When I say my trip to Paris last March with my girlfriend, Sophie, was one of my very favorite trips I’ve ever taken, I swear I’m not exaggerating. We had the BEST time. We’d both been to Paris before so we didn’t feel obligated to revisit the major sights. Instead, we took a pastry class, did a wine tour in Champagne, tasted cheese in an 18th century cheese cave. We shopped, we drank excellent wine, ate wonderful food, and we just relaxed. It was glorious. I’m leaving some notes below on our top top recommendations!

WHERE TO STAY

We rented an apartment in Le Marais and it was a perfect location for us. We were right near the Pompidou Center and pretty much everything was walkable from there. We had a full kitchen, living room to lounge, and the cutest little courtyard.

WHERE TO EAT

Bakeries & Patisserie – Bontemps, Aux Merveilluex de Fred, Pierre Herme

Lunch – Le Mary Celeste, Breizh Cafe, Cafe Mademoiselle, Miznon

Dinner – Derriere, Le Grand Cerf, Ellsworth

Drinks – Le Willi’s Wine Bar, La Belle Hortense

WHAT TO DO

I made Sophie come with me to Saint Chapelle since that was my very favorite stop from my first trip to Paris. And we both enjoyed L’Orangerie des Tuileries Museum. Notre Dame was still under construction while we were there, but we did manage the obligatory trek to see the Eiffel Tower. Sights aside, our very favorite thing was hands down the pastry class we took through La Cuisine Paris. We learned to make traditional choux pastry, and took home two boxes of eclairs, chouquettes, Paris-brest, and gougeres. It was heaven! I’ll absolutely take classes with La Cuisine again anytime I’m in Paris.