This is Part 1 of my France Travel Diary series! Hubs and I went from 4/29-29-5/6 for a little vacay and absolutely LOVED it! Now I am so excited to tell you guys all about it (and later on give lots of tips from things I learned!)

Something I learned very quickly - do NOT underestimate how exhausting it is to travel internationally! Holy moly. So on Wednesday 4/29 we flew on United Airlines from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, then from San Francisco to Charles de Gaulles airport in Paris. Because of the time change and flight timing, we arrived in Paris on 4/30 around 1 PM.

We managed to navigate the metro, find our Airbnb apartment, and promptly succumbed to jet lag and fell asleep until around 5AM on Thursday, Paris time.

** The cutest alleyway we found on our first day. Flowers, produce, meats, cheese, pastries, YUM. We only got a few things and then tried to go back another day but they had closed by like 6PM! Saddest day ever.

Thus began our exploration of a cold, rainy Paris! Something we noticed on our first day when we left the apartment around 8AM, Parisians don’t really get up and open shop until at least 9AM. We were wandering around looking for bakeries and shops and they were ALL closed until at least 9! And then still people were just getting opened up. Apparently the laid-back Parisian stereotype is a real thing.

We stumbled on a gorgeous cathedral as we were exploring that wasn’t even on my list of things we needed to see! I can’t remember the name of it now, let me know if you recognize it, but we went inside and it was GORGEOUS. Huge, beautiful cathedral and it wasn’t even in the top 10 things to see in Paris. Paris is just like, “Oh, that old thing?” It was beautiful. **Typical stained glass window in the cathedral. We saw LOTS of these in our travels and they never got old.

Okay take note Paris travelers-to-be! This is the “Love Lock Bridge” (its real name is Ponts de Arts). This is a sidewalk section of the bridge, but the bridge going across the river has tons and tons of locks on it, so many that the city had to install barriers so people couldn’t put locks on it anymore because it was weighing it down! The tradition says that you write or engrave your name/initials on a lock and lock it on the bridge, and then throw the key in the river. Then you’ll be in love forever! I neglected to get a special lock to take to the bridge, but it wasn’t a problem because they sell locks right next to the bridge for 5 euros and they have markers so you can write on them. We wrote J+B 4/15 on ours, can you find in the picture?

Okay so my cute travel wardrobe pretty much got tossed out the window when we got to Paris. I knew it would be chilly, but it was straight up COLD. And very drizzly rainy. Most days I basically layered whatever clothes I had just to keep warm. Day 1 outfit details: BlankNYC Faux Leather Jacket (great choice because the rain didn’t sink into it like regular fabric), chambray shirt, Old Navy striped turtleneck, BlankNYC white jeans, Converse sneakers, and my Kate Spade crossbody bag.

Side note, this Kate Spade bag worked wonders for me when traveling. It fit all the essentials I needed, but I’m so glad it was a cross body because they warn you about pick-pocketers everywhere and so I held it in front of me zipped up most of the time, without worries I would be robbed.

** Banana Nutella crepes by the Eiffel Tower, I can’t even look at this picture or my mouth starts to water.

**Some genius businessman decided to put out a tip cup and put some bunnies on a wall, and ask for money to pet or take pictures with the bunnies. I don’t know about you but I never miss an opportunity to pet a bunny.

The Eiffel Tower itself!

It was a nice walk from the metro station to the tower. We could see it during our travels a lot of the time, but up close it is really impressive. It was pretty rainy while we were there, but I got a beautiful souvenir umbrella with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe on it, so I was happy to get to use that. You should also just be aware it feels pretty touristy there. I would probably recommend going in the early morning to get the most “pure” experience. You can also branch out from the tower itself and find nearby parks and spots to see the tower, and probably get a more authentic feel. When we were there it was just hoards of people, and lots of African men very persistently trying to sell you Eiffel Tower keychains and little figurines. (Note: These African men are at every major tourist spot without fail trying to sell you some Made in China trinkets. We noticed that most speak English so if you make up a language and respond to them in that language, they walk away, but if you respond in English they can be hard to shake and they will follow you for quite awhile trying to get you to buy stuff. They’re perfectly friendly, but just be aware that they can be a little annoying as you’re trying to enjoy the scenery.) There were also random men who lined up champagne and wine bottles on the ground to try to sell them to you because you have to walk over them to get where you need to go. I don’t want to make it sound like it wasn’t amazing! I’m so glad we went, you of course HAVE to see the tower, but it does feel like a major tourist spot.

Obviously being in France we HAD to try escargot! SNAILS people. Surprisingly they just taste like seafood, like a mussel or something. But then I remembered I was eating snails and got a little queasy…the pizza was good! Helpful tip: when dining out in Paris (especially near the Eiffel Tower or tourist areas) you have to tell them “regular or normal water” otherwise they will bring you massively expensive bottled water as a default because they can tell you are tourists. 8 EURO water. For one water bottle. We quickly learned that lesson.

We had an awesome first few days exploring Paris and just learning about the culture of the French people! Stay tuned for the next part of our journey. (And let me know any questions you have that I’ll answer in an upcoming post!)

xoxo