La Ville Lumière
Paris — the City of Light — anchors the first stretch of the trip. We have three nights here (arriving the morning of the 20th after the overnight flight, leaving on the train morning of the 23rd), which gives us time to do the icons (Notre Dame, the Louvre, Versailles, the Eiffel Tower) without sprinting.
Pace notes
- Most central Paris is very walkable, but distances add up — pace yourselves and use the Métro liberally.
- Big sights almost always require timed-entry tickets booked online. Don't show up cold.
- Tap water is excellent and free in cafés — "une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît."
Language
French. Most Parisians in tourist-facing places speak some English, but the cultural expectation is to always say Bonjour first — before you ask anything, even in English. It's not optional politeness; skipping it reads as rude. After 6 PM, switch to Bonsoir.
A starter phrasebook:
- Bonjour (bon-zhoor) — Hello (until ~6pm)
- Bonsoir (bon-swahr) — Good evening
- Merci (mer-see) — Thank you
- S'il vous plaît (seel voo pleh) — Please
- Pardon / Excusez-moi (par-don / ex-kew-zay mwah) — Excuse me / sorry
- Parlez-vous anglais? (par-lay voo ahn-gleh?) — Do you speak English?
- Où sont les toilettes? (oo son lay twah-let?) — Where are the bathrooms?
- L'addition, s'il vous plaît (lah-dee-syon...) — The check, please
- Une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît (oon kah-raf doh...) — Tap water, please (free and excellent)
- Au revoir (oh ruh-vwahr) — Goodbye
Food & specialties
Paris doesn't have a single defining "Parisian dish" the way some cities do — it has a city full of regional French cuisine perfected. A few of the icons:
- Croissant & pain au chocolat — buttery, laminated dough. Better from a boulangerie than a café. Look for shops that bake on-site.
- Steak frites — the bistro classic. Béarnaise sauce optional.
- Boeuf bourguignon — beef braised slowly in red wine, a Burgundian recipe Parisians adopted long ago.
- Coq au vin — chicken braised in red wine with bacon, mushrooms, pearl onions.
- Soupe à l'oignon gratinée — French onion soup, beef broth under a raft of toasted bread and bubbling Gruyère.
- Croque-monsieur / croque-madame — toasted ham-and-Gruyère sandwich. Madame adds a fried egg on top.
- Crêpes — savory (a buckwheat galette with ham, cheese, egg) or sweet (sugar, lemon, Nutella). Found at every street corner.
- Macarons — almond-meringue sandwich cookies with cream filling. Pierre Hermé essentially invented the modern luxury macaron. Not the same as American coconut "macaroons."
- Madeleines — small shell-shaped sponge cakes. Proust's whole novel pivots on the taste of one.
- Cheese — Camembert (Normandy), Brie de Meaux (Île-de-France), Roquefort (sheep's-milk blue from southern France). A small cheese plate after dinner is standard.
Tap water in cafés is free and good — ask for une carafe d'eau.
