Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report 30-Year Wedding Anniv Trip to Greece and Paris

The last leg of our trip took us from Athens to Paris. We flew into Orly and took the bus to the Denfert-Rochereau train station, which was only a few blocks away from our hotel, the Marriott Rive Gauche. We were using Marriott points to pay for our stay, and we liked the hotel very much. It is in a quiet residential neighborhood, right between 2 metro stops, Glacière and St. Saint-Jacques.
By the time we settled into our hotel room it was late-afternoon, so we decided to take the metro to the Louvre because the museum is open until late evening on Fridays. It was my husband’s first time at the Louvre, and he was blown away! Not only by the art, but by the buildings themselves. There is no finer setting for art in the world..
Thanks to suggestions from fellow Fodorites, we decided to eat at Le Relais de l'Entrecote on the Rue de Montparnasse. Le Relais is a chain of several restaurants that serve only steak frites – that’s right, only steak frites. The only decisions you have to make is how you would like your steak cooked, what kind of wine you would like, and then choose dessert. The steak was cooked to perfection, and I could have made a meal out of the sauce they serve with the steak and fries! The service was very good and the food delicious. Afterward we walked back to our hotel through Montparnasse and enjoyed the beautiful evening.

On Saturday morning we set out on a Left Bank walk. I actually printed out a suggested walk from the frommers.com site (sorry Fodors!) and we spent a leisurely day roaming the left bank. I really enjoyed visiting the medieval churches of St. Julien le Pauvre and St. Sulpice. But my favorite visit of the day was to the The Musée de Cluny, or the Paris Museum of the Middle Ages. They have an incredible collection of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages, including the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Part of the building was actually part of Roman baths. If you are in Paris, make sure to visit the Cluny. After a pizza lunch we took a boat ride on the Seine with the Bateaux Vedettes du Pont-Neuf. It is a leisurely one hour ride up the Seine, riding past the major sites such as Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. It is a lovely way to spend an hour! Afterwards we walked to Berthillon on the Isle St. Louis to sample some of their incredible ice cream!

We got back to our hotel just in time to escape a thunderstorm! We waited a few hours for the weather to clear up, and since we did not have reservations for dinner, we decided to have dinner at Chartier, which is over 100 years old. The atmosphere was great – the place is huge! The food was not spectacular, but it was very good. You have to share tables at Chartier, and we shared ours with two nice girls from Taiwan. We helped them translate the menu, and they provided delightful conversation. Chartier does not provide haute cuisine, but it does provide a memorable experience!

Our last day in Paris was dedicated to the Marais, and area of Paris that I had never explored. It was great to just wander the streets of such an historical area. Our first stop was the Bastille Market, which runs along the Boulevard Richard Lenoir on Sundays. The market was incredible – 200 vendors selling all types of incredible food! We bought cans of Pâté de Foie Gras to bring home, and for lunch we purchased savory gallettes from a vendor from Brittany. I wished I had a kitchen to return to so that I could buy the amazing ingredients and cook a dinner!

We strolled to the Place des Vosges and visited Victor Hugo’s House. We saw a large crowd gather at the eastern side of the square and it turned out it was the home of Dominic Strauss-Kahn – he had just returned to France that morning. We visited the Carnavalet Museum, which is dedicated to the history of Paris, and then we just kept walking. We walked all the way to the The Musée de l'Orangerie which is near the Place de la Concorde. The main focus of the museum is series of Monet’s waterlily paintings, but in the basement there is an incredible collection of modern art, including Renoirs and Picassos. The museum stops entrances one hour before closing, so get there in plenty of time if you want to get in.

We strolled along the right bank of the Seine to have a drink on the Champs-Élysées. On the way we passed a number of pet stores and loved looking at the puppies (but, you should not buy pets from pet stores, only from reputable breeders or adopt from a shelter!).

For dinner we had reservations at Restaurant Chez Astier, located at 44 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. My daughter and I had eaten at Astier a few years ago and we loved it. Well, the food was just as excellent as I remembered and the cheese board was still to die for! I had cod baked with vegetables and my husband had steak. It is an excellent prix fixe meal.