We started the day off with really open plans, because so many places were closed on Mondays. We were able to “sleep in” since we didn’t have an early wake up call, but in reality, jet lag is real! We knew that we always had Disneyland Paris as a back up – but figured there were some sights that we could still see even though it was raining. Honestly, we aren’t witches, we don’t shy away from rain if it means getting to explore, and it actually works in our favor most of the time and it scares the crowds away.

We walked to a nearby restaurant and had breakfast. It was a rainy day – but we were hoping to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower. When I had checked online there weren’t any advance tickets available – but due to the rain, we were hoping that we may be able to sneak in if it wasn’t too busy.

We were in luck! We bought our tickets and could see the storm clouds off in the distance. Jon and Yvonne had previously gone to the second floor – and Yvonne has a fear of heights but agreed to go to the top with me and Andy. As we got near the top there was a light rain – and it made the floor a little slick. I’m not nervous at all about heights, but I definitely didn’t want to fall when we were up there!

There is one flight of stairs to make it to the tippy-top – and at this point Yvonne said she would wait for us there. We had make the joke on the way up that we could probably coax her with a glass of champagne. (Like you see in old cartoons when a character would dangle a carrot in front of the other to get them to walk in the direction they want).

Once Andy and I made it to the top we realized they really did sell champagne up there (Moët). We had just ordered ours when lo and behold, Yvonne was right behind us. She told us that a guy on the floor below had let her know that the champagne was for sell on the top floor. 😂 So we had a celebratory glass and then started to head down as the rain was moving in.

We found lunch at a nearby restaurant and worked up the rest of the plan for the day. We made our way over to the Arc de Triomphe. We didn’t have much of a desire to head to the top of this one, so we just admired it from afar. We were also relieved because it had finally stopped raining.

We headed to this incredible rooftop bar in the Montmarte and watched a storm roll back in and enjoyed a bottle of champagne- it was crazy to watch how clear it had been to really low visibility! We almost weren’t able to see the Eiffel Tower anymore! Since we were in an entirely new neighborhood we searched around for a restaurant to have dinner at. We found this delightful place called Piccolo Caratello. It was really small, as the name implies – but our server was incredible. We aren’t the biggest fans of French food, so when we saw this delightful little Italian place, we knew it would be great!

By the time we left the restaurant it was almost completely full. The food was great and would highly recommend if you are in the area!

One of the main reasons we had headed over to Montmarte was to see the Basilica du Sacre Couer. What we didn’t know was that this was a popular hang out for teenagers/college students around sunset. It was really loud and rambunctious – so we hopped out to take our pictures and head home. Our taxi drove us up to the top of this really steep hill where the Basilica was, and we were able to hop out and take our pictures and then hop back in to head to our hotel. Our taxi driver was great, and humored us while we took our photos.

So many museums are closed on Mondays – so it’s important if you’re planning a trip to Paris that you take this into consideration. We also had some difficulty due to the weather – but honestly, it was a really great day!

Up Next:
-Wine tasting in Reims