Life is short–eat dessert first.

If you’re in the mood for dessert, Paris is the place to be. We can’t figure out how everyone here remains so thin and stylish when there are so many tempting food shops. Besides their amazing patisseries, Paris has a deli, boulangerie, fromagerie, charcuterie and twenty other types of food shops to tempt you on your walks throughout the city. This isn’t even taking into account the restaurants, bistros, bars and cafés.
Luckily, there are plenty of beautiful parks and museums to explore. We spent about six hours walking the first and fourth arrondissements, which include the area near the Louvre and the Marais neighborhoods. We explored the Palais Royal gardens and wandered around admiring the beautiful architecture on the side streets.
The Marais district is a fun area for window shopping. There are plenty of charming boutiques with wonderful window displays to lure in the shoppers. Despite the fact that it’s a grey day in February, the stores are already showing their bright, spring colors to make us believe that spring is on its way. The fashions are truly amazing, but the prices are out of my budget. And we haven’t seen any winter sales going on, either.
Right now Paris is full of French tourists on their winter “ski” holiday. The schools get a two week break in February. Whenever we’re in the popular tourist areas, we see lots of families and school groups. Paris is a popular destination, even in winter.
We’re staying in a petit apartment in the 13th arrondissement, which is an easy walk from the Left Bank. We also have a metro stop a few blocks away. Once you get away from the touristy areas, it helps to know some French. There are still plenty of Parisians who aren’t fluent in English. As long as we don’t forget our bonjour when we enter any business establishment, we’re fine. I can even ask questions pretty well and everyone has been very kind and helpful.
We are eating well, walking all over the place and enjoying the mild weather—Paris in the winter—pas mal.