France & Switzerland ( Part 1 ) PARIS -- June 10 - 18, 2025

For our summer trip this year, we decided to spend 3 weeks in France and 5 days in Switzerland.  We flew in and out of Paris.  Our plans included one week in Paris, 3 days in the Normandy area, 4 days in Provence, 2 days in St. Tropez, 2 days in Annecy then into Switzerland for 4 days before returning to Paris for our flight home.  I will split my travel blog into 3 parts because I have so many pictures.

PARIS FRANCE

We started our trip on Tuesday, June 10th, with an Uber to Denver and a little time in the lounge..

...before for an overnight flight on British Airways from Denver to London then London to Paris.  No one slept much on the flight.  The girls had time for face masks.

After finding our apartment in Paris, we had a quick dinner, a beautiful pastry from the corner patisserie and straight to bed.  

June 12, 2025 - Thursday 

After breakfast croissants we walked to the Bastille Market where locals shop for their weekly food. They had everything at this market - clothes, cheese, furniture, meat, fruit, veggies, art.  

The produce is so fresh in France.  We bought some strawberries and ate almost the whole container right at the market.

We walked back to our apartment and made lunch from our market purchases which included half a chicken, potato, cucumber, brie and a fresh baguette. 

We took a few minutes to relax after lunch then we headed back out on the metro for sight seeing. We went to Notre Dame

Then walked over to the Latin Quarter for a cool drink in the park

and a crepe.

We walked along the seine river and across Pont de Neuf

where the girls did some shopping at department store called Samaritaine Paris. In France they have jelly cat stuffies that are exclusive to France. They were looking for a specific one, but they did not have it so they got a macroon and an eclair. 

 From there we walked to the Louvre.  We didn't have tickets to go in so we took pictures outside. James and I have seen the Mona Lisa and found it underwhelming...we are not museum people...the girls didn't care.  We did offer to let them go in while we waited at the cafe.

                    

                                            

We had already walked 5 miles that day so we decided to go back to the apartment and rest a bit before our 9 pm tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant on our street before heading back out.

We got there as the sun was setting.  It was beautiful from the top

We took our time at the top and the middle level so it was dark before we came back down.

We were there late enough that we saw the "sparkle show" at 11 pm.

We were finally back to our apartment around 12:20 am.   We had walked 8.3 miles that day.  

June 13, 2025 -  Friday

We were all so tired from our long day in Paris that we all slept until 11 am!  We had lunch plans that day so we hurried out of the apartment to meet Jenoa and Collin for lunch near our apartment.  Jenoa is the daughter of our friends (family by relation) and they recently moved to Paris.  We had a great lunch with them at a local cafe.

Afterwards the girls realized that Flying Tiger was nearby so we had to stop and shop there.

By then it was already mid afternoon and hot (92).  We wanted to go to Montemarte that day to see the Sacre Coeur church.  

We stopped for a quick ice cream treat before conquering the long stairs up to the church. 

After touring the church, James decided to take the stairs to the top

while the girls and I waited on the steps.  It was SOOO hot

so we had to move into the shade.

We walked around the shopping district, had a slushy drink from Starbucks (with air conditioning)..

then went back to our neighborhood (the 11th arrondissement) for dinner and bed.  

June 14, 2025  - Saturday

Again, everyone slept late. James popped down to the corner Boulangerie for breakfast items before the girls were even up.  Anikka loves croissants with raspberry in them, Elin prefers a standard croissant or a pain au chocolate.  

We decided to go Galleries LaFayette which is a famous shopping mall in Paris with a beautiful art deco ceiling.    It is impossible to get a good picture so I found one on the internet.

While looking in the toy area for more Jellycat stuffies (they were looking specifically for a croissant), the girls realized that Paris has the ONLY Jellycat Patisserie in the world 

so, of course, we had to try it.  You pick the stuffy you want and then you pretend to make it at the patisserie. It was cute.  

We stopped by a cafe in the store for a drink

walked out on the glass bridge

and had a quick look out on the terrace. 

After shopping we took the metro to the 5th arrondissement called La Marais.  It's the "old" part of Paris.  We got Jambon Beurre (ham/butter) sandwiches and a few other things and went to Place des Vosges for a picnic.

Across the street from the park is a cafe called Carette that is famous for its thick hot chocolate with Chantilly cream.  This was Anikka's only food request in Paris, that we try this hot chocolate.

It was as decadent and delicious as it looks.

We did some more shopping, I specifically wanted to go to a store called Merci that sells the cutest bags that everyone in Paris carries.

We walked back to our apartment for dinner -  snacks we bought at the Carrefour City on our way back.  We rested a little and did some laundry in the smallest washer ever (it held about 4 shirts and took 2.5 hours to wash).  In the evening we went to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe.

Louis Vitton store - looks like a trunk

7 miles of walking....and another late night..

June 15, 2025 - Sunday

Father's Day.   We all slept in again (this became a bad habit in Paris)  so by the time we were ready to leave is was almost lunch.  We decided to eat at a cafe on the corner near our apartment then went to Luxembourg Gardens to sit and relax like Parisians.

We made our way to Trocadero to get pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the daytime.

Laci flew in overnight to go with us to Disney Paris and we met up with her there.

then went back to La Marais for beef bourguignon soup at a famous restaurant called Au Bourguignon du Marais.  It was delicious.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at our corner patisserie for a late night treat.

6-16-25  Monday

DISNEY DAY!   We actually had to set an alarm so we could get up on time to get to Disney as early as possible.  But, the girls were so excited for this day that they didn't mind.  

We had tickets to both Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios.  Ratatouille was the ride that girls wanted to do most, since it is a French story.  It was at Disney studios so we started there.  They also got "ears" with a Ratatouille theme.

We did a few rides there

then went to the Disneyland side.

We were able to ride quite a few rides. The park is smaller than Disneyland in America.  Some rides were similar but not the same.  We had a fun but tiring day.  It was fun to have Laci with us too.

6-17-25  Tuesday

Last day in Paris.... we had 10 am tickets to Versailles.  So, we had to get up earlier again. After Disney Day, everyone was exhausted but we powered through. We took the RER train to Versailles...

...looked around the palace

then had lunch and went out to see the enormous gardens.  

We rented a golf cart so that we could see more of the gardens and some other buildings (Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon)  that are farther away from the palace.  The girls thought that was the best part of the day.

It is such a big place...the gardens went on forever....and it is hard to take good pictures. 

We had a snack at McDough (as they call it France) while waiting for the train.  When we got back to the apartment we warmed up leftovers 

and had some time to relax and pack up.  James and Elin went out for one last crepe.

We enjoyed our little 2 bed, 2 bath apartment on a local street called Poppincourt in the 11th.

It was around the corner from a metro stop and had everything we needed within a block or two.  It also had air conditioning, which is rare, and we were so grateful for after long days walking in the heat. 

We had a full week in Paris and it was hardly enough time. There is so much to do. We loved how everything in Paris was convenient.  There was a bakery/pastry shop on every corner.  We ate so many warm fresh baguettes and croissants.  Mini grocery stores and produce markets were nearby and there were lots of sidewalk cafes.   We took the metro everywhere at all hours.  On our last night in Paris I calculated our steps. In 7 days we did 94,000 steps and 42 miles.