This is the last leg of our London-Paris-Strasbourg-Paris trip. Coming from Strasbourg, we stayed another two days in Paris before our flight back home.
Neighborhood of Choice
For our first stop in Paris, we stayed near the Eiffel Tower. This time, we stayed in the 1st arrondissement in the Les Halles area.
Since this will be our last stop before flying back home, I made sure that I booked a hotel with easy access to the RER line. The RER B line goes from the center of Paris to the Charles de Gaulle Airport terminals.
The Novotel Les Halles hotel where we stayed at has direct access to the metro, and close to shops. This is a bonus for last-minute souvenir shopping. And since we didn’t have a set itinerary for these last two days, the hotel’s central location also came out handy.
The day we got back from Strasbourg, we have half a day left to explore. We decided to go to the Louvre. We didn’t plan to go inside. The vast open space of the Louvre grounds is the perfect place for the kids to run around. And take pictures with the pyramids in the background.
We then continued our walk through the Tuileries Gardens. It was tempting not to stop and hang out around the pond. But, that time, I had one thing in mind, and that is the le c
I looked forward to dining in with hot chocolate in hand, and sharing this experience with the kids. But, by the time we got there they were closing early and we couldn’t get any seats.
Good thing they had a take-out section! We were able to order hot chocolate and pastries to go, plus a bottle of hot chocolate to take home with us. We all enjoyed the richness of the hot chocolate, and it kept us warm that cold day.
For our last day in Paris, we stopped by a Monoprix (a grocery store somewhat equal to Target) at the Les Halles Forum. We grabbed a bagful of French goodies to bring home with us.
That afternoon, we continued our street art hunt (using Isabelle’s map) in the Les Marais neighborhood. Check out this post for more information about our street art tour. Since we enjoyed their hot chocolate and lemon meringue pie the first time, we went for another round at Le Voltigeur. We also tried the highly-recommended falafel on Rue des Rosiers, which did not disappoint.
After, we went to the Palais Royal courtyard and had the kids go up and down the black and white columns. The actual palace is not open to the public, but the courtyard and gardens are. We also checked out the garden and took more pictures. And that’s a wrap of our last couple of days in Paris.
TIPS:
- We did bring a stroller with a
stand up board. We didn’t have any issues cruising it around. We took out the bottom storage compartment to make it lighter, easier to fold when needed, and it helped us with not throwing stuff under there. - If you’re curious to dine in at Angelina’s, make sure to book a reservation ahead of time. They do have other locations around Paris.
- If we had more time:
From the Louvre, check out the Pontes Art Bridge.
From the Palais Royal, Check out the passages at Galeries de Vivienne. Or stop by Cafe Kitsune.
From our hotel, check out the Nelson Mandelapark .
