In October, Jason and I were lucky enough to travel to Europe for 3 weeks. Celebrating our 3 year anniversary and checking out some amazing places you lovely GWS readers might want to visit for your honeymoon! Our first stop was Paris – the city of love. Ever since I saw Midnight in Paris earlier this year, I’ve been dreaming of Paris. I wanted to share some of our favorite memories and advice for those interested in traveling to Paris for their honeymoon, anniversary or just for fun! I’ll also be sharing our stops in Belgium, Berlin, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast in the next few weeks. :)
For us, our don’t miss was the area of Montmartre. This is where Moulin Rouge is, Amélie was filmed, lots of artists lived (and still live) and Sacré-Cœur provides magical view of Paris. We took a tour of the area with discover walks. The tours are free, but you can tip what you’d like at the end of the tour if you enjoy your tour. Local Parisans lead each group, sharing personal stories, history and local trends. We enjoyed our Montmartre tour so much that we went on second tour with them to see the Left Bank. It was super interesting too.
Big thanks to Katie at Ever After Honeymoons for her help with our lodging! She really knows her stuff and found us some great places for us throughout our trip. Since the hotels in Paris are so expensive (and most are pretty small) we decided to rent an apartment. We booked our apartment from cobblestay.com and stayed in the lovely (and one of our favorite areas of Paris) the St. Germain area. It really was in the perfect location (not too touristy and lots of great restaurants nearby) plus it had a washer and dryer which was super convenient when traveling for a long period of time.
I have two favorite memories from Paris. One was our first day there, when we happened to walk over this hill and were looking right at the Eiffel Tower! It really is so amazing in person. Photos just don’t do it justice. We loved the view on the hill. We also walked back at night and took a ride on the river to see it lit up. Stunning! Another favorite memory was just the two of us walking around the city and exploring. So much to see and take in. Do plan on doing lots of walking and bring comfy shoes though! My feet were exhausted from our first day since we walked everywhere (we did Montmartre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and the area around the Louvre)! Eating breakfast on the sidewalk cafes every morning was like a dream. Eggs, coffee and the most delicious croissants – such a perfect way to start the day. :)
Honeymoon tip: For all you couples in love out there! Bring a lock (or you can buy one there) and write your names on the lock. All the bridges by Notre Dame are full of locks! You write your name’s (ours is in white and green above…if you visit and find our lock, share a pic with us on Facebook or Twitter, we’d love to see it) and date, then lock the lock on the bridge and throw the key into the river below. :) The love locks symbolize everlasting love. Such a fun Parisian custom to participate in. We plan to go back in a few years hopefully and see if we can find ours. :) Also, if you go and place a lock, share your photo! We’d love to see them. :)
Foodie Pick! YAY! For us there were two in Paris: the macarons and the baquettes! We checked out a few macaron shops (there are so many there!) and our favorites were from Gérard Mulot and Laduree. And of course our favorite lunch was a lunch on the go: a baguette with ham, cheese and butter. We never had a bad sammie – they seemed to be good everywhere; at the bread shops, airport and train station. We just loved our time in Paris and can’t wait to go back! Stay tuned for our next stop in Belgium…
all photos by green wedding shoes
Been dreaming of Paris nonstop, looks like you had a lovely time!
I feel like you wrote this post from my memories (except you did more than me!) I too LOVED Midnight in Paris and it has made me long to return to Paris since I saw it. My husband and I had 26 hours in Paris on the way to Italy on our honeymoon and we did a lot in that 26 hours, but we’ve wanted to go back for a proper Paris visit ever since. We did the locks in Florence, Italy, but next time we’ll do them in Paris too. Great tips and love your photos. Can’t wait to relive our Italian honeymoon when you recap Italy! xx
Wow! This has got me very excited for our Parisian Honeymoon in April. Beautiful photos. x
Lovely, thanks for sharing your adventure! We were just there in February and it brought me back beautiful memories.
Here in Dublin, I see those locks on the bridges too and I didn’t know why! Glad to finally be in the know :)
ohhh yayyyyyyyyy!!!!~ Thank you so much for posting this and sharing with us guys! My fiance and I are thinking of going to Paris and some of the rural parts of France for our honeymoon, so we’re trying to gather ideas, places, must-do activities and all that jazz to make the most of our time there–if we do end up going.
How funny!~My fiance seems to want to visit Paris even more than me, especially after Midnight in Paris. :P And btw, these pictures are gorgeous.
Okay I loved this post…makes me want to go to Paris again so badly…haven’t been since I was 16 and I didn’t see it like this! Thanks for all the tips on lodging and food and the beautiful pictures and fun ideas (like the locks). GREAT post
Hello. I got married in 17th april and went to Paris on my honeymoon… I’m happy that my lock is there, and our key is still on Sena.
:) Great photos…
We’ve been to Paris every year for the last decade, and you mention some great places – For us, now, we like to just explore and get lost – there are so many great places. If you get the opportunity – just go, and get lost in your own romance!
we’re hitting up paris for part of our honeymoon! so excited to try some of your tips!
Looks like the perfect place of our 30 year honeymoon:)) making plans now!
suddenly, I’m so hungry for fresh real french bread… Lovely photos!
Such an awesome list of tips! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Love your travel tips! I adore Paris and you can never get enough of it once you go. I can’t wait to take Mr. ShuGar one day. We booked our honeymoon with Katie and she’s awesome! We’re going to Australia next week and we plan on taking our lock to leave it at the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Your trip seems like it was amazing! Thank you for sharing the CobbleStay love. I just love your pictures, especially the locks. I didn’t see those when I was there. Next year, I am adding a lock with my man!
I LOVED this post!
My fiance and I also rented an apartment in Paris this past August. It was incredible, he even proposed to me on our balcony overlooking the eiffel tower!
We put our lock of love on a bridge called pont des arts.
There are a few photos of our lock up on my blog.
Thanks for sharing your photos Jen!
http://artfulposturesoflove.blogspot.com/
Amazing shots! I have always wanted to go to Paris! Can’t wait to actually see this in real life. Thanks for sharing such a romantic place and for sharing your travel tips.
Great post. I would love to visit Paris someday.
This is awesome. Makes me want to go back!
Pierre Hermé macarons are abetter than Ladurée, really better and it’s a french advice!
I have been dying to go to Laduree for years!
love this blog! I want to go to Paris now! :) thanks for sharing!
This post made me so happy. My now-fiance and I quit our jobs that we hated in September and ran away to Europe for two months. We started in Paris, backpacked through eight countries, and ended our amazing adventure where it all began. On our last night, within hours of us waking up to go to the airport, we went to the Pont des Arts with a lock we had bought at a Rome flea market for this very purpose. When we were ready to put the lock on the bridge, he pulled the lock out of his coat pocket and on it was the most lovely antique ring that he had bought in a little antique shop in Paris. Then, of course, he proposed! It was the most beautiful moment of my life, and I can’t wait to go back to that same spot somday. After risking everything and quitting our jobs, then traveling together for two months from city to city by train, we were engaged. The perfect way to end the most exciting thing we may ever do in our lives. Cheers to love!
Great tips! Paris is the loveliest place for newly wed couples.
If you like to look at more pictures of Paris look here:
http://blog.sirabalde.de/?page_id=2537
kind regards,
Christina
Fab-fab-fabulous!!! All the photos chosen just capture Paris perfectly. Love!
:The French Bouquet- European Inspired Floral Design:
This post made me want to go back to Paris. My trip was not romantic by any means but Paris exudes romance! Definite must visits: Eiffel Tower (and go all the way to the top) and the Louvre. If you are deciding whether to go to Paris on a honeymoon, GO! It will be an amazing experience. The city is a living art. Oh and visit Versailles and Loire Valley when you’re there!
http://www.headpiecesforbrides.com
I had to comment. I lived in Paris almost 10 years ago. It’s the most romantic city in the world. Love is everywhere. You want to be in love when you are there. It’s the perfect honeymoon location.
When I visited Paris, I took Metro for moving about and this app was too good.
It has options to go to the ‘Most visited tourist places’ in Paris by metro & ‘Paris Airport
transfer’ section. This app gives choices of the shortest route, the minimum
connection, or I could even opt for the minimum walk route. This app even told
me which direction of the metro should I take. Plus, this app also has a
facility of currency conversion!
And ALL THIS WAS OFFLINE &
FREE, I did not need data at all!!! All I paid was 99 cents for this app.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paris-by-metro/id459403677?mt=8
I hate to tell you this, but they regularly cut all of the locks, as they become too heavy for the structure at some point. My boyfriend and I discreetly placed a small lock somewhere else, over the Canal Saint-Martin, where we thought no one would see it and our lock would never be broken, but the last time we checked, people had started to imitate us, so we’ll see… ;)
This was such a beautiful post. One of my dream honeymoon spots. They cut the locks off those bridges every summer though. Yours won’t be there next time, but you can always add another :)
Beautiful pictures! The complete definition of romance!
Ohhh Paris! Tell me what else could of being more romantic. Love this place! Beautiful pic
Paris is just SO beautiful! http://www.theweddingexpert.com