Exploring Montmartre & The Louvre Museum.

After dinner at the St Pancras Grand the previous evening, and getting to Paris late at night, we then started our Paris trip in style with the beautiful Mas Amiel Rose, and three…yes…three, boxes of Charbonnel et Walker truffles, before getting some sleep ready for our busy weekend. I went to Paris back in March (see post here) with the girls from school, and so it was wonderful to be back in this beautiful city soaking up the atmosphere again!

Exploring Montmatre

On our first day in Paris we got the metro to Blanche, so I could finally see the Moulin Rouge. I’ve been to Paris a few times, and had never seen it! After realizing that it really isn’t that impressive in real life and looks a bit shit, we wandered up the road into the backstreets of Montmartre, visited Van Gogh’s house, saw the oldest pub in Paris, and walked past the only vineyard in Paris!

We then went to a little square called Place du Tertre, next to the Sacre Coeur, where we found a cafe called ‘La Mere Catherine’, which is the oldest restaurant on the square! Clearly it was named after me. Clearly. Also the staff were awesome…

After the square we walked down the steps in front of the Sacre Coeur, and decided to be children again and give a man 2 euros so we could go on the carousel at the bottom of the steps.

Lunch at Cafe de 2 Moulins

After the carousel, we went to Cafe de 2 Moulins, which is the cafe where Amelie was filmed, and the cafe where she worked. It was a lovely little quirky cafe perfect for people watching!

We all ordered salads, as we were quite full up from our pastry-fueled breakfast, and they were absolutely delicious. They weren’t the standard boring salads you usually get, they were all full of flavour and lots of different fresh ingredients. You also get a huge basket of bread with them to mop up the vinaigrette. The French certainly know how to do vinaigrette…my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Visiting the Louvre Museum

Our next stop was the Louvre; Arabella had never been before, and Ciara hadn’t been since she was a child. I’m always up for visiting the Louvre, it’s free if you’re under 25 and have a European passport, and is a wonderful place to just wander round.

There’s just something about ‘old’ art that fascinates me, I can’t stand modern art, whereas traditional art just captures my mind. I love how they portray women as women…unlike stick thin models in magazines these days, art hundreds of years old portrays women as they have always been…natural, with all their lumps and bumps included.

One of my favourite paintings…Paul Delaroche’s La Jeune Martyre (The Young Martyr). It’s just so beautiful, yet utterly haunting.

Napoleon’s State Apartments

As well as the art, we also went to see Napoleon’s state apartments. I’ve never seen these before and they were so opulent and very…gilded. Definitely worth seeing!

Jardins des Tuileries

After the Louvre we went to Angelina’s, but the queue was so big we decided to go to the cafe in the Jardins des Tuileries instead, and have champagne and crepes.

This little fella paid us a visit…

After our busy day, we went to the supermarket and bought loads of goodies, then went back to Arabella’s apartment to have snacks of bread, cheese, chocolate and champagne. Standard.

Seeing the Sparkling Eiffel Tower

After our rest we then got dressed up and went for dinner in Passey, before walking down to the river and seeing the Eiffel Tower at night. I finally saw it at night!

A fabulous first day in Paris!

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Catherine Lux

Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.

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Exploring Montmartre & The Louvre Museum.