Paris Travel Guide – Day Two | Danielle Levandoski

We started day two with a Flytographer sunrise shoot. I wrote a whole blog post on our experience with Flytographer here but to sum it up it was awesome and I 100% recommended booking one for any future travel! If you’re interested, you can get $25 off your booking by using code DANIELLELEVANDO.

After our shoot, we rushed back to the hotel to quickly change because up next was our Paris Secret Food Tour: Taste of Montmartre. People keep asking us what our favorite parts of Paris were and this food tour is definitely at the top of the list! First, the arrondissement of Montmartre is so adorable and much different from the touristy parts of Paris. Everyone knows each other, there’s so much good food, and they are really nice to tourists.

Our tour guide PJ was so knowledgeable and took us around to multiple different spots explaining the foods and why the people care so much here about the food they eat. Once we had gathered everything, PJ took us to Le Petit Moulin, which is a wine bar that I had actually already planned on visiting as a recommendation from Katie (@Katiesbliss). Turns out PJ is the owner of the wine bar and runs these tours during the day – so cool! He took us inside where we all sat around the table drinking wine, tasting the food, and learning about each part as we went. Afterwards, he took us to a few more stops to try some macaroons, chocolate, and lastly crepes. The tour was only supposed to last 3 hours but it ended up being more like 4 or 5 which was super cool, but make sure not to book anything directly after or you may run late or have to leave early and trust me you don’t want to leave early!

At this point, it was already around 4pm and we had dinner reservations for 8pm so we decided to quickly make our way to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, which was located in Montmartre. Another thing to note is Montmartre is a very hilly neighborhood. If you’re walking around, be prepared for some steep hikes! The Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the highest point in the city and you have to climb 270 stairs to reach it! The views are amazing and totally worth it. It’s free to enter the Basilica but costs extra to go up in the dome. Unfortunately, the dome was closed when we were there.

From there we walked back down and headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. We stopped along the way at the Christmas markets in Montmartre where Walt got some Vin Chaud (warm wine). Apparently, it’s a very popular thing over there and Walt said it was really good!

For dinner, we had booked the Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Dinner Cruise, which we almost missed due to the terrible Paris traffic, but our Uber driver knew we were in a hurry and somehow got us there with minutes to spare. We were literally running to catch the boat! The dinner/boat ride was 2 1/2 hours long and included a 3-course meal. While it was cool to see everything by the river, I wouldn’t do this again and think it’s very expensive for what you get. There are several different priced packages to choose from – just be aware that you don’t get a window seat, unless you pay the extra money for one.

By the time we got off the boat, it was almost 11pm, which meant getting to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle! The Eiffel Tower sparkles for 5 minutes each night on the hour from 10pm-1am. Seeing it sparkle is truly magical and something I think everyone should see at least once. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night!