5 Days in Paris: DAY ONE

Fresh off a 9 hour overnight flight from Minneapolis to Paris, we were exhausted, but never more excited and anxious to discover what adventures might await us in this magical city. Our flight landed at 9am Paris time, and the first order of business was finding our flat and getting settled in. We took the metro from Charles de Gaulle airport into the City and met the rep from Paris Address at our flat on Île Saint-Louis, one of the natural islands on the Seine in Central Paris. He gave us the key to our place, showed us around the apartment, and then wished us a great stay and was on his way (More on our flat tomorrow!).

Though we were pretty tired from our overnight flight, we knew we couldn’t take a nap, or we’d sleep all afternoon and never really get off of Minneapolis time, so we took an hour to settle in and then set out to explore the neighorborhood. On our way to the apartment from the airport, we passed a boulanger on Rue Saint-Louis en L’Île, so we swung back over and picked up sandwiches to walk with. Ken chose a Croque Monsieur, and I picked a mozzarella & tomato baguette.

We wandered the quaint streets of Île Saint-Louis ducking into scarf boutiques and antique shops when something caught our eye. The island is a bit of an urban oasis and quite a contrast from the rest of bussling Paris. There are no metro stops on the island, and it’s mostly locals you’ll find perusing the streets, walking their pups, or making their way home from the market with a fresh baguette in tow.

After a few hours of exploring, we decided to head down to the Quai de la Seine on Île Saint-Louis to take in the sunshine and the views from down by the water. Quai de la Seine is essentially a series of sidewalks that run along the right and left banks of the Seine River as well as both islands: Île Saint-Louis and Ile de la Cite. They’re set down next to the water’s edge and locals seemed to gather in these areas for picnics, study sessions, and to simply relax. It looked fun, so we decided to join them! When in Rome…right?

We were both pretty darn exhausted by dinner time, so we decided to call it an early evening. We made our way back to our place for some good rest, so we could get an early start the next morning. On our way home, we stopped at Patrick Allain Fleuriste, a sweet little flower shop on the island, to pick up fresh flowers for our apartment. I have a hard time finding peonies at home, so I was delighted to find brilliantly pink ones at Patrick Allain’s. I went for the peonies right away and decided to throw in some pretty yellow ranunculus for good measure. My tired brain ordered them in what was probably the choppiest french imaginable, but the fleuriste was gracious. She smiled, wrapped them up beautifully and wished us a ‘bonne journée’. It was a wonderful ending to our first day in Paris.