I said it so easily, so she believed me. My daughters best friend was bemoaning that fact that they were not taking a spring break trip because her baby brother was not a good traveler. So I chimed in, “we should take a mother daughter trip to Paris!” , not thinking much of it. A couple of days later her mom, and my good friend was texting “when should we go to Paris?”. How could I say no!

Fast forward, we settled on August. The flights were the cheapest and we found a week that worked for all of us. Of course, it’s not the best time to go as so many Parisians close their restaurants and shops and go on vacation, so all you are left with are tourists. That was ok with us, we wanted to be tourists in Paris and enjoy the amazing tourist sites.

We arrived mid morning and went straight to our wonderful hotel in Saint Germain Des Pres, Esprit Saint Germain is a small boutique hotel just behind St. Sulpice church. While the hotel is super charming, the staff is even more charming. Their goal is to make you feel that you are a guest in their home. They want you to take advantage of the lovely snacks and drinks that sit out at all hours of the day. Some of the rooms are small but that’s expected in an historic European hotel.

Not wanting to waste any time, we unloaded our bags and headed to Musee d’Orsay. It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. We had the front desk purchase and print our tickets so we did not have to wait in the long ticket line. Pre purchased tickets of course is needed everywhere and we were stunned at the number of tourists who did not buy their tickets to all of the Paris sites up front. Once inside, we explored for several hours. I don’t think we scratched the surface! The building itself is an old train station with tons of natural light.

Our week went on like this, breakfast, touring, walking around, repeat. We managed to cover Versailles, we had an awesome guided tour (express, only 1 1/2 hours!) of the Louvre, Palais Royal, Arch de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, shopping and falafel in the Marais, the Sacre Coeur, and Montmartre, Sointe Chapelle, and lots of great food. I had not been to Paris in 30 years and it was so good to go back to rediscover its treasures. I’m so glad I made the suggestion!