Paris Slow Travel: Spring in Paris
Ideas for your Next Visit to Paris: 7 Highlights from a Spring Visit in Paris
First published: July 5, 2022
Last updated: March 15, 2023
After a really wonderful trip to France last May, I’m sharing a few of my favorite things from this visit to Paris and the South of France. Read on for details on my high-level itinerary for a 2 week visit to France, as well as some of my favorite experiences while in Paris. Let me know if you are inspired to add a few places and experiences to your wish list! On y va!
My travel itinerary for two weeks in France:
Seven Days In Paris:
3 days on the Right Bank
In the 9th arrondissement, near the Palais Garnier. I loved being super central to so much of Paris. The Opéra area is a great option if you want to visit a lot of the popular destinations in Paris without a long travel time. However, there are a lot of visitors and commuters, so it can be quite busy on weekdays, even early in the morning.
4 days on the Left Bank
In Saint Germain des Prés (6th arrondissement). I’ve stayed in this neighborhood many times before and I know I love it: most streets are much quieter than other central neighborhoods, especially in the morning (my favorite time to walk around Paris!) and it’s still incredibly close to many popular museums and landmarks.
Three days in Menton along the Côte d’Azur
Also known as the French Riviera, the Côte d’Azur is nestled in the southeastern part of France, stretching from the area around Cannes to the Italian border. I stayed in the charming beach town of Menton, the last city along a string of coastal towns just before reaching Italy. This area of France is an amazing cultural blend of French and Italian - the regional commuter train continues right across the border into Italy!
Two days in Aix-en-Provence
In the South of France, nestled in the heart of Provence. We were blown away by the beauty of the Vieille Ville (old city, also known as the city center or centre ville), with its winding cobblestoned streets and lightly colored walls. I felt like we were walking through an impressionist painting!
Two Final Days In Paris
I wrapped up this trip with two days in Paris before flying home. I opted to stay in the northern part of the Saint-Georges neighborhood, located in the 9th arrondissement (Right Bank).
While it wasn’t quite as quick to get to the very center of the city, I loved the local feel of the area and the location just a few minutes’ walk south of Montmartre.
PS - Looking to enjoy visit to Paris? My Paris Explorer Guidebook gives you everything you need to explore the city’s most beautiful neighborhoods, with my curated recommendations to guide you along the way.
Seven Favorite Experiences From A Week In Paris (May 2022)
The weather during this trip was pretty perfect: about 80 degrees, sunny and a light breeze the entire time - that alone is a highlight for sure! Read on for seven of my favorite experiences from my time in Paris:
Paris Highlight No. 1 | A Day Trip To Reims (Champagne!)
First up: something I did while staying in Paris that isn’t actually in the city at all :)
I planned what ended up being a fairly aggressive day trip to Reims, which is known unofficially as the champagne capital of France and is the largest city in the region. My friend Anne and I visited two champagne houses, the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Reims, and did plenty of (speed) walking through Reims’ charming center city. I have a full blog post on this, called A Day Trip to Champagne, if you want to learn more.
Paris Highlight No. 2 | A Rooftop Dinner In Paris
Le Pont Neuf bridge from Le Tout Paris
My aunt and I dined at Le Tout Paris, a rooftop bar and restaurant atop the stunning Cheval Blanc Paris. This hotel opened in 2021 and is adjacent to Samaritaine, a gorgeous art deco department store that also recently opened after 15 years of closure and renovations. The food and drinks were wonderful, the staff was great, but the view over the Seine is the star of the show.
The Seine and the Eiffel Tower from Le Tout Paris
Reservations are essential, and even if you don’t secure an outdoor balcony seat, there are areas of the balcony where you can stand outside for a few moments to enjoy the view (and maybe snap an incredible photo, too!). I recommend it for a very special occasion spot, with possibly the most perfect Parisian rooftop view.
Paris Highlight No. 3 | A Private Louvre Tour
Time for a confession: I’ve visited the Louvre before… and I really didn’t like it. It was crowded, incredibly huge and overwhelming, it happened to be a super hot day (that one isn’t the Louvre’s fault!), and I’m just not the biggest fan of classic art - I’m drawn to impressionist and post-impressionist art. So the fact that this experience landed in the top 10 was a surprise for me. Our private Louvre tour was a complete 180 from my previous experiences - Stephanie Nadalo led our Paris Muse Tour (The Louvre’s Hidden Masterpieces), and she did an incredible job weaving in two seemingly unrelated requests from me into a fascinating narrative about the Louvre’s social and architectural history: 1. seeing the old city walls under the Louvre, and 2. Visiting the Napoleon III apartments.
During our tour, Stephanie shared that the city walls were discovered as part of I.M. Pei’s project, which I also learned wasn’t just about the glass pyramid, but also included an entire underground expansion to double the display capacity of the Louvre.
The tour was capped with a fascinating look into the Marie de Médicis Cycle paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, something I’m very certain I would never have paused to explore myself.
If you’re easily overwhelmed by large art museums, I highly recommend a private or small group tour for your next visit. And un grand merci to Stephanie for weaving such a fabulous narrative on the fly!
Paris Highlight No. 4 | Enjoying Saint Germain Des Prés
It’s popular for a reason: Saint Germain des Prés remains without a doubt one of my favorite neighborhoods to stay in while visiting Paris. Located in the 6th arrondissement, Saint Germain des Prés is on Paris’ left bank (the half of Paris to the “left,” or south-east, of the river Seine) and is perhaps most well-known as a literary hub during much of the 20th century.
This neighborhood dates back to the 500s, when it was originally a religious and rural community. Today it is a gorgeous pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with plenty of charming, winding streets, Parisian cafés, old shops and courtyards, and beautiful architecture.
For me, a visit to Paris isn’t complete without a few morning walks around this neighborhood, along with some leisurely visits to the Jardin du Luxembourg, one of Paris’ largest and most gorgeous parks.
I enjoyed an incredible four-night stay at the Relais Christine, a five-star boutique hotel in the heart of Saint Germain des Prés. This was a special treat for me, and I loved the traditional French decor, the incredible staff, and being able to come back to this near-silent oasis in the middle of the city. My room’s cozy balcony overlooking the lush hotel courtyard was the perfect spot for a quiet morning croissant and cup of coffee.
A bonus: the Relais Christine’s location just a couple of blocks from the Seine on the charming Rue Christine makes it an ideal home base for an easy walk to catch sunsets like these:
Paris Highlight No. 5 | A Morning Walk In Montmartre
A visit to Paris isn’t complete for me without at least one good long stroll through Montmartre, preferably in the morning. Not only is it quiet, even in most touristy areas of Montmartre, but the light is also incredible - at the start of the day, it softly peeks around the neighborhood's curving, hilly streets. Luckily the weather on this trip was incredibly beautiful, so I have a handful of images I added to The Print Shop, shot during my day spent enjoying a morning in Montmartre during this trip to Paris.
Want to explore Montmartre for yourself? My 7 Day Paris Explorer Guidebook includes all my favorite spots, along with a mini self-guided walk, through this charming hillside village in Paris.
If you’re in the midst of a Montmartre rabbit hole, don’t miss my blog post about my visit to the last operational vineyard in Paris.
Paris Highlight No. 6 | Temporary Steve McCurry Exhibit At Musée Maillol, Paris
I was fortunate enough to be in town during the temporary Le Monde de Steve McCurry exhibit at Musée Maillol (on through July 31, 2022). Steve McCurry is an American portrait and environmental photographer, known for capturing stirring images of people and their environments trapped in conflict. He is most famous for his photograph of the Afghan Girl, later identified as Sharbat Gulah. The juxtaposition of his two photographs of Gulah (taken almost 20 years apart) was a definite highlight, but the entire exhibit is incredible. Bonus: the complimentary audio tour has an extra bonus for English speakers, as it was narrated by McCurry himself.
Missed this temporary exhibit? I like to use the Paris tourism office website, along with Sortir à Paris, for information on temporary exhibitions in the city during my travel dates.
Paris Highlight No. 7 | An Impromptu Petite Chocolate Tour
The storefront of Plaq, a producer of incredible chocolate in the heart of Paris.
What was intended to be a brief stop to pick up a chocolate bar turned into a mini Willy Wonka-esque chocolate tour at Plaq, a small-batch chocolate manufacturer in the heart of Paris. After bringing a bar back from my previous visit to Paris, my husband raved about how much he enjoyed his bar of chocolate. Since he’s not one to rave too easily, I knew we had to go back together.
A member of the Plaq team listened to me recount this story, and immediately brought us back behind the counter to see the process for ourselves(!). The Plaq team member and I, both speaking an intermediate amount of the other’s language, “franglais’d” our way through an impromptu tour of how Plaq chocolate is made.
We learned about how the beans are heated up slowly in a (very small) oven, then small batched through a shelling machine. This step of heating up the beans just enough to remove all the bitter outer shell is an essential step for Plaq chocolate. A man was working at the counter, sifting through beans by hand to ensure that all pieces of the bitter shell were removed before melting the chocolate. The chocolate is melted for at least 3 days in a large pot, very slowly and gently, adding small amounts of sugar over time.
Plaq doesn’t use butter or oil in making chocolate, and sources beans from all over the world in an effort to demonstrate the terroirs of the chocolate beans. This intentional approach to remove the bitter outer shell (by hand!), melt the chocolate in a very slow way, and use as few ingredients as possible, leaving a very different and pure-tasting chocolate, but without the bitterness. To end our impromptu tour, the staff member pointed out the massive blocks of chocolate hardening on shelves above the register and coffee bar. After 2 weeks, voila the chocolate is ready to be cut and divided into bars.
We’ve been enjoying our chocolate since we’ve returned home, and reminisced about the special little surprises like this one that can make a visit so special.
Planning For Paris
Et voila: a few places and experiences to add to your next visit to Paris. Looking for more Paris travel planning ideas? Start with my *free* One Day in Paris Guidebook for a super flexible, full-day itinerary in Paris.
If you’re in the city for longer (and I hope you are!), consider my signature 7 Day Paris Explorer Guidebook, a 120-page PDF guidebook that gives you everything you need to know for a week in the city.
Please leave a note below if I’ve mentioned any of your Paris favorites, or inspired you to add a new experience to your travel wish list.
Thanks for following along, and bon voyage!
~ Lauren
PS - If you enjoyed these photos, you’ll love my Paris photography. I offer single print images, as well as my Collection Sets: I’ve curated the Collection Sets specifically to give you a set of images that go beautifully together, so you can enjoy memories from Paris that remind you of your trip (or inspire you for a future visit!). The best part: I offer my Print Collections at a discount compared to buying the full set of prints individually (win-win!).
