A Marvel-lous Time In Paris: September 2023 trip & food report

[Wordsworth]

The Introduction
If things go according to plan, by this time next year we’ll have been to 4 Disney locations across the world in about 18 months!

We visited the Californian original in June for the fourth time, and this month sees our first trip to Disneyland Paris! As we’ve never visited the city before either, we wanted to combine some days there with DLP.

The Travellers
Me (45) and DH (50). I went to WDW on budget trips several times as a kid but he had never been until he married me…I’m not sure he fully understood what he was getting into?

We’ve been together for 23 years, live in Edinburgh together and don’t have kids. By now you’d think we have our holiday groove as a duo well worked out, but trust me, that’s not always the case!

The Trip
We flew out from Edinburgh to Charles de Gaulle on Saturday, first spending 3 nights in Paris.

We had all our hotels sorted and I (of course) had a restaurant booked for each night, but outside of that we hadn’t planned much. We’ve both been stressed with work - I started a new job this summer - and haven’t really had much time to think about this trip! We had no idea how we were getting to the hotel, to DLP…but we’d work it out!

Then we moved to DLP for 3 nights.

I booked The Art of Marvel hotel because I liked the look of it and DH has always been a comic fan (even though he is more of a DC man!) so I hoped he’d enjoy the design. Tickets were included but I didn’t book Premier Access. Our only booked plans at the time of going were first night dinner in Manhattan and a lunch at Walt’s. I ultimately moved the time of lunch during the trip.

Finally we returned to Paris for our final Friday night, staying near the Eiffel Tower. Again, the only things booked were the hotel and restaurant!

On Saturday, we flew home to Edinburgh.

The Report
All posts will be in this thread and the index is here if you want to skip to posts.

[Wordsworth]

I was stressed in the run up to this holiday. I had been on an overseas trip for my new job until late on Thursday, and had to work on Friday, so had packed before going away. This meant that by the time I came back, I couldn’t remember what I’d put in the case!

I’d also had to message DH while away to ask him to order some euros, as we’d forgotten and wanted some cash just in case. He picked them up on the way home from the office on Friday.

Friday night passed in a bit of a blur but I remembered to pack wallets, chargers and passports in our hand luggage - my theory is these are the main things you need! We’d added one hold case to our Easyjet booking and would only be taking a crossbody each on board.

Our flight was at 12.45pm on Saturday and we’d decided with only one case, we could get the airport bus. We arrived a couple of minutes before 10.45am, allowing the 2 hours EasyJet say is needed with checking bags.

Bag drop was fairly quick and we were through security for 11am. In another sign of my utter disorganisation, I hadn’t realised the rugby World Cup actually started in Paris the night before our trip until a work colleague told me - I think I might have worked it out based on the number of Scotland rugby fans in the terminal though! Scotland’s first match was in Marseille on Sunday, so I guessed many were on our flight.

We didn’t have lounge access for this trip but wanted to get something to eat. We first headed for All Bar One, but they told us it would be about a 30 minute wait for food as they were changing over menus; DH didn’t want to wait so instead we found ourselves in Spoons! It was packed as always but we managed to get a table and I ordered our food via QR code.

I was determine get to get in a holiday mood, so I had a Prosecco along with my Diet Coke! DH just had a Coke (then nicked some of my fizz when he thought I wasn’t looking!).

The good thing with Spoons is that it’s quick. The food is edible but I’m not sure I’d be more effusive than that.

I had nachos; DH went for a ham and cheese panini with chips.

All of the above was £35.39 (other pricing in this report is unlikely to be this precise).

After we’d ordered the food, I had actually checked the EasyJet app and realised our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we would have had time to wait at All Bar One; never mind!

I asked DH if he wanted another drink here but he didn’t, so we cleared the table for someone else - there was now a queue to get in! This is where DH revealed his innocence in busy airport mattters; he suggested we go to the fevertree bar for a drink. I had to gently point out that with the queues everywhere, there was no way we were just going to rock up to a seat!

He settled instead for some Haribo and water from WH Smith, and we found a quiet spot in the terminal to wait. Predictably, this was at the opposite end from our gate when it was finally announced, but as we didn’t need to worry about overhead locker space, we didn’t need to rush.

We took off just over an hour late in the end. We had been due to land at 3.40pm Paris time originally, and I’d booked dinner for 8pm, so I thought we’d still be ok for time.

I took advantage of one of the on-board offers and got us both a bottle of rose wine; it does not go that well with Haribo but we managed.

Our arrival in France was incredibly smooth; I was impressed. They had dedicated e-gates for U.K. passport holders, after which you proceeded to the booth for your passport stamp - we were through in a couple of minutes. Our bag didn’t take that long to pop out either, so we were soon walking towards the train station.

DH had investigated routes to our hotel the night before and we’d decided to take the RER B (with a 15 minute walk at the other end) rather than get a taxi. Buying our tickets at the machine was straightforward, as was finding the platforms (I could see the number we needed on Google directions but the massive “TRAINS TO PARIS” sign was also a bit of a hint) and the man at the gate showed us the slot to validate them.

This was where it went slightly wrong. We could see from the screen that two suitable trains were due. The first was a more express train, with 8 stops to ours - the second had more local stops, about double. After the express time came and went, it suddenly flipped to ‘delayed’, meaning there was a lot of people getting onto the next train when it arrived.

We were fortunate to get a seat so had space, but as the train continued into Paris at a snail’s pace, more and more people crowded on at every local stop - there was pushing and shoving plus a lot of loud shouting. At one point someone got jammed in the door. Rush hour on the tube at London couldn’t hold a candle to it!

Because of the crush, we started moving towards the exit when we were two stops from our destination, Notre Dame. This meant we were able to safely get off in good time.

We exited the station right by the Seine and pulled up walking directions to the hotel. We were staying in the Latin Quarter, at Hotel Monge.

We loved the hotel; the check in staff were incredibly helpful, giving us maps and recommendations. Based on timing of our photos, we were in the room by 7.05pm - an hour to go until dinner!

My favourite thing about our room was the fact we were *in* the rooftops of a traditional paris building, and could step out onto the tiny balcony.

I made DH take my photo out here several times!

The restaurant I’d booked for dinner - Narro - was a five minute walk away. Up some stairs:

And through a courtyard.

We were offered a seat outside. DH doesn’t like that but I overruled on the basis eating outside in pleasant temperatures is not something we get to do very often!

English menus were available, which was a relief given my high school French! We ordered a bottle of red wine and decided on food.

I had marinated octopus to start.

DH had beef tartare.

My main was delicious duck, cooked medium rare.

DH had an equally tasty tuna dish.

You can tell it was getting darker outside.

The man who’d been serving us up to this point was great, but at this point he disappeared and was replaced by a colleague who seemed less inclined to bother.

He tried to cover up that he’d brought me the wrong dessert - he told me it was the cookie dough I’d ordered, but it became obvious it was the chocolate dessert.

I’d been trying to choose between the two so I wasn’t really bothered, it was just funny. We also knew it wasn’t specifically aimed at us - later on he started moving people to different tables *mid meal* so they could push their vacated tables together to fit a bigger party.

DH had the plum dessert.

Desserts were okay but the savoury options were better. The whole thing cost €170, which we thought was really good value for the quality of the food and wine.

And we hadn’t been rushed through the meal but now it was clear they’d like us to pay up quickly, as ours was one of the tables they wanted for the larger party.

We went for a little wander around the area. The nearby square was busy with people dining.

We got back to the hotel by about 10.10pm.

One of the things we liked about the hotel was that it had an honesty bar. There were paper slips to fill out with what you’d had, which you just handed into reception.

We sat in the lounge and had a gin and tonic each. (We used the measure at first but when I saw how much they charged for Tanqueray, I sent DH back to top them up!)

We headed back up to the room at about 11pm, to turn in for the night.

[YLL]

Following! Maybe we were at DLP at the same time, I was there on 25-26 September.

[Wordsworth]

Originally Posted by YLL

Following! Maybe we were at DLP at the same time, I was there on 25-26 September.

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We were 12th to 15th, so a wee bit before you! Interested to know how you found it in terms of crowd. We were lucky as I expected closures but we got to ride pretty much everything we wanted.

[YLL]

Originally Posted by Wordsworth

We were 12th to 15th, so a wee bit before you! Interested to know how you found it in terms of crowd. We were lucky as I expected closures but we got to ride pretty much everything we wanted.

See more...

It was busy but manageable, the longest wait I had was 45 mins for Space Mountain. I did all the headliners with 15-30 mins wait.

Ratatouille and Indiana Jones were closed for refurbishment unfortunately.

[Wordsworth]

You were definitely luckier with queue times than us I think, 60 mins standby seemed common when we went!

[Rescuer]

What a lovely start to your trip to Paris.

[Wordsworth]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

What a lovely start to your trip to Paris.

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It was lovely, and also strange flying short haul for our “summer” holiday. That’s not something we’ve really done before!

[Wordsworth]

I mentioned we hadn’t done a huge amount of planning for this trip and actually, I was ok with that. I said to DH that I didn’t want to be sprinting around trying to do everything - we’d had a busy time in the run up and I wanted to chill out a bit.

Breakfast was included in our room rate and we had to give them an approximate time - we’d said 9.30 in the spirit of chilling out! We still woke about 7.30 but just talked about what we’d do that day before getting ready.

At check in, the staff had recommended the batobus - hop on hop off boats along the Seine. You could get two days for just a few euros more than 1 day, so we decided to go for that and bought our tickets online. We got QR codes that you would scan when getting on the boat.

Breakfast was in the lounge and was a small spread, but more than good enough. There was cereal, yogurt, fruit, smoked salmon, meats, cheeses, scrambled egg, sausage, bread and pastries. There was also fruit juices and a tea/coffee machine.

I didn’t take a pic every morning, but I had generally the same every day. Grapefruit juice and a fruit yogurt, plus a plate of salmon, meat, cheese and eggs alongside some freshly cut baguette. And a cup of tea! Today I also snuck in a pain au chocolat, because that’s what holidays are for.

You could check batobus times online and our closest stop was at Notre Dame, so after breakfast we headed in that direction.

Before going to the stop, we crossed the river to check out the building. They are still rebuilding after the fire at the cathedral.

After taking some pics, we went in search of the boat stop.

We found it easily enough, but the time the boat was due came and went with no sign. More people were arriving, but no boat.

We knew it wasn’t that far to the stop we’d planned to get off at, and while it was expected to get hot later it was still okay temperature-wise, so we changed plan and decided to do some walking first.

We basically followed the Seine.

Point Neuf.

As we were crossing, we saw the batobus I think we’d have got if we’d waited. Oh, and some kind of tower, off in the distance.

We now walked away from the river and past La Samaritaine (an old department store building now owned by Louis Vuitton), taking the scenic route towards the Louvre.

It was now 11.30 and getting warmer, so we sat in the shade of the courtyard next to the Louvre for a bit.

Before going in search of the famous pyramid.

We’d deliberately decided not to book tickets to enter, in the spirit of trying to take it easy. This trip was about getting a feel for the city.

There was a garden on the other side of the Louvre so we popped in there - you could again see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We fancied something to drink but could only see coffees, which we don’t really drink and it was far too hot for. We decided to walk back towards the river and get our first batobus up towards the tower, knowing we’d definitely get something there. We’d then head back down towards the hotel by boat, and walk to see Place de la Bastille.

Except we couldn’t find the boat stop.

We found the river, and we had the live online map that was supposed to be directing us to the stop, but it wasn’t where the site said it was.

The temperature has now climbed rapidly and as we wandered aimlessly looking for the elusive map pin, DH’s temper was joining it. No wonder, really; the map took us in completely the wrong direction.

We then spotted a batobus! It was steaming past us, proving their live website map was utterly useless. We then made the mistake of walking briskly in the heat to try to catch it…arriving at the stop just as it pulled away.

DH was now furious. We’d bought these tickets and the first two boats either hadn’t turned up or stopped somewhere completely contrary to the map. I think it was mostly the heat, his tiredness and work stress combining, to be honest, but I had my own stress that didn’t make me particularly receptive to it.

After listening to him rant and getting annoyed at him refusing to drop it and get on with the holiday, I declared that I was going to walk back to the riverside bar we’d passed (twice!) and get a drink. He was welcome to join me if he liked. Needless to say, he trailed behind me as I stalked off.

I ordered a spritz for me (bring on the booze) and a lemonade for DH, and found a table with a parasol, where we promptly drank our drinks and ignored each other.

I think despite what I’d said about chilling out, we’d still fallen into the trap of thinking we had to get all the boats and do lots of stuff, when really in that heat, going back to the hotel for rest, tea and relaxation might have been more sensible. Our mindset always tends towards “it’s a waste of holiday not to do stuff” and while we’ve got better at taking time out, we can easily fall back into it, especially if I don’t push for it.

I decided that once we were done, we’d get the boat round all of the stops back to Notre Dame, and then regroup back at the hotel.

Good news; this time we found the stop, and a boat did turn up.

At 2.15, we got a close up view of the Eiffel Tower from the river.

You can see how sunny it was in the haze!

We got back to the hotel just after 3pm and things were still pretty frosty between us. We sat, not talking, for a bit - and then DH got up, declared that we weren’t going to sit in the room, we were going to see the Bastille!

I was grumpy, but it is a waste not to do stuff on holiday () so I agreed.

The right decision, as it turns out. Nothing cheers up a wife like getting to laugh at her husband, and that is what happened when we arrived at Place de la Bastille and DH looked confused, wondering where it was.

“It’s there,” I said, pointing at the monument.

Turned out he’d spent all of his research reading “place” as “palace” and was expecting a big building.

It broke the tension anyway, because we both thought the misunderstanding was hilarious. We did find the studs on the ground that indicated where the prison walls had been once.

It honestly cleared away all of our stress from that point on - maybe it’s what we needed to enjoy the rest of the trip! And good humour was fully restored when I spotted an obviously popular ice cream shop and decided to order some for us in my schoolgirl french.

I managed the flavours, the size and the cup or cone exchanges fine, but was defeated with the third question. I knew she was asking if I wanted the flavours in the same tub but didn’t know how to say it in French, so switched to English, which visibly confused her.

Lemon for DH, pistachio for me. It was delicious, and excellent quality - the pistachio colour was clearly natural.

We made our way back towards the Seine. At 5.15 it was still meltingly hot, so we decided to stop for an early evening drink at an outdoor bar on this side of the river.

I had another spritz, while DH had a glass of rose wine.

As we crossed back over the river, we found a memorial to people deported from Vichy France during WW2, and spent some time reflecting there.

At 6pm, we started towards the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.

It was still hot.

I’d booked dinner for 7.30pm at L’Epoque, which was literally right across the road from last night’s restaurant. I’d picked it because it looked more rustic French cooking, with classic dishes on the menu.

We were the first people to arrive, but it filled up over the next 30 minutes or so.

Again we ordered a bottle of wine (Sancerre) and reviewed the menu - English language menus were again available. It was a set price of €29.50 for 3 courses in the evening.

We were in Paris. €3 supplement be damned…I had to have escargot.

I’d had snails before (in a ryokan in Japan, weirdly) and they were just as I remembered. A meaty texture similar to a mushroom, not a huge amount of flavour on their own - but they were smothered in delicious garlic butter. And I got to play Pretty Woman with my tongs and stick-fork. (No snails flew across the room.) One was a bit tricky to get out, so I gave that one to DH to try.

DH had black pudding crumble, which was also very tasty. Presented a bit like a stack of haggis, neeps and tatties, with added crumb.

Their speciality for main was beef tartare, which they offered in numerous ways. I chose the classic.

It was a huge serving of meat, with a good helping of onion and cornichon throughout for added flavour. I enjoyed it.

DH chose to have his pan fried (it was only seared on the outside) with mushroom sauce.

Fitting in dessert was a struggle but when the set menu is such a bargain, you have to.

Tarte tatin and creme brûlée. Told you the menu was full of classics!

It was a very small but packed restaurant, with one man serving most of the time until the very end, when I suspect the owner started to help (rather than just supervise). I was pleased to have chosen it.

We had another walk around the surrounding area to aid in digesting everything. These crepes looked good value but we had no room at all!

Back at the hotel, the champagne in the honesty bar was open. I hadn’t wanted to open a whole bottle for just one glass the previous night, but since someone else had done it today, I decided it was only right to help out! DH decided he wanted a coke - he loves drinking it from the glass bottles.

We enjoyed our drinks then headed upstairs. We’d done about 24,000 steps that day in searing heat with basically no air conditioning to speak of - so much for taking it easy!

[Wordsworth]

Breakfast was just before 9.30am again. I photographed my plate today.

I skipped the pastry today though, because I had something more exciting to eat back in the room! On the way back before dinner the night before we’d stopped at a local boulangerie, Maison Gaumer, but hadn’t eaten our purchases because dinner time wasn’t that far away. Then before bed we were too full! So we ate them now.

I had an absolutely delicious fraisier.

The bottom layer of sponge was a touch soggy from a night in the fridge, but honestly, it was still so good. The brûléed sugar on the top was perfect.

DH had a financier.

It was just plain almond. He liked it but it was a bit dry for me.

Today we were heading for the batobus (with the second day of our tickets) at Notre Dame again, with the intention of travelling all the way up river to the Eiffel Tower.

Thankfully, the boat turned up exactly as expected this morning! It was also shaping up to be cooler, weather wise.

We docked at the tower stop at 11.15, and walked up and around the tower, taking photos alongside thousands of other tourists.

Once again we hadn’t booked tickets to go up; I’d looked at them but we decided to stick to our “no firm plans apart from food” rule!

Once we’d completed a circuit of the tower base, we decided to cross the river and head up to the public plaza for a few more photos.

It was unsurprisingly busy there too.

I liked the statues around the plaza.

We decided then to walk to the bridge immediately to the right of the one we’d crossed earlier, to get a view from a few different angles.

I think you can safely say we saw the Eiffel Tower!

It was now around 1pm. We decided to get back on the batobus for one stop, where we’d then walk up towards the Champs-Elysees.

Our transport.

About to cross Pont Alexandre III.

Being pointed in the right direction.

The doors of the Petit Palais.

As we walked up the Champs-Elysees, I kept an eye out for somewhere to stop, but we had water with us and honestly we weren’t that hungry. So we decided instead to get macarons from Laduree for later.

I ordered these in a weird mix of English and French…I tried! I also took a pic of our choices when we got back to the room later.

We ended up taking these to DLP as a sweet treat for the room.

Soon l’arc de triomphe came into view.

It took us a couple of minutes to work out how to get over - eventually I spotted the sign towards the underground walkway across the road!

You have to pay to go inside but you can go up and walk around, we just stuck to the right as we went upstairs.

It was actually threatening a few spots of rain at this point, but we were in the perfect place to shelter!

I had spotted on the hotel map a replica of the Statue of Liberty torch, which I was interested to see given the statue was a gift from France. It was a 20 minute walk away and took us back to the river, so we set off.

As we approached it I could see messages and flowers scattered around the base, and thought perhaps it was a 9/11 memorial as it was actually the anniversary that day, but as we crossed over I realised it was pictures of Princess Diana taped to it! A handwritten note indicated we were at the fateful tunnel. I had no idea.

We walked along the riverside back to the batobus stop, and headed back to Notre Dame. It was 3.45pm when we got off the boat.

Just across the river in the Latin quarter was the famous English bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. I wanted to go in, so we joined the queue - the shop is made up of little rooms and can be cramped, so at busy times they control access.

We didn’t have to wait too long and I really enjoyed looking around. No photos are allowed but I particularly liked the upstairs reading rooms. I bought a book of poems about Paris and a tote bag as a memento.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Maison Kayser, which we later learned is a chain of boulangeries, for something to eat in our room.

Yuzu meringue tart and a raspberry fraisier (latter not photographed!) for DH. A citron tart and a chocolate eclair for me!

We ate the tarts when we got back to the hotel and they were very nice - and distinct flavours, there was a clear difference between the yuzu and the lemon.

We rested for a bit, then took showers and got ready for dinner.

Tonight we were trying a nearby Italian restaurant - Terronia. Again only a few minutes walk from the hotel but in a different direction - back towards the boulangeries we’d visited.

Appropriate decor for two Scots.

This place was absolutely fantastic. It was the only place I tipped extra, because the service from the one woman manning the front was great. She explained that as they were in the process of changing menus, not everything on the menu was available, but there were other things not listed instead. I ended up ordering two of the off-menu dishes and DH one.

We started with a complimentary amuse Bouche of marinated squid.

Then I had an amazing (and huge) beef carpaccio.

DH had supions (crispy squid). The batter was excellent.

For mains, I had linguine with squid.

DH had tagliatelle with a veal stew. This was incredible, so flavoursome.

His lemon dessert also packed a punch.

While I had torta caprese.

All of this plus a bottle of wine was €140. Phenomenal.

Given dinner plus wine the night before had been €99, we were blown away with the quality of food you could get in Paris for much less than you’d pay for the equivalent in the U.K.

For our now customary after-dinner walk, we decided to head down to Notre dame to see if it was lit up.

While there, a Frenchwoman engaged us in conversation about the rebuild; she was clearly religious and it was obvious how important it was to her.

No queue at the bookshop now!

Back at the hotel just after 10pm, we contemplated a drink from the honesty bar, but the champagne wasn’t open and again I felt it would be a waste for one glass! We decided to head upstairs and pack up instead.