Priya and Monisha in Paris 2025

Day 1:

We get to our lovely hotel, Hôtel Le 123 Sébastopol - Astotel in the 2nd arrondissement, near the Réaumur - Sebastopol and Strasbourg - Saint-Denis Metro stations that were a block on either side. Fucking awesome.

The hotel and staff were the cutest. They had a back patio that we used every evening for wine and rest.

We immediately go to the Sacré-Cœur to see the epic view of Paris, and we get earrings on the way. And of course get our first glass of Paris pour wines at the bottom of the hill.

We make it to the Eiffel, and then walk to what I thought was my favorite Lebanese Feyrouz, but it was another Feyrouz. Still awesome. Fat and semi-crazy, we go home.

Day 2:

We have an excellent tour in Versailles! First time for me also. Definitely take a tour, Monisha got it off TripAdvisor.

We get the most French and lovely lunch in the town of Versailles, this may have been the best simple French food we had all trip.

My purple Spectral Wound tshirt looked great against the classic backdrop, I know.

For dinner we really lucked out and went to the most charming bistro for dinner, Dame Nation. The eggplant boat with beets was so frigging good. Make reservations, these restaurants fill up!

Day 3:

The Catacombes was such an easy process. You do need to get tickets a week in advance, they don't open it up earlier to avoid scammers buying tickets. The whole process took 30 minutes, a hilarious Pakistani ticket guy was at front.

We then had a full day, so we went to Galeries Lafayette Haussmann to shop - it is a massive department store. I LOVED the one in Berlin, unfortunately that one has closed. This one has a rooftop with a beautiful view, it if wasn't gloomy. Then we went for a glass of wine(s) in a bistro close to our hotel.

We went to eat North African at Waly-Fay! Really good. Paris, where restaurants have huge menus of wines on the wall.

Day 4:

We went to Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's massive Water Lilies display. You can really add Musée d'Orsay to the same day - it is really close, and Orangerie is super short. Next time. We started with an incredible bakery down the street from the hotel.

Then my friend Brandon met us - he was coming back to Denver from Amsterdam and decided to change his flight to hang out with us! We met him for a mediocre lunch in Les Halles - skip that area next time.

We took a boat ride on the Seine - via the Bateaux Mouches - super easy, just walked up and got on.

We then went to Marais to eat at Benedict. Fantastic place for dinner and drinks in a gay neighborhood. The apps were the BEST - bone marrow toast and tuna with avocado. Don't even need dinner, just apps and drinks!

Day 5:

The Musée d'Orsay - with some stunningly famous art.

Lunch across the way, Le Solférino. NO WINE.

Wearing one of my fabulous pairs of new earrings I bought at the African boutique near our hotel. We decided to eat at Mamma Primi in the Italian district. Adorable restaurant.