What can you do with only one day in Paris?

I can tell you that even living in Paris for an extended period of time, it's hard to see everything this city has to offer. So how much could you possibly see in one day? A friend of mine from Rice, SoJin, emailed me out of the blue right before Easter saying she was coming to Paris for the weekend. Could she stay with me? She lives in Luzern, Switzerland and had never been here before. Oh, and she was arriving late Friday night and leaving early Sunday morning. How could I possibly show her all the amazing things in this city in just one day? It turns out, if you're willing to walk for nearly 13 hours straight, you can see a lot! So, here it is, my guide to how to see as much as possible in Paris in one day.

We got up early on Saturday morning and made Sacre Coeur our first stop since it's just at the top of my street. I had never been inside before, even though I walk by it everyday. Inside is an amazing mosiac, said to be the largest in the world (475 square meters). They won't let you take pictures inside, but I found this picture on the internet so you can see it:

Wow! Look at that mosiac!

We took in the view from up there, which is the highest natural point in Paris. Then we went down into the street of Montmartre and stopped at the boulangerie (bakery) that was voted to have the best baguette in Paris in 2010. Every year, one boulangerie in Paris is awarded this prize (the 2011 winner is just around the corner from the 2010 winner) and it's apparently a big deal. SoJin got a croissant which, from her reaction, was probably the best croissant she's every had. In the picture below (taken around Christmas), there is a line out the front of the boulangerie and down the street!

Le Grenier a Pain - the best baguette in Paris 2010

The cafe from the movie Amelie

As she ate her croissant (and continued to remark about how good it was), we walked through the streets of Montmartre, stopping in many of the cute little shops along the way. We passed the cafe from the movie Amelie (sorry, I didn't take the picture of it) and continued down the street to the famous Moulin Rouge.

The Moulin Rouge

Next stop: the Arc de Triomphe! We hopped on the metro at the Moulin Rouge and when we got out, we were facing the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs Elysees. I've seen the Arc de Triomphe many times at this point, but it never fails to be impressive. The picture below is one that Ben took when we visited Paris for the first time last year. He's a good photographer, huh?

Arc de Triomphe

On the right side of the Arc is a pretty intense-looking guy with a sword whose expression I've always thought was pretty awesome. This time, though, I realized, it's not a guy with a sword, it's a woman! That makes it even more awesome. Here she is:

Next up was a walk down the famous Champs Elysees. Halfway down the street, we stopped in Laduree, the famous Parisian pastisserie. I highly recommend clicking on the link to their website (click on "Laduree" above) because it's almost as over-the-top as the actual store (of which there are several in Paris). SoJin got some unidentified pastry (some little bun with sugar crystals that looked like salt on the stop) and some of their famous macarons. After these treats and the croissant from earlier, she had decided that the food in Paris was pretty incredible! A few doors down, we stopped in the 3-story Haagen Dazs to use their restrooms. If you're ever on the Champs Elysees and need a restroom, the Haagen Dazs is a great place to stop (ice cream and bathrooms, what could be better than that when you're tired?).

After Haagen Dazs, we walked by this ridiculous gate (not my picture):

It looks like the entrance to a palace, right? Wrong. It's the entrance to Abercrombie and Fitch! Blow up the picture and look at the plaque to the right of the gate if you don't believe me. In this picture that I found somewhere on the internet, there are no people around. Usually when I walk by, there is a HUGE line to get in. Crazy...

Anyway, after Abercrombie, we turned down Rue Franklin Roosevelt and walked over to Invalides. Les Invalides has a long history, but it is most famous now (I think) for being the place where Napoleon is buried. You can read more about it and its history in the Wikipedia link I provided. Anyway, Invalides (pronounced ahn-va-LEED, or you could say in-VAL-ee-dace if you're an American who doesn't speak French like me the first time I came to Paris last year!) is pretty impressive. Here's the building itself (pic stolen from the internet again):

Les Invalides

The whole front is lined with cannons! It faces the Seine and the bridge that leads from Invalides to the other side of the Seine, Pont Alexandre III, is widely regarded as the "most ornate, extravagant bridge" in Paris (according to Wikipedia anyway). Indeed. Ben took the picture below last May. You can see Invalides in the background. All those columns with the gold statues on top line the sides of the bridge. It's incredibly impressive. The first thing I noticed when I came to Paris for the first time last year is that all the historical stuff is really, really BIG. We'll get to the Eiffel Tower in a minute...

Pont Alexandre III

There's a great view of the Eiffel Tower from this side of the bridge as well as some interesting statues:

View of the Eiffel Tower from Pont Alexandre III

Getting attacked on Pont Alexandre III

From here, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. You can periodically see it through the buildings as you walk, like some beast lurking in the bushes (picture below). Anyway, I was saying that things in Paris are really big. The Eiffel Tower is bigger than you'd ever think. I have never seen a picture that really captures how enormous it is. I mean, you know it's really huge, but when you see it in person, it's SO much bigger than it looks in pictures.

The Eiffel Tower, lurking amongst the apartment blocks 

Around now, we were getting hungry for lunch. I mean, we had seen Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, the Amelie cafe, the Moulin Rouge, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower, all before lunch! Phew! That's enough for one whole day! We decided to head over to the Louvre area and have lunch at Cafe Marly next to the Louvre. This is one of my favorite places to eat in Paris. The food is amazing and the outside terraces look out to the Pyramids. Ben took the picture below last May when we ate here for the first time. If you ever go there, have the mashed potatoes and the hot chocolate (just not together). Best you'll ever have.

View of the Louvre Pyramids from Cafe Marly

We met up at the cafe with a friend of SoJin's (Carlos) who was also in Paris for the first time, also just for one day. He's Spanish (and he'd never been to Paris? I know...), but he lives in New York. Within the first 10 minutes of our lunch, we discovered that his roommate in NYC is someone I grew up playing with in orchestra at the Hartt School. Small world! After lunch, he took the requisite touch-the-top-of-the-pyramid picture of me and SoJin. The funniest part of taking these kind of pictures is that there are more of these little pedestals, evenly spaced across this whole area of the plaza. At any given time, there are people on each pedestal, taking pictures just like this one, as well as a line of people waiting for their turn on the pedestal!

The plan after this was to go to the Musee d'Orsay, the museum with all the impressionist art. But, we had had a late lunch and had stayed there for awhile, so by the time we got to the Orsay, it was only open for another hour or so. We decided to nix the museum and walk around the Marais, one of the best places in Paris to just walk around. We passed a bunch of shops with displays for Easter in the window. This was my favorite:

Our ultimate destination in the Marais was my favorite crepe place (actually, it's the only crepe place I've been in Paris, but it's consistently voted to be one of the best). I bring everyone here and I'm always looking for any excuse to go. It's called the Breizh Cafe and if you're ever in Paris you should go (or in Tokyo - they have one there, too). They have savory crepes and dessert crepes and they are outstanding. Here are pictures of me and Ben last year with our crepes:

I can't say enough good stuff about this place. They use really high quality ingredients, all from Brittany, which apparently is the place to get really traditional crepes. I've been there so often now, the people that work there recognize me!

While we were having our crepes, it started POURING outside. Good timing! We leisurely enjoyed our crepes, chatting with the Italian/French couple at the table next to us. When we left, the rain had let up, so we decided to walk around some more. We passed a really bizarre store selling old airplane parts as decor (?) as well as Notre Dame, but didn't go inside because it was the Saturday before Easter and the line was enormous. Carlos took the photos of us below, one in front of a cute restaurant on a little street next to Notre Dame, the other in front of the famous cathedral.

On a little street near Notre Dame

In front of Notre Dame

We had a dinner reservation at 9pm (I know, very Parisian to eat so late) and SoJin wanted to get a book to read on the train back to Switzerland, so we walked over to Shakespeare and Co. This place is probably the most famous English-language bookstore in Paris and is known for being a hangout for aspiring writers. The downstairs is all new books, organized in a somewhat baffling way (but ask anyone who works there to find something for you and they find it right away, kind of like Ollivander and his wands...). Upstairs are used books, an overrun board for people to post ads looking for work or for someone to practice their English with, an out-of-tune upright piano (that someone has been playing every time I've been there), and lots of nooks and crannies to just sit and read or write. The original owner (who died in December) would famously give people room and board above the shop in exchange for them working there. Most of the staff are extremely knowledgeable hippie-types. A nice American tourist took this picture of the three of us outside with Notre Dame in the background:

Outside Shakespeare and Co., with Notre Dame in the background

From here, we walked to our dinner destination, La Bastide Odeon, another one of my favorite places to eat in Paris. They have phenomenal food at a very reasonable price (3 courses off the fixed-price menu for only 36 euros!). After we had placed our orders, we were looking at these small, silver plate-like things on the table. They were about as big around as the bottom of a coffee mug. We wondered what they were for, but then they brought us a basket of fresh bread, so we realized they must be to pour the olive oil on that was at our table. Carlos picked up the olive oil and we debated whether you could pour it through the cork or whether you had to take the cork out. It seemed like taking out the cork wasn't necessary, but when he turned it upside down, nothing came out. He shook it a few times and then just as he was about to put it upright and take out the cork, olive oil came streaming out all over the little dish as the cork fell out onto the table. We all started laughing at what had happened as Carlos hastened to right the olive oil and put the cork back in before we made a mess. Just then, the waiter came back with a carafe of wine that Carlos and SoJin had ordered put it down on the little silver dish before we realized what he was doing. Olive oil oozed over the edges and the carafe swam around in the middle. "Oh my God," the waiter said in disbelief, quickly picking up the carafe and the dish and whisking them away. The three of us were absolutely hysterical, laughing so hard we couldn't talk. "They're going to throw us out for being stupid Americans," I finally said (actually, I was the only stupid American - SoJin is Korean/Canadian and Carlos is Spanish). The waiter seemed good-natured about it when he came back, though. He even took this picture for us:

SoJin had said she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, so after dinner (it was after 11pm), we headed back that way. Carlos and SoJin wanted to walk, even though it was on the other side of Paris from the restaurant. We tried to take a Velib bike (the bike sharing program in Paris), but we couldn't find any bikes anywhere. About halfway there, we got tired, so we decided to take the metro. Unfortunately, the closest metro stop wasn't on a line that took us to the Eiffel Tower, so we had to take three different lines one stop each, basically in a circle, to get to a line that would take us where we were going. When we got to that metro, it was so late, it was closed! We were all exhausted, so we decided to call it a day and go home. So, 13 hours after we started, we got home tired and sore from walking, but full of delicious food and great memories.

What can you do with only one day in Paris? Here's my list:

Sacre Coeur
Walk around Montmartre
Amelie cafe
Moulin Rouge
Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysees
Fancy pastries
Les Invalides
Eiffel Tower
Cafe Marly and the Louvre Pyramids
Walk around the Marais
Get crepes at the Breizh Cafe
Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Co.
La Bastide Odeon (and make a fool of yourself)
Eiffel Tower at night (if you take the metro the whole way)

Phew! Pretty good, I'd say!