While I had visited Paris a few times in the past, I had never been to the City of Lights in the summer. I was dubious about spending time in France’s capital city in July, as it would be crowded with tourists, while many of the locals were escaping the heat for the sea or the country. However, I don’t think I could ever say no to a few days in Paris, and there were a couple of sites near the city that I had yet to see: the Champagne wine region and the Palace of Versailles. Summer seemed like a great time for both day trips. I decided to tack on a third full day to spend wandering the city streets, and my itinerary was settled.

My Airbnb in Le Marais

While I had stayed at a number of lovely Paris hotels on previous trips, and I had a long bucket list of luxurious Paris hotels to see in the future, I decided to get an apartment for this visit. It’s always nice to live like a local, not to mention the convenience of having a kitchen. I chose to stay in Le Marais, a trendy neighborhood on the Right Bank full of art galleries, restaurants and boutiques. It was the West Village of Paris, except in Paris, so even better.

My Airbnb wasn’t large, but it was updated and full of charm. It felt like the French version of a compact yet luxurious NYC apartment, and upon settling in, I couldn’t help but imagine what my life would be like if I lived in Paris.

Champagne Tour

As mentioned previously, I had never visited Champagne, which was obviously a problem I needed to remedy. I booked a small group tour through Airbnb Experiences that included visits to two champagne houses and transportation to Reims from Paris.

The meeting point for the tour was an hour-long walk from my apartment, but Paris being an amazing walking city, I opted to go on foot. While the forecast predicted that temperatures would peak at 42 Celsius/108 Fahrenheit during my four days in the city, the weather was still tolerable at 7am in the morning.

After a lovely stroll, I met up with my fellow travelers (nearly all from the United States) and our guide, Luiz, and we boarded our van for the 90 minute drive to the first winery. After being spoiled with private wine tours, I was hopeful that I’d at least meet some interesting people on a group tour. Everyone was perfectly nice… but also what you would expect from American tourists that visit Paris in July (present company excluded, of course). I realize that I sound like an obnoxious snob right now, but bear with me.

Here’s an example: One of the couples was in their 30s, lived in Seattle, had recently relocated from New York, and they both worked in advertising. We had a promising amount in common. But that’s where the similarities ended. They were visiting France for the first time on their honeymoon, so they opted to spend the entire ten days in Paris. I asked what they had done during their visit, and they listed off the normal activities: the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Musée d’Orsay, Versailles… and Disneyland.

Wait, WTF?! You went to France to go to Disneyland?!?! I did my best to keep a straight face and respect their choices in travel as they chattered on about how fun it had been to go to an American theme park in France, but in my head I was judging them severely.

C’mon! France features so much to see and do! As an American spending ten days in the country, please don’t go to Disneyland. If you feel like you’ve run out of touristy things to do, you can always sit at a café, have a picnic in the park, or simply stroll around the city, and you’ll have a wonderfully authentic Parisian experience. If you want to do Disney, just go to Florida. Okay, my rant is over.

Eventually we arrived at the first winery, so it was time for me to get off my high horse and start enjoying the surroundings. Our first stop of the day: Champagne Salmon (not to be confused with Billecart-Salmon).

Of course, our visit started with a tour of the facility before we could indulge in a tasting. I got a thorough education in the traditional process of producing Champagne (also referred to as Méthode Traditionnelle, among other things). The most important distinction of this process is that the second fermentation that acts to carbonate the wine occurs inside the bottle. Some other fun facts about Champagne:

• The standard grapes used to produce Champagne are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. A Blanc de Blancs is made with just the white grapes (Chardonnay).
• After the grapes are picked, pressed and fermented, the wine is blended and bottled. Yeast and sugar are added to produce the secondary fermentation (this is when the bubbles develop). Champagne must then age for at least 15 months.
• At this point, the yeast particles are still in the bottle, but need to be removed. The bottles then go through a process called “riddling,” where they are set at a downward-facing angle and regularly rotated so the sediment settles at the top of the bottle.
• Then, it is time for disgorgement! This was the most exciting part of the facility tour since we got to see the process in person. While disgorgement by hand is possible, these days it is much more common to use machines. The very top of the bottle is placed into freezing liquid, after which the cap is popped off, and the frozen yeast sediment removed. The machine was loud, as you can probably imagine, but efficient.
• The bottles are topped off with sugar and wine mixture, a cork is added, and the Champagne is ready to go!

After our first tasting, we headed to the village of Hautvillers, which has been called “the birthplace of champagne.” It was also the home of the Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Next up: Reims. First we enjoyed lunch at a large restaurant in town.

Our final winery visit was at the famous Lanson Champagne House.

And that was a wrap on the Champagne tour. While I didn’t find any fellow travelers to bond with (clearly, Euro Disney is just not my thing), I felt like I learned a lot and could officially check Champagne off my Paris day trip list. I’d love to return for an overnight or weekend trip so I could explore the region more thoroughly. For now, I had another day trip on the itinerary: Versailles.

Bicycling through Versailles

While it was a perfectly normal thing to do a self-guided tour of Versailles, I once again chose to book a small group tour through Airbnb Experiences. The tour promised to be much more than just a guided visit to the Palace of Versailles; we would also ride bikes through town, explore the market, and have a picnic on the palace grounds. It sounded like the perfect way to see an ultra-touristy site with some local touches, and minimal effort on my part.

Similar to the Champagne tour, I had to meet the group at a location on the Left Bank nearly an hour’s walk from my apartment. Not a problem, as I was happy to walk through Paris again in the morning. I found my crew, and we headed to the train that would take us to Versailles. The group was mainly American once again – even our guide was from the States. He had recently moved to France after graduating from university to pursue a career in hospitality, was dating a French girl, and possessed the slightly haughty demeanor of an expat ready to denounce his former life. On one hand, I couldn’t really blame him, but I also felt like he could stand to take the attitude down a few notches. What do you really know at 23 years old?

Anyway, let’s move on. We arrived in Versailles, picked up our bikes, and headed for the palace. Quick history refresher: Versailles was the primary French royal residence in the 17th and 18th centuries until the French Revolution started in 1789. Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI (plus Marie Antoinette) all resided in the sumptuous palace. It also boasts a ton more historical significance, but I’m not writing a history book here.

I’ll be honest, walking inside the Palace of Versailles was a shit show, for lack of a better description. It was packed with people, and there was never any break in the crowds. We had an excellent licensed guide, Stu (not the haughty 23-year-old) who did his best to steer us to areas where we’d have some space. But in a few places, he was honest and told us that we were going to be smothered with people. His advice: “If they push, you should push back.” Well, okay then. I channeled my inner New Yorker and braved the scene.

As much as I loved learning the history of the palace, the crowds were getting to me. It was a relief when we headed back outside and got on our bikes again.

At the market we were treated to a brief wine tasting, then set free to purchase supplies for our picnic back on the grounds of Versailles. I bought an eclectic mix of veggies, falafel, cheese, baguette and wine.

Once everyone had purchased their picnic lunch, we biked back to the palace ground for a relaxing meal in the shade. I don’t know if it was the heat, or the consecutive early morning wake-up calls (probably both), but I was apparently not in the mood for taking pictures, because I have no visual documentation of the afternoon. It was nice to sit, chat and share some wine with my fellow travelers, though.

My favorite travel-mates were a mother-daughter duo from the Bay Area. The mom was an extreme extrovert, but in a good way. She didn’t just blather on about herself; she kept trying to engage with me and learn about my life. I felt like she partly wanted to be inclusive since I was traveling on my own, but she also seemed to be genuinely interested in my story. The daughter was headed to Georgetown in the fall, and this trip was her graduation gift (they decided to leave the dad at home). I admired their close relationship and was happy that they were able to enjoy a special vacation together, as I had never had the same opportunity with my mother.

I had been looking forward to seeing the gardens since many of my friends had told me they were the highlight of a visit to Versailles. Unfortunately, due to the heat, our guides decided that it wasn’t advisable to bring us to a minimally-shaded open space during the hottest part of the day. Damn it. Maybe one day I’d come back to Versailles – but not in mid-July.

After an ice cream break, we dropped off our bikes and boarded the train back to Paris. I bade the group farewell and rushed back to my apartment for a shower – then it was time to get out on the town.

Out & About in Paris

I have a long list of bars and restaurants from previous trips to Paris, and I may later append those to this list, or create a new post, or I may just keep them to myself. For now, let’s start with the places I visited in July 2019 (almost all new, with the exception of one timeless classic).

Le Saint Sebastien – I had the benefit of receiving a solid list of recommendations from my brother Jonathan, who had visited Paris the week before I arrived. Le Saint Sebastien was one of two new restaurants on his list. After stuffing myself with heavy, creamy French food at Michelin star restaurants over the past couple weeks, I was thrilled by the fresh, vegetable-forward fare at this neighborhood joint. I was also treated to a corner table overlooking the kitchen, which I always appreciate, but especially when dining solo, as it offers a show more entertaining than scrolling through my phone.

Chez Marius – The other newish restaurant that my brother recommended, Chez Marius was opened by a couple of Italian guys a couple years earlier. Jonathan had warned me that they’d probably get me drunk, and that’s what happened, but the food was also delectable. The restaurant didn’t have a set menu, but offered a good variety of fresh, seasonal seafood that was all prepared incredibly.

I opted to sit at the bar and chat with the bartender while he poured me glass after glass of wine (most of them free).

Cambridge Public House – Let’s move on to bars now. My brother directed me to visit Cambridge Public House, a new pub-style cocktail bar conveniently located just a few minutes from my apartment. Jonathan’s friend Hyacinth had recently returned from London to open the venue, and I figured it would be a good place to start. True to its pub nature, the space was open and inviting, with expansive windows that looked out on to the street. My first visit was a bit of a strike-out; I asked the first guy I saw if “Hi-uh-synth” was working; turns out, I asked just the right man, but he pronounced his name “Ya-senth” (or something like that – my French accent is embarrassingly awful, but the gist is that the “h” is silent). Then the bar became jam-packed (on a Monday, no less!) with the friends of the guest bartender onsite for the evening. I could tell that everyone just wanted my bar seat, so I finished my drink and vacated the premises.

My second visit went much better. It was my last day in Paris, which would also go down as the city’s hottest recorded day in history. Of course, none of the bars or restaurants had air conditioning (this was Europe), but Cambridge at least had some air flow going with its large open windows. A striking contrast to my first visit a few days prior, I was one of just three guests at the bar. I quickly gathered that the other two were both in the hospitality industry, and we all made small talk with Hyacinth as we downed our drinks and tried to stay cool.

Little Red Door – I discovered LRD with Jonathan when we first visited Paris together in 2015. A perennial on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, Little Red Door was known for its warm hospitality and excellent cocktails. My brother continued to spend many, many hours at the bar on subsequent solo trips, and we eventually returned together during our family Christmas trip in 2017. Of course, I couldn’t be in Paris and not have a drink at Little Red Door.

On my last night in town, I walked up to the (what else?) little red door and was delighted to see that Laurent was still working the door. He of course did not recognize me, but was pleasant as always, and led me to a cushy seat at the bar. Then I looked to my left and realized that my bar-mate was Chris, one of the two fellows from Cambridge Public House a few hours earlier. Ha! Small world.

Chris told me he was moving to Marseille the next day, so he was just doing his farewell rounds and would be leaving after a drink. Then we discovered our shared love for Negronis and the rest is history.

Originally from Edinburgh, Chris had moved to Paris to become a chef. Most recently he had worked at Bonhomie, owned by the same group that owned Little Red Door. We eventually put two and two together, and realized that 1) Chris had met my brother multiple times, having enjoyed drinks with Jonathan as recently as the previous week, and 2) I would have met Chris much earlier if I hadn’t wussed out on the Bonomy Group Christmas party a couple years prior.

More discussion (and more Negronis) ensued, mostly revolving around food and restaurants. Who better to discuss food with than a chef? We even made tentative plans to meet up in San Sebastian the following month. Who better to enjoy the gastronomic delights of Basque country with than a chef?

I’m pretty sure I was still drunk when I woke up the next morning – OOPS. I had not intended for my last night in Paris to get so rowdy, but it wasn’t a bad way to end things. I had survived the heat wave, I had made some new friends, and I would have a week back in New York to detox before returning to Europe for a month-long trip to Spain and Portugal. Things could be worse.