Bonjour mes amis,

Since we’re living abroad, I don’t get to see my family and friends back home more than once or twice a year, so I was thrilled when my friends invited me to crash their weekend away. It was also my first time in Paris in more than a decade.

Friday, 15 August 2025

My journey to Paris started with a train to London Paddington. From there, I got the tube to King’s Cross/St Pancras, and then the Eurostar to Gare du Nord in Paris. Paris has an underground, the Metro, which I took to my hotel in the Vendôme area.

I dropped my things off at my hotel and met up with my friends at theirs. We walked through the Jardin des Tuileries, which is named after the medieval tile factories (tuileries) that had previously occupied that site. Catherine de Medici, who had moved to Paris from Florence when she married Henry II of England, ordered a new palace and gardens be built. The palace has since been destroyed, but the gardens remain. The current design is from the 1990s. (Louvre website).

We also walked by the Louvre. Most of what you see today was built as a palace during the reign of Francis I and Louis XIV in the 16th and 17th centuries. In addition to housing many famous works, it’s the largest museum in the world. Designed by I.M. Pei, the pyramid was added in the 1980s to accommodate the increasing flow of patrons. (Louvre website).

The Louvre’s website explains, “I.M. Pei wanted the Pyramid’s glass sides to be absolutely transparent, so that the Louvre Palace’s historical facades could be admired from both inside and outside the Pyramid, in the Cour Napoléon. No fewer than two years of research were required to develop an extra-clear glass.” 

We rested our feet at our respective hotels and then met up to walk to dinner at Le Voltaire, which was excellent. I had the heirloom tomato carpaccio with feta cream, basil, and roasted hazelnuts, followed by the beef fillet a la plancha with béarnaise sauce.

We stayed for tea, and by the time we left, we had room for dessert. We ended our evening with delicious Nutella crepes at a crepe stand.