Go Beyond NY: 48 Hours in Paris

How I spent my birthday weekend walking, eating and shopping

Paris is never a bad idea. In fact, it's always a good idea, even if it rains every day. Which is why I decided to celebrate my birthday in the City of Lights with my sister and our husbands. What follows is not even close to a comprehensive guide to “How to spend a long weekend in Paris.” This is just what I did in 3 1/2 magical days. After booking our flights and choosing a hotel, scoping out restaurants was the next critical thing to nail down in advance. I took heaps of advice from friends and cross referenced with a list from The New Paris Dispatch. Voila…

Saturday Day
We landed just in time for lunch! After dropping our luggage at Hotel Dame des Arts, we took a quick stroll down Boulevard St Germain de Pres looking for a little cafe. There were massive lines at famous spots like Cafe des Flor and Les Deux Magots, so we kept walking until we stumbled upon Comptoir des Saints Peres. French onion soup and a mushroom omelet was the perfect lunch to avoid jet lag.

Me, “Monument to Balzac” and “The Thinker” at the Rodin Museum

First on our list of must-sees was The Rodin Museum. Formerly the Hôtel Biron, this is where Rodin actually worked and lived. In 1911, the government bought the mansion and, in exchange for his continued occupancy, Rodin agreed to donate many of his works to be housed there as a museum. Most of the bronze collection is outdoors in the garden. Seeing all of his recognizable masterpieces – like The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and The Kiss – it felt like stepping right back to my favorite art history lecture in college.

Saturday Night
For dinner, we went to Ellsworth, which was on almost everyone’s list and for good reason. Small and cozy, with a menu of just six items. I highly recommend the fried chicken & roasted celeriac. I would go back for the desserts alone; we devoured cinnamon marshmallow with chocolate sauce and a pumpkin millefeuille.

Sunday Day
Breakfast at the hotel was a surprisingly impressive buffet, with something for everyone. Even though I often do yogurt, fruit and nuts for breakfast at home, the yellow kiwi were crazy-sweet and there’s something so cute about plain yogurt served in a little glass jar.

We slowly walked in the rain towards the Museé Cognacq-Jay, the former home of Ernest Cognacq and his wife, Marie-Louise Jay, founders of the iconic French department store, La Samartine. The museum is basically a glimpse into how well-off people lived back in the 18th century. The private collection includes the family’s paintings, sculptures, furniture, and various decorative objects. A current exhibit, Pastels, features 15 beautiful portraits created in pastels.

Lunch was around the corner at an old school favorite, Cafe des Museé. We watched the drizzle from our window table while we each had a personal cocotte of Beoef Bourguignon. Beyond delicious!

And just as we were finishing up, the rain stopped, so we spent the rest of the afternoon walking and shopping around the Marais. Claudie Peirlot (one of my favorite French designers from when I used to shop at Bendels!) has stores all over Paris, but the outlet on Rue de Sévignéis is where I always find something special and on sale. I scored a leather jacket with a ruffled collar. A birthday gift to myself :-)

Sunday Night
Located a few blocks from our hotel AND open on Sunday were the two initial reasons we booked dinner at Semilla (many restaurants in Paris are closed on Sundays and Mondays). But I’d go any night of the week, from anywhere in Paris!. We kept seeing a salt-encrusted whole fish go by which seemed very popular, but I was delighted with my roasted turbot with Jerusalem artichokes and kale – exactly what I was in the mood for. And to keep it light, we skipped dessert and just had cheese. Why does cheese after dinner seem like the right thing to do but only when I’m in Paris? I need to eat more cheese, more often.

Monday Day
Everyone keeps asking what was “the best thing” we did in Paris. I’d have to say…the running tour I did with Paris Running Tours was the highlight of my weekend. I like to run and I love doing it in an unfamiliar city, but I had never taken a running tour. My guide, Jean-Charles, met me at the hotel at 7:30am when it was still dark out! The street lamps were literally glowing as we jogged along the Seine and in and around the side streets of the left bank. We sped past all of the famous universities, and I learned that it’s called the Latin Quarter because it was once the education center for all of Europe, and all classes were taught in Latin! Ninety minutes and almost 5 miles flew by. You can see my route with photos here.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the Mark Rothko blockbuster at the LV Foundation. And, wow! It was such a treat to see the familiar, classic foggy rectangles in person. Shown in chronological order, this collection of 115 paintings starts with his most early works and you can see clearly how the color field images came to be.

Lunch at Le Frank at LV Foundation was perfect for right after the exhibit. I didn’t know it at the time, but Jean-Louis Nomicos is a Michelin starred chef. We each got a French version of a little bento box packed with delicious lentils, eggs, mushroom soup and a green salad.

We spent the rest of the day shopping by the hotel. I was completely overwhelmed by CityPharma, where apparently all the French women shop to keep them…looking French. Aisles and aisles of face, body and hair products. Next time I will do research and show up with a list. A few doors down, I did find a blue cashmere sweater from APC, another of my long time favorite purveyors of French design..

Monday night, we ate at Liza, a 20-year old classic Middle Eastern restaurant. The endless feast of a Lebanese mezze was outstanding!

Tuesday
Tuesday was my ACTUAL birthday. So what did we do? More eating and more walking. I think we did 30,000 steps!

Au Petit Versailles Du Marais was the perfect old-school boulangerie, just right for a cozy, lazy breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants, while waiting for the rain to subside.

We happily stumbled upon Do et Coco, a Vietnamese place around the corner from Mokonuts which had far too long of a line. Lunch was Vietnamese classics like green mango salad, shrimp dumplings and a pork pho.

Thank you Hotel Dames des Artes for the birthday treats!

The real bonus of the day: our hotel totally surprised me that afternoon with champagne, balloons and cakes from Boulangerie Liberté. Out of this world, good! But the best part was that Hector, the concierge, wrote me a birthday poem (see pic above). It’s a keeper.

Tuesday Birthday Dinner
For our final meal of the trip, we had a tasting menu of eight courses at Fulgurances. The restaurant has a rotation of visiting chefs, and the whole meal was Japanese-inspired and memorable.

Wednesday Morning
We had time for one early morning little walk, so we headed out to see Notre Dame, still under construction from the fire a few years ago. But it's still beautiful!

We headed to the airport and then – just like that – we were home. So much was packed into those 48 hours, proving even in the rain, Paris is always a great idea!

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Here’s a recap:

Where we stayed:
Hotel Dame des Arts

Where we ate:
Comptoir des Saints Peres
Ellsworth
Cafe des Museé
Semilla
Le Frank
Liza
Au Petit Versailles Du Marais
Do et Coco
Boulangerie Liberté
Fulgurances

What we did:
The Rodin Museum
Museé Cognacq-Jay
Paris Running Tours
Mark Rothko exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton

Where we shopped:
Claudie Peirlot
CityPharma
APC
Merci
From Future
Jack Gomme
Tara Jarmon
Bensimon
Agnes B