As soon as I realized that Veteran's Day fell on a Monday this year, I was determined to find some cheap flights for a long weekend European getaway.

Paris seemed like the perfect destination because I have never been, and my husband studied abroad there and his French is still really solid. Our trip ended up being a wonderful blend of some of the big tourist things and revisiting some of his favorite places.



We left DC on Thursday evening, but things didn't start out on the most smooth note. Minutes after getting off the shuttle from the parking lots to the airport, I realized I had forgotten to lock the car. So we had to get back on the shuttle, ride back out to the car so I could lock it. That took a solid 20 minutes and of course, by the time we got back to the airport the security lines were long. (Aer Lingus doesn't participate in TSA pre-check, so we had to go through the regular lines).

After we took off, we had turbulence so bad the pilot said he had to descend to find smoother air. So we pretty quickly dropped from 39,000 feet to 32,000 feet somewhere between Boston and Halifax. (I know this because I was furiously monitoring the flight tracker on my tv screen, while death gripping the arm rests and praying we weren't about to die).

Thank goodness things improved tenfold after we got through that turbulence, and the rest of the trip was wonderful.



After landing in Paris, we made our way to our hotel, and even though we were very early, our room was available. So we checked in, dropped our bags, and debated the merits of a quick nap since neither of us had slept on the plane.

We ultimately decided to just power through and headed out for caffeine and croissants before seeing the sights.

We walked all over, and I was generally in awe of all the beautiful architecture. From the Opera, to the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe, everything felt so ornate and regal.



Our first day included most of the traditional touristy things to do in Paris.

We walked from the Opera to the Louvre. We didn't go in the Louvre. Though I appreciate art, I wanted to spend our limited time in the city doing other things. We did spend some time admiring the gorgeous exterior of the building and walking through the park that the Louvre surrounds.





We then walked up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe.



The Arc de Triomphe was probably one of my favorite things that we saw. It was huge and also incredibly beautiful. The sculptures on the exterior were so intricate.







And the view from the top was lovely.







I don't remember what this was a statue of, but it was inside the top of the Arc and made me laugh a lot.





After the inspiring views, we made a pit stop at a grocery store for some bread, wine and cheese. I knew French wine would be cheaper than what we can buy here in the U.S., but I didn't realize how much cheaper. We bought a great bottle of Cabernet for 3 euro! Our entire grocery bill was 6 euro!

We took our haul to the Trocadero and had ourselves a nice picnic at the Eiffel Tour. My favorite things about Paris were definitely the experiences like this.


Busy being the classiest person you will ever meet

We wrapped up our first day with a walk past the Army museum and ended with dinner at a classic French brasserie that came highly recommended.



I ate snails for the first time and they were surprisingly good. Would order them again in a heartbeat.



Day 2 was more about exploring some of the neighborhoods where my husband spent time while he was studying abroad.

We started the day with some touristy stuff on the islands. We couldn't get too close to the Notre Dame because of the fire.



So we opted to visit Saint Chapelle instead.







Then we spent the rest of the morning walking around the islands and down the right and left banks of the river.





We popped in to a few of the churches on the left bank. They were all gorgeous with that stunning old architecture.





We also detoured into some of the neighborhoods to find the apartment my husband lived in during his study abroad semester.

We walked through Luxembourg Gardens and past the Pantheon on our way to the Latin Quarter.



I loved the Latin Quarter. All the shops and street food and the delicious smells as you walked down these cute little streets. It was such a fun and lively atmosphere and definitely one my favorite parts of the trip.

I also really loved the Saint-Michel fountain. None of my pictures came out great, but there's a statue of St. Michael stomping on the devil. And the devil just had this ridiculous smirk on his face that I couldn't get over. Maybe I have a special place in my heart because I went to St. Michael the Archangel middle school, but I loved this fountain.





We also spent some time strolling through Le Marais, drinking mulled wine sold from a street vendor and wandering around the Bastille -- an area of town my husband used to spend time in while he lived in Paris.

We spent Saturday evening in Montmarte. After climbing a million stairs, I got to experience the charm of this bustling neighborhood. We visited Sacre-Couer. We wandered in to the cute shops and we grabbed some more mulled wine at a cute bistro. We sat outside under a heat lamp, and even though it was kind of chilly it was fun to watch all the hustle and bustle around us.


Sacre-Couer at night





We also walked into this chocolate shop where there were famous Parisian sites sculpted out of chocolate. My pictures didn't come out too awesome because of the reflection off the glass, but I was so amused by all of this.





We had a really open agenda for Day 3. We planned to visit Versailles in the morning and then leave the afternoon for revisiting any of our favorite neighborhoods.

The palace of Versailles was definitely cool to see, but since it rained, and it was really cold and grey all morning, I feel like I didn't get to truly experience the gardens. I took a couple of pictures, but it was just too raw to be outside for very long. It was a little bit of a bummer because I would have loved to spend more time walking around.











When we got back to Paris, we decided to grab some street food in the Latin Quarter. I had a crepe stuffed full of Nutella and was basically in heaven.

After wandering around the Latin Quarter some more, we ducked out of the cold into the pub where my husband used to watch NFL games while he lived in Paris. We thawed out over a drink that wasn't wine.

Because we had some free time, we decided to do one of those super touristy river cruises. The tour itself wasn't anything too special, but it was a fun way to see the city. Because we did the cruise later in the day, by the end, all the lights in the city had come on and everything was quite beautiful.


Construction at the Notre Dame



We wrapped up our trip with dinner at a family style fondue place that was a favorite from the study abroad days. This dinner was one of the highlights of our trip. The food was good, but the company was better. We had a great time getting to know the Scottish couple that we were seated next to. We spent the night laughing and eating and just enjoying the atmosphere.

Oh and the place served its wine out of baby bottles. I read a review that implied it was to avoid some random wine tax. No clue if that's true or not, but it was hilarious to see all these grown people drinking their wine from bottles.



It was the perfect dinner to wrap up a really fun long weekend getaway.

Three days in Paris seemed like the perfect amount of time. I felt like I got such a great taste of the city -- seeing some of the tourist highlights but also exploring some neighborhoods that I wouldn't have known anything about if not for my travel partner who had lived there.