Nine Date Adventures in Paris

Last October, Scott and I got married in a small celebration for our closest friends and family in upstate New York. I’ve been waiting my whole life for the “best moment in my life,” and on October 13th, I finally found it. One year later, it only felt right to celebrate that day with a trip befitting the romance of that day. Obviously, Paris immediately came to mind. Sure, it was a little cliché, but although we had both been there ourselves, we’d never been able to go there as a couple — and what’s more appropriate for a first anniversary than a trip to the most romantic city in the world? Seeing as this was our third trip to the “City of Lights,” we didn’t feel the need to go to the super-touristy spots that had felt essential on our previous visits. Instead, we talked to our travel-minded friends, did some internet sleuthing, and even put an ask out to our followers for some off-the-beaten-path recommendations. The result was six days of Parisian bliss, broken up into what felt like tiny date adventures. So if you’re planning a trip to France with someone special, here are “Nine Date Adventures in Paris.”

1. Picnic on Île Saint-Louis

What could be more romantic than a picnic on the Seine? Our first evening in Paris, we fought the jet lag by trekking around the Marais (the area where we were staying) and picking up specialty food and wine for a twilight picnic. This was a great opportunity to explore the neighborhood and practice our French (okay, practice Scott’s French). Some of our favorite stops were Marche d’Aligre, a large outdoor farmers’ market for cheese and charcuterie, Boulangerie Bo, Maison Landemaine and Au Petite Versailles du Marais for bread, Du Pain et des Idées and Maison Passos for pastries, and Fromagerie Beillevaire for their demi-sel croquant, or unpasteurized salted butter. (I could honestly write a whole blog post about that butter — by the end of the trip we were practically eating it with a spoon.)

Escargot chocolat pistache from Du Pain et des Idées

Of course, you can just sit on a bench and eat your food out of a grocery bag, but I really recommend bringing along a picnic basket (or backpack in our case). There really is something so romantic about eating on an actual picnic blanket with plates, napkins and cutlery and drinking out of actual (albeit, plastic) wine glasses. Also, you will score some major points for packing a few tea lights or candles to really set the mood.

We had a few picnics on our trip, but our favorite location was a secret little area on the eastern tip on Île Saint-Louis. We’d have never found it without our friend’s hand-drawn map, but I’m pleased to share it with you. Basically, type in “Square Barye Park” in GoogleMaps and once inside, you’ll find a swinging door that leads to a set of stairs leading you down to the Seine. You walk around to the very tip of the island where you’ll find quiet cobblestone patch. Spread out your blanket and assemble your picnic away from onlookers, aside from the occasional passing duck or riverboat. Add in a little accordion music from Spotify and you’ll be drowning in romance.

2. Row boating to the Temple of Love

One of my favorite tips came from the blogger Messy Nessy Chic, whose guidebook “Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris” was a bit of a bible for our trip. Off in the 12th Arrondissement, away from the most touristy areas, is a large and beautiful park called the Bois de Vincennes. A fifteen-minute Metro ride from the Marais deposited us right at the Lac Daumesnil, a sweet pond in the park where you can hire a rowboat for about twelve euros an hour. All of the rowboats have French names (ours was named Cleo). A short paddle from the shore leads past a tiny island where peacocks wander alongside French children playing catch. You’ll then find a second island, home to a craggy grotto upon which is perched the “Temple of Love.” I couldn’t believe I had never seen anyone post about this place on social media — it puts every standard Eiffel Tower selfie to shame. We parked our boat for a little while and snacked on baguettes (and more of that salted butter), occasionally tossing crumbs to a passing swan. 

3. Sunset in Belleville

If you open a guidebook, almost every recommendation will keep you within the eleven arrondissements at the center of Paris, but I beg you not to sleep on the outer neighborhoods. One that I fell in love with was Belleville, located in the 19th arrondissement — think Bushwick, but set on a hilltop. We began by walking up the steep stairs to Butte Bergeyre, a tiny hideaway enclave set into the hillside. Once at the top you can peek into one of Paris’ few remaining vineyards, along with a nearly perfect view of the Sacre Coeur. From there we climbed some more stairs to the Parc de Belleville, a gorgeous, lively park where we were the only Americans in sight. The top of the park provides an incredible view of the city from an unlikely vantage point. We perched ourselves on a concrete ledge and watched the big orange sun set directly behind the Eiffel Tower while sipping red wine straight from the bottle. Next to us, a group of friends were gathered for a surprise gay wedding as the sun set over Paris. The guests were all dressed achingly cool and queer, some inexplicably wearing cat ears? The fact that it was our anniversary (October 13th) was the icing on the cake. Both Scott and I agreed this was probably our favorite thing we did on the whole trip, in part because we felt like we’d been let in on a little secret.

4. “Gauche ou Droit” in Montmartre

Rue Cauchois, Montmartre

Scott and I visited Rome last year, and on our first night in the city, we made up a game called “Left or Right” which we played in the hip neighborhood of Trastevere. The rules are simple: find a city or neighborhood that you are unfamiliar with, keep your phones in your pocket, and take turns saying “left” or “right” every time you come to an intersection. We play this almost every time we visit a walkable city and often end up discovering places we’d never ordinarily find. Paris is the perfect city to play “Left or Right,” or should we say, “Gauche ou Droit,” and there’s no better neighborhood to play it in than Montmartre, where every twisting street is more adorable than the next. There’s no denying that Montmartre can be a little bit of a tourist trap, but that’s because the majority of visitors get off the funicular and only stick to the four blocks surrounding the Sacre Coeur, ignoring the most charming areas of the neighborhood. We actually recommend starting this game as you exit the Lamarck-Caulaincourt stop on the Metro, one station past where most of the tourists get off. It puts you out in the much less crowded Square Joël-Le Tac, where the nearby Avenue Junot gives you a peek at the cupcake houses and charming little bistros of Montmartre.

Rue du Mont-Cenis, Montmartre

5. Haunted walking tour through Île de la Cité

I love history and am a sucker for a ghost story, so when Scott surprised me with a ghost-centric walking tour through Île de la Cité, I was filled with ghoulish glee. Home to Notre Dame and the oldest part of the city, Île de la Cité is probably one of the most touristy areas of Paris, but it shouldn’t be written off. Most of the throngs of visitors seem to congregate on in a three-block radius around Notre Dame — which is much less damaged from this summer’s roof fire than you might fear, but is largely hidden behind high walls put up for reconstruction — but neglect much of the rest of the island. With a little help from Wikipedia, Scott led me on a spooky tour through the island’s history, with stops at Mémorial des Martyrs, the former site of a glass morgue where pedestrians could look through the windows at unclaimed corpses, Rue des Chantres, the most haunted street in the city where dozens of children drowned during the Great Flood of the Seine in 1910, and Rue Chanoinesse, where it’s rumored that a Sweeney Todd-esque baker used to entrap tourists and bake them into pies! This might not sound like an obvious romantic date adventure, but for the macabre, this was frighteningly fantastic. 

6. Macaron making class in a Parisian apartment

Both Scott and I love baking and enjoy a group cooking class, but for a truly authentic experience, we ditched the traditional classroom filled with fellow Americans for a private baking class in a Parisian woman’s apartment. One of the most iconic French desserts is the macaron, and at often two to three euros per bite, it seemed crazy to not try and learn how to make our own. We booked a private lesson through Cookly and were treated to a three-hour class led by an incredibly sweet and knowledgeable baker named Aurélie. The class was taught out of her charming apartment in Saint-Georges. She taught us how to master the macaron, a pastry I’d always thought to be unnecessarily fussy, but turns out, you just need the right recipe and a patient teacher. While the macarons were baking in the oven, we also learned an easy recipe for madeleines, another favorite confection of mine. I really recommend this class, not only for the baking knowledge we got, but for a peek into Parisian life. Unless we’re visiting a friend, when we travel to a foreign country, we never get a chance to meet and learn about the people who live there full time. This was a rare opportunity to spend some time in a Parisian person’s home and learn about about her life and her love of baking.

7. Bottomless chocolate mousse in a truly Parisian bistro

"Chez Janou, Chez Janou, Chez Janou.” There’s a chance these words may be spoken on my deathbed. Chez Janou is home to, you heard it right, a bottomless chocolate mousse. Only two blocks from the apartment we were staying at in the Marais was this adorable neighborhood bistro was where we ate our final meal in Paris. After our dinner of frog legs, mussels and beef stew, the waiter swung by our table and asked us if we’d like the chocolate mousse. (Actually, according to Scott who is the better French speaker, he more accurately told us that we were to get the chocolate mousse. I love Paris!) What came out of the kitchen was not a bowl, but rather a ceramic trough, filled to the brim with rich and sugary chocolate mousse. The only rule, he explained in French, was to not eat directly out of the bowl and to have as much as we could possibly stomach. Now, I love a challenge, but we barely made a dent! As we looked around the restaurant, nearly every table was taking part in the same delightful ritual, all likely wondering why they’d even bothered with the proceeding dinner. I was also glad that Scott speaks pretty decent French as this was not a restaurant that catered to the English-speaking tourist — the menus were seulement en Français — which was just fine. More mousse for us!

Photo credit: Annie Fitzsimmons, Paris Chez Sharon

8. Covered passages crawl

The 19th century brought two great things to Paris — public urinals and glass-roofed arcades. Only one of those two things still exist today, and I bet you can guess which is more romantic. Today, these arcades, or passages, are beautiful urban oases, home to restaurants, tearooms, shops and galleries. There are twenty of them spread across the city and they each have their own character. Especially if the weather isn’t on your side, they make for perfect escapes from cold and rain to window-shop and dine. On our final day, we did a crawl of the city, visiting as many as we could. A few of our favorites were Galerie Colbert, Passage des Panoramas and Galerie Vivienne.

Passage des Panoramas

9. Unlikely views of the Eiffel

The most iconic destination in Paris is the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully for our cortisol levels, both Scott and I had already checked it off of our bucket list. While the views from the top are great, you are really crammed in with hundreds of other tourists to the point where you leave cranky and not even feel like you’re in Paris any more. Naturally, we steered clear of it this trip, but I have to confess, I do still really love it. The city is laid out in such a way that the Eiffel is often rarely visible once you’re more than a few blocks away from it. I admit, I’d often get a bit of a thrill when we’d be walking down a block and suddenly, poof, the Eiffel would appear above the buildings. So instead of packing into an elevator with a bunch of strangers to see it up close, I suggest some viewpoints throughout the city where the Eiffel appears in a much more unexpected way. Here are three unlikely places to spot the Eiffel. When they come into view, be sure to pull in your beau or belle for a smooch: 79 Rue Saint-Dominique, The Pyrénées Metro stop and the Pont de Bir-Hakeim.

Canal St. Martin