how to spend a weekend in paris
where to eat, drink and be silly on long weekend in the city of lights
The first time I went to Paris I was five. When I was growing up, my mum was a French teacher who ran her school trips to Paris along with her P.E. teacher friend, Hillary. I’m not sure how this worked out, but I, along with Hillary’s daughter, Victoria, would get to go on these trips too each year – and so I had a taste for Paris (and croissants) from a very young age.
Since then, I’ve been to the City of Lights a few more times. A few times on family trips, a few times with friends and once on my own after quitting a job. For the solo post-quitting-a-job trip, I’d faffed over the dates for ages and ages then finally made a snap decision and hastily booked a Eurostar for the following week. I booked an AirBnb for three days, but the night before I was due to get my train, I checked my train ticket one final time and realise that I’d actually booked the outbound and the return for the same day. I’d only be in Paris for 12 hours. I cancelled the AirBnb and just went there and back in a day. Tellement stupide.
So for this trip to Paris, two things were different. Firstly, I was far less stupid more vigilant over exactly when I was travelling and exactly how long I’d be away for. And secondly, my mum and I were going together again, with family friends (another fun-loving mother and daughter duo, Janet and Meg), but this time our roles were reversed because I was the one planning out every place to go, thing to eat and drink to sip. Honestly, the woman did not lift a finger.
Very early on, it became apparently that all four of us women were in need of a big weekend to be built on the foundation of throwing caution to the wind in favour of totally carefree fun. We declared the vibe of the weekend to be: funhinged. And for the entire duration of the weekend, funhinged is exactly what we were. We are not sure whether we are banned from the hotel for returning to it at 2am in search of ‘just one more quiet drink’ and hosting a bottomless dance party for four, but we hope we are not as it really was an excellent find.
Scroll down to find everywhere we ate, everywhere we drank and everywhere we wandered and felt like locals. You don’t have to get funhinged to have as good of a time as we did, but I would recommend just letting your hair down and going for it. After all, when in Rome Paris.
Enjoy!
USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW
FLIGHT TIME: Couldn’t tell you! And this is because I am the biggest Eurostar stan ever. I got the 2 hour 17 min train from St Pancras to Gare Du Nord and it flew by in a way that no plane could. Nice seats. Big windows. Room to walk around. A BAR. Everyone else flew from Cardiff and met me at the hotel but it was during the time of the strikes and they ended up having to book not one but two replacement return flights, which were both cancelled and they had to get the Eurostar back to London with me and then a train to Cardiff. Nightmare. Eurostar forever.
ACCOMMODATION: We stayed at Hotel & Spa La Belle Juliette and we each paid £657.00 for a double room (the cheapest and smallest) for three nights (Friday to Monday) which worked out as £328.50 each. I booked it in early January and we went at the end of April.
GETTING AROUND: We mainly walked, Ubered or took the Metro. Janet kept suggesting we hired electric bikes, but due to the copious amounts of alcohol we consumed, this Tour Guide Barbie said no.
GROCERY SHOPPING: I have to say, the only thing I bought from a shop was a punnet of strawberries to eat at outside at a bar with a bottle of wine, which I only bought because I couldn’t find any crisps or carb-based snacks at all. They were delicious but they cost €9 which was insane. Other than that, we ate out for every meal.
WHERE WE GOT BREAKFAST
ODETTE
If you’re measuring something being worth it on a cost per bite basis, these dainty pastries are not for you. However, if you measure it on cost per vibe, it’s a bargain. We each had a different filling of these tiny choux buns including praline, pistachio, vanilla and chocolate. Divine.
LES DEUX MAGOTS
This was a short walk from our hotel and given that were were on a mission to enjoy carefree fun (not quite funhinged, at this point though), we decided that Les Deux Magots was too iconic not to go to. They do a set breakfast / brunch with a fruit course, an egg course and champagne and coffee. I had an omelette that was so good that I’m thinking about it again now.
MILLE & UN BOULANGERIE
This was around the corner from our hotel and we just stopped in here after walking past and declaring that we were all in need of carbs immediately. We didn’t mess about with any of the amazing-looking creative takes on traditional French pastries (this place is actually a French-Korean boulangerie, and the creations looked EPIC) because I am a pastry traditionalist and will always choose a croissant or a pain au raisin over anything else. I’m also very easy to please when it comes to croissants, and I maintain that any croissant is better than no croissant at all. So make of that what you will.
WHERE WE GOT DINNER
LE COMPTOIR GENERAL
This place was epic. It was little further out in the 10th arrondissement, along the Canal Saint-Martin (which is so lovely, with so many little bridges, cafés and bars). It’s a really unassuming place from the front, and you have to walk through a little curated gift shop to get to the actual restaurant, which opens out into a space that I can only describe as a jungle-inspired dome. I had a gnocchi dish with mushrooms which gnocked all other gnocchi dishes out of of the park.
BRASSIERE LIPP
We ate here on our first night and we couldn’t have picked anywhere more Parisian, imo. For those not familiar, Brassiere Lipp has been serving up French classics and imbeccable oldy worldly vibes for over 130 years. It’s in the heart of Saint Germain and apparently, the average time to have worked there for many of the waiters is 19 years. They’re known to be the gatekeepers of the menu, knowing every little detail about every single dish. I had the pavé de thon (tuna steak) and epic fries, while everyone else had steak. Apparently Kate Moss ate here one time.
SOHO HOUSE PARIS
There is something that bothers me about choosing to go to a Soho House when you’re in a city that has an incredible gastronomic and cultural scene. However, there is also something that bothers me more about going on a girls trip and not taking advantage of the 50% off on Sundays after 4pm when you have an under 27s membership that keeps your benefits going until you turn 30. We had a wonderful dinner (and to be fair, it was a local house French menu) with moules et frites and steak et frites, and then we’d planned to leave at around 8pm to go and listen to jazz. Unfortunately, my mum and Meg were besotted with the half price picantes and we stayed and had 14 of those (amongst other drinks) instead. Funhinged.
Note: this is a slightly unfair thing to include since you can’t go to Soho House unless you’re a member or friends with one.
WHERE WE WANDERED
SACRÉ CŒUR
The Sacré-Cœur is obviously amazing, and gives you one of the best views of the whole of Paris. But it’s just always absolutely packed with tourists (yes, I know we were tourists too) and big groups in the day and you can hardly move. We saw it, marvelled at it and swiftly moved on in search of a bar. Classique.
MONMARTRE
Again, Monmartre is so beautiful and La Maison Rosé is stunning but it’s impossible to a) move b) get a table anywhere c) work out who is sitting at a table because they want to order something vs who is sitting at a table because they’re posing for an influencer shoot. Have a look, wander on and go and find a better bar.
WHERE WE DRANK
BAR LE RASPAIL
This bar accidentally became our local for the whole weekend when we made friends with the owner. The drinks are good, the food is great and it’s your typical bar-on-a-corner-of-a-street-to-watch-the-world-go-by-from. At lunch one day, I asked if we could have a croque monsieur to share and he winked and said, ‘I’ve got you’ and then cut it into tiny bitesize pieces. Perfect. Everyone who worked there seemed like the nicest person ever and we had SO much fun with them every time we went there. If you look carefully, you’ll see the manager peeking through the window in the background of this selfie I took.
LE PARADIS
One of the things on my list of things I absolutely wanted to do this time in Paris was to go and see some gypsy jazz. The club I tried to take us to was closed for a private event and then when I suggested we try another bar across the city, I was overruled and marched to the nearest cocktail bar. It was just cocktails and pink umbrellas outside which was fine and not amazing or anything, but as with maybe street-side bars in Paris – it was perfect for what we wanted (aka, people-watching).
SIP BABYLONE
After a morning of wandering and poking our heads into shops that we could barely afford to buy a carrier bag in, we decided to stop for a drink (the motto of the weekend: when in doubt, stop for a drink). This trip was a trip for two mothers and their two daughters – both of whom were getting married in the upcoming months. This obviously meant that at some point, we needed to stop for champagne to celebrate and that is exactly what we did here. Sip Babylone is opposite a lovely green where locals walk their dogs, and is also across from a the Hôtel Lutetia, a five star hotel that we will never be able to stay at. At this bar though, you can look over at the hotel and see all its fancy guests bundling out of cars with blacked out windows, sipping the cheapest champagne (still expensive) on the menu instead. Much better.
WHERE WE SHOPPED
LA GRANDE ÉPICERIE DE PARIS
I am obsessed with this shop. It’s the epitome of glorious packaging artwork and expensive versions of basic food products. If I had unlimited money, I’d do all my food shopping here. I don’t even like tinned fish but I adored its packaging so much I had to stop myself from buying it. On one trip to Paris, I did all my Christmas shopping for friends and family here and maxed out my credit card. Totally worth it. Could not afford to do it again.
LE BON MARCHÉ
I am also obsessed with this shop. It’s a huge department store with wonderful brands who all go the extra mile with their visual merchandising and displays. They had a huge Sézane installation with life-sized flowers that you wandered in and out of and felt like you were in Alice in Wonderland. While we were here, my mum had wandered off in search of a department that might do ear piercings. I found her on the verge of having her second hole piercing, as she was choosing which earrings she wanted to have. I noticed that the pair she’d chosen was €1400, and I told her she was mad. She replied that I’d got it wrong and it was fine – the piercing itself was €50 and the earrings came free. As she explained it to me, the woman at the counter interrupted in horror to explain to my mum that actually no, that was absolutely not how it worked. You did indeed have to pay for the earrings separately. Needless to say, we very quickly walked away. It is worth pointing out that my mum is a fluent French speaker. Mon dieu.
WHERE WE GOT OUR WATER FIX
CAPITANE FRACASSE SEINE RIVER CRUISE & BRUNCH
Friends of this Go Away series will know that ‘my thing’ when on holiday is always to do some form of boat trip in order to be on the water. It’s always the best way to see a city without feeling like a massive tourist (even though you are). This boat trip was wonderful in that we had an hour and a half of sailing up and down the Seine past the Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Île de la Cité and all the amazing classic Parisian houses and apartments that overlook the river. What was not wonderful was the devastatingly sad brunch, which was described as a ‘salty snack’ which we thought would mean crisps, charcuterie, bread etc. It started with bread and a croissant (which was great, as any croissant is better than no croissant) but then it descended into madness. We had a sweet waffle with cucumber, scrambled eggs, a small sausage, two chicken goujons, ceasar salad dressing and a slice of cheese on the side. IT WAS SUPER WEIRD. Meg ate everyone’s sausages, I picked at the goujons, we all ate the cheese (obvs) but in hindsight, we wished we’d saved the stomach space for something else. It is true that it was indeed a salty snack. But it was not the salty snack for me.
WHERE WE FELT LIKE LOCALS
ON THE BANKS OF THE SEINE
On the Friday evening, we could see that the sun was setting and casting this gorgeous salmony pink colour across the sky. We went down to the river to the spot across from the Louvre museum and sat on the banks along with all the locals who’d brought drinks and picnics to sit, eat and chat with. Such a joy.
PLACE ÉMILE GOUDEAU
Just down from Monmartre, and you’ll find a few steps that lead onto a small square with a couple of bars. We stumbled upon this place by chance, lured in by two French men playing jazz and about 25 French women drinking rosé. It would’ve been extremely rude to not stop, so we did. One bottle of rosé led to two, which led to a charcuterie, cheese and bread course and the rest was a hazy history.
WHERE WE FELT LIKE TOURISTS
THE EIFFEL TOWER
Aw you can’t not do it, can you? It’s just so iconic and no visit to Paris should be without at least a glance. Don’t bother going to it though. Head to the middle of the Pont De Bir-Hakeim bridge and look at her from across the river. It’s even better at night when she’s all sparkly, too.
So there you go. I find it so hard to go to Paris without mapping out the whole life I (naively) believe I could have if I lived there. In reality, I think Paris is best enjoyed as a splurgy (funhinged) one-off dose of only some of its magic. Not only is this literally the only way you can afford to do it properly, but it also means you can save it as the place to escape to when you’re in need of a dash of excitement and glamour.
There’s so much more we did and so much more we could’ve done, but these were just a few of my highlights. If you’d like to have my full list of all saved places on Google Maps for yourself, upgrade to a paid subscription for £5 a month (or £50 a year) and scroll down to get them.
Oh, and if you’ve got any questions or you’ve been yourself and have even more recommendations you’d like to share, pop a comment below!
THE FULL LIST OF PARIS PLACES
This list took weeks of research and conversations with locals to build, and now it’s all yours! If you’re heading off to Paris and find yourself using any of these, please let me know! I’d love to know where you go and how you find it.