When you have a fabulous friend who wants to celebrate a birthday in Paris, and you are only a 3 ½ hour train ride away, of course you go. We boarded a train on a Friday evening to spend the last weekend in February taking in both impressive and macabre sights, and drinking champagne in Paris.
Our Airbnb was well priced and in a perfect location in the 3rd Arrondissement for walking to many of the main sights around Paris. Additionally, the neighborhood is full of cafes, restaurants, and bars in quaint and narrow streets.
We started the celebrations with champagne tasting at Ma Cave Fleury, a sweet wine bar, known for its biodynamic champagnes. Simply put, biodynamic uses organic methods, and adds the practice of basing phases of farming on lunar cycles.
What a special experience to try champagne from a pioneering family of this method.
Saturday was the day of the Birthday, day of fun. We toured the Louvre early, a wonderful museum experience, so many treasures and never enough time to see everything.
Our next tour, seeing the Catacombs of Paris, was quite a different experience. In the late 1700’s, contents of cemeteries believed to be causing health issues in the capital were moved into old quarries. The tour winds for an hour through tunnels lined with bones and skulls of the dead, 20 meters underground. It is fascinating that this is open to the public and has been since 1809. This tour is ghoulish and macabre. We highly recommend.
This was February 2022, and blue and yellow lights lit up the Eiffel Tower in support for Ukraine. We booked tickets for Saturday night to go to the top of the Tower. Only for those without a fear of heights. The elevator that takes you up is very old and creaky, it seems to work, but doesn’t exactly build confidence. At the top it was both cold and windy, not a time to linger 900 feet up.
After that experience, a quick walk took us to our dinner reservations at La Fontaine de Mars. This brasserie with red-and-white checked tablecloths serves amazing classic French dishes. A lovely experience. Champagne in Paris at midnight wrapped up the festivities for the birthday.
Before heading to the train station Sunday, we stopped at Holybelly 5 for an amazing breakfast. Wonderful ambiance, open kitchen, and generous helpings of delicious pancakes and eggs. Sunday at noon we board a train back to Stuttgart. What a fabulous way to celebrate a birthday!
Santé!
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