36 Hours in Paris

Trip date: September 2023

After a relaxing long weekend out in the Le Perche countryside, Forest, Thibault, and I returned back to Paris by train. My friends do this weekly in order to spend weekends in the country. It's easy and relatively quick, just long enough of a ride to listen to an hour podcast. 

This was going to be a fairly short stopover in Paris, but I had a lot planned, as always! And after relaxing and repacking in the apartment, Forest and I headed out for cocktails at the Hotel Lutetia. 

The stunning Art Nouveau building, taking up an entire city block of the Saint Germain area, was built in 1910, by the owners of the Bon Marche department store, for wealthy clients and designers. The name Lutetia is the name of the 1st century BC settlement that was located where modern day Paris is now built. It's well worth your time to visit the nearby Musee Moyen Age just under a mile away for an indepth look at this period of the city. There's also a lot of history around the hotel from World War II and the Nazi invasion of Paris. It's an interesting and gorgeous place for sure!

We were there to enjoy a cocktail at the stunning Le Bar Josephine, named after singer/dancer Josephine Baker who reportedly stayed there. We sat up at the bar and had a great view of the entire room. It's swanky and comfortable, historic and modern. All things, all at once! And our drinks were wonderful too. 

There's a speakeasy in the hotel too; we didn't have time on this night but I've got it on my list for my next visit. Highly recommend a stop in at the Lutetia!

Just across the street was our dinner destination, 2 Michelin star, Marsan by Helen Darroze. 

From the minute you enter, you know you are in for something slightly different, slightly better. Checking in on the ground floor we were escorted past the communal table room, up the stairs, and smack into the kitchen! We were immediately greeted and introduced to the chefs. It was quiet, but not in a tense way, and immaculate! There's a chef's table you can reserve right there also.

Then we were led into the dining room, which felt a bit modern Danish design. Also a very comfortable room with round marble dining tables and cushy leather chairs. As soon as we sat down the waiter rolled the champagne trolly over, truly the signal of a great night to come!

After choosing our champagne, and being served a few lovely amuse bouche, we decided on the 6-course tasting menu (the other choice is 9-courses). There were options throughout to upgrade with supplements, and for my first course I chose to upgrade to the "iconic oyster with Kristal caviar". An entire tin of caviar was brought out in an ornate pewter crab dish, and then generous scoops of caviar were added to the oyster nestled in a cold bean velouté. It was very decadent and delicious!

There was a lovely foie gras dish with French Charentais melon and also red mullet, in a light tempura batter, from the French Basque region with zucchini flower and a traditional Basque sauce called ttoro which was excellent!

My main was "a chicken from les Landes and the corn used to feed him". Brilliant!

The chicken breast had a stuffing under the skin and was painted with a corn miso. There was also a "row" of grilled corn and zucchini with a corn and cocoa bean cream. A chicken wing was served on the side as "finger food". It was so good (and I also thought it looked a bit like an American BBQ). Forest supplemented the Grade 5 Japanese Wagyu beef which was an incredible cut!

To start the finishing courses we had an unpasteurized 6-month aged hard sheep's cheese grated over house-made crackers with a jam made of black cherries from the Basque region. It was so unique and absolutely delicious.  A cheese trolly followed, that also had a lovely selection of Basque cheeses. 

The next trolly to arrive was carrying a selection of Darroze Armagnac. Helen Darroze's family has been producing Armagnac in the town of Roquefort for 50 years. I had chosen their signature dessert, the baba, and was invited to choose one of the armagnacs to have poured onto the split open cake. Our waiter kindly left the rest of the armagnac on the table for us to enjoy. The dessert was excellent, served with fresh and cooked peach and chantilly cream. 

One of the chefs then arrived at our table with a final dessert, an ice cream made with the leftover house baked bread from the day. I'd never had anything like it, and really loved that they were creating a dish out of something that otherwise would just be tossed out. 

We were handed little pastry boxes on our way out and after 3 ½ hours of really exceptional food and service we headed home. It's been a long time since Forest and I chose to do a Michelin star dinner since the cost can be very high, the dishes aren't always better than what we can have during lunch, and often they just go on too long and we've left exhausted. But I'm so happy we did this dinner at Marsan as it was so enjoyable and delicious! It's now no surprise to me that Darroze has 6 Michelin stars and 3 restaurants!! 

The next morning I visited the Bourdelle Museum which is just a short walk from my friend's apartment. Sculpture Antoine Bourdelle was a student of Auguste Rodin. After he left he opened his own studio, working in wood, bronze, marble, etc., and exhibited at a number of shows. He then went on to teach other artists such as Giacometti and Henri Matisse. 

The museum is filled with Bourdelle's work and his studies. Photos, sketches, and of course sculpture fill interior spaces as well as gardens. Some of the pieces are huge! It's really a beautiful setting and I saw quite a few locals just enjoying the gardens with their books, surrounded by these amazing sculptures. 

For lunch, I met up with my friend Albert, who was also just transitioning through Paris. He and his friend were on their way home from Morocco, which is where I was heading to next! It was a very fun coincidence!

Albert wanted to try Le Recamier which is known for their soufflés (and their terrace). The 3 of us ordered both savory soufflés and dessert soufflés and everything was delicious- as you can clearly see by how happy Albert was!

I will say the prices were quite high compared to if you had a very similar dish in a classic bistro. The restaurant is in the 7th, which is pretty affluent and also has a lot of tourists. But if you are looking for a fun splashy lunch I'd recommend it!

One of the things I was very interested in seeing was the Yayoi Kusama temporary exhibit, which was suppose to be up until the end of September. A HUGE statue of Kusama, seemingly painting polka dots on the Louis Vuitton HQ! Albert and his friend were both up for seeing it so we crossed Pont Neuf and headed to the space between LV and La Samaritaine department store. 

Foiled! Even though it was only the 13th of the month, the installation was gone. Well none of us had been into La Samaritaine since it reopened so we went in for a look. It's such a stunning space!

They were heading back out to the airport and I needed to get back to Forest's to get ready for drinks and dinner that night, so we said goodbye. I took a quick metro to the Opera Garnier to check out the art of JR which was covering the scaffolding of the building.

Wow!! So cool!! 

As I mentioned, Paris was a stop on my way to Morocco, and that trip would be spent with friends Caitlin from London and Gail from Seattle. They both decided to meet me on my last night in town so we could all fly into Tangier together! Together with Forest, we've been in a book club together for the last 4 years or so, but we've never been all together in real life!

Paris is always the answer, right? We all had a great evening of drinks at the Novotel in the 15th (pro tip- this bar has fantastic views of the Eiffel Tower) before meeting some more of the Paris friends for dinner.

Dinner was at Procope, which Forest and I had both been very interested in checking out as it is the oldest restaurant in Paris, founded in 1686! Unfortunately the service was awful, it was unbearably hot in the dining room and the food was just ok. I'd say give this place a pass, there are many many many better choices out there. 

And with that, my 3rd stop on my month long vacation came to an end. I think this was my 21st visit to Paris and it's still my fave city 💖.

All photos from Paris here. 

Also on this trip:

Le Perche Country; Living Just Outside of Paris