave out the memo long ago. The Eiffel Tower is visible from so many places in Paris, and with the right angles, you can get your shot with it. My advice would be to walk around the neighbouring streets, across the river, and pick your spot, sans crowds. We snagged some good ones from here here and here.
The Eiffel Tower is currently under construction until the 2024 Olympics, so we saved going up to the top for a future trip. One of my lovely followers reached out and offered my fiancé and I the most wonderful picnic experience beneath the Eiffel Tower and I would highly recommend it! If you are only in town for a couple of days especially, I would consider this a peak experience. What’s better than French charcuterie? The whole set-up makes for a great photo opp, especially since us travellers can’t really bring our own aesthetic picnic materials. I really appreciated the thoughtful details from Asli. If you’d like to enjoy this picnic, you can find her at @aperoclandestin or book directly here!
Etoile & Champs Elysées
most known for luxury shopping along the Champs, it’s also named as the world’s most beautiful avenue. You can find the most instagrammable Ladurée here, and on the first Sunday of every month, it is now car free (so the best time to get your photos without dangerously running into traffic).
Place de la Concorde - city’s largest square where you can see most major landmarks from afar
Pont Alexandre III - stunning bridge (as pictured above), best viewed from the North side
Louvre & Les Halles
Jardin des Tuileries - a large and very busy garden out front of the Louvre (you could probably skip this one)
Louvre - (is closed on Tuesdays - but this is the best time to photograph the outside pyramids); it’s more massive than you could dream. Dedicate a day if you’d like to go - we didn’t! You can find a lot of the works and information online now and explore from the comfort of your home.
Jardin du Palais Royal - this is where those black and white cylindrical columns are, the ones you might have seen on Instagram. You need to get here early, as the park is very small.
Eglise St-Eustache - basically Notre Dame, a good alternative while it’s under construction! Les Halles Metro station and shopping centre is right outside - it’s a very cool area
Galeries Lafeyette - the Haussmann location; now a famous department store chain, but this one is an Art Nouveau dream (I’m sorry, I’m an architecture junkie)
Cafe Kitsuné - a Parisian favourite for coffee
Télescope Café - really enjoyed our coffee here and the banana bread
MOTORS - this one had the coolest vibe
Le Marais & Bastille
honestly, I really loved this area; I would either choose to stay here or in the Latin Quarter upon returning to the city. The cool, hipster vibes were very prominent, lots of great coffee and thrifting, and it wasn’t overly effected by the Haussmannian overall (giving a much needed break to the monotony of the rest of Paris’ buildings).
Place de Vosges - Paris’ oldest square, a really quiet park, Victor Hugo’s home faces it (author of Les Mis and Hunchback, etc)
Rue Crémieux - Paris’ most colourful street
Canal St Martin - the place for bobo (bohemian bourgeois), looks like Amsterdam
Cimetière du Père Lachaise - old cemetery, the final resting place of many famous Parisians
Merci - cafe with attached home goods and book store
The Centre Pompidou - National Museum of Modern Art, exterior is a modern architectural dream
Wild & the Moon - vegan restaurant we really enjoyed, has a few locations
Yellow Tucan - I/O - The Coffee - what can I say about all the great coffee shops in Paris, so much good things
Montmartre
Again, the bloggers did me dirty. When reading up on Paris, you’d think this area was some unknown, non-touristic area, but in fact this was the most touristy of all. I call it the Instagram Effect. Maybe five years ago it wasn’t like this, but this is now the reason many people travel to Paris. Parades of tour groups wandered through here before 11am, so we didn’t stay too long. Not that I don’t get it, I am a millennial after all, but get in, get your photos, and get out. And please be respectful of the owners of these shops as you do so, and be quick for the hundreds of others who travel just as far as you did to get the shot.
Place Blanche - Moulin Rouge Windmill, a whole street filled with sex shops and tacky gifts
Montmartre’s Twin Windmills - Moulin de la Galette, Moulin Radet
Clos Montmartre - an actual vineyard
Place du Tertre - busy square filled with artists and buskers
Pink Mamma - Italian restaurant that is Instagram famous, you have to line up down the street to get in. Probably not worth it.
Le Consulat - Montmartre restaurant that looks straight out of a Wes Anderson film. We wanted to grab a cappuccino here, but it was closed (even though the hours of operation said it would be open)
La Maison Rose - people started lining up here at 10:30 to get their photo before the restaurant opens at noon. The owner is said to absolutely hate it - the guy is just trying to run his nice restaurant and apparently people come and sit at his tables all the time just to get a photo. Not cool. When we were there he started putting chairs out at 10am. I would recommend going before 9 if you’d like a picture here to be respectful.
Pigalle - we stayed in this neighbourhood during our time in Paris and really enjoyed it.
KB Coffee Roasters - our favourite coffee shop in the city, located in one of our favourite squares. Calin said this was his second best filter coffee experience that he’s ever had - and that’s saying a lot. My fiancé is an extreme coffee connoisseur (if you couldn’t already tell from this travel list).
Season - a cool brunch spot in the same square
The Islands
The islands are home to some of the best of mediaeval Paris. Sainte-Chapelle was one of the only sights we did with paid entry, and we are so glad we did. It left us in absolute awe. It’s an extremely small sight (only 2 rooms), but you could stand and admire the stained glass for hours.
Ile de la Cité - Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle (the most amazing stained glass), Conciergerie (palace turned prison), Pont Neuf (Paris’ oldest bridge)
Ile St Louis - legendary ice cream at Berthillon (although after experiencing it, I would pass for the price) and boutique shops
Au Vieux Paris d’Arcole - one of the oldest restaurants in Paris
Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter was one of my favourite neighbourhoods to walk through: the old buildings, the narrow streets, and the many, many antique bookstores are just my cup of tea. It’s the oldest area in the city, with roots in Roman times. Definitely a must visit.
Jardin du Luxembourg - the most beautiful and the largest garden in Paris
Shakespeare and Company - famous bookstore; you can’t take photos inside, and there’s always a line up outside, but it’s oh so worth the visit.
Bouillon Racine - art nouveau soup kitchen
Odette Paris - sells expensive cream puffs that are worth every penny
Rue Mouffetard - I read that this was the most photogenic spot in Paris, unfortunately I forgot to go (whoops) so you’ll have to tell me if that’s true. A market as seen in Julie & Julia
St Germain & Les Invalides
These neighbourhoods are said to be cinematic and bohemian - it definitely feels like you’d think Paris would. It’s also called a Little Village, and I would agree. It really departs from the rest of Paris’ grandeur. You can easily walk through it in an hour or so.
Café La Palette - fashionable little cafe, stomping grounds of Cezanne and other artists
Café de Flore - another regular haunt of artists and writers alike
Coutume - the best cappuccino I’ve ever had, and the most amazing French toast
I tried to make this itinerary as concise as possible (there’s a lot of stories to tell), but I will be sharing more on our adventures (the good, the bad, and the honest AF) later. Thankfully I was able to pull directly from the actual itinerary/list we followed during our travels in France, otherwise I fear this would have taken far longer to put together. I had this Google Doc on me at all times, with links to the map, and we mostly just wandered between all the sights daily. This might not be the itinerary for everyone, but if you love to walk, explore, take photos, and drink coffee, I hope this helps you to enjoy your time in France as much as we did. I truly love researching itineraries (it was my job for a couple years, and my education is in Tourism), so make sure to subscribe if you’d like to read more of our travels!
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