Ladies. Do I even need to convey how important it is for us to have ‘Girls Only Trips?’ Or moms-only vacations? Read on to discover the ultimate Perfect Guide To Paris In 4 days!

Enter #momcation of a lifetime. This trip information could also be pertinent for any #vacationofalifetime or an #anniversaryvacation. The point here is, take this trip of a lifetime. You will not regret it.

I’ll provide a little background on this trip first. While in undergrad, my best college friend and I decided we would embark on a great adventure of a lifetime–Paris, France–the summer we both turned 40!

Days 1: Perfect Paris

Audrey Hepburn was one smart cookie. “Paris is always a good idea.” (Her famous line from the movie Sabrina).

We couldn’t agree more, so we kicked off our vacation with 4 days in Paris. While one could easily spend a lifetime touring Paris and never see it all, we knew we had time limitations. We wanted to fit in as much as we could along with a series of naps for sleep! I kid you not. As my father always says, “you can sleep when you’re dead!” Thanks, Dad!

Getting to Paris

We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport around 8 a.m. with a few naps during the 7 hour flight from Minneapolis, MN. We took the train into the city to our Airbnb accommodations located 3 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, which we had secured online months in advance. Our apartment was spacious (relatively so for a European apartment), clean, safe and in the perfect neighborhood for walking to many of our desired locations or hopping on/off the Paris Metro train system.

Tip: If you plan to travel during the summer months, do book accommodations and secure major tourist attraction tickets several months in advance. If you don’t, you will have to pick from what is leftover. Those options may cost more or in less ideal areas.

Arc de Triomphe

Since our digs were 3 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, we made a b-line for it!

The Arc de Triomphe lies at the west end of the Champs Elysees. It honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars. The names of French victories & generals are inscribed on its surfaces. Beneath the Arc lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. If desired, one may purchase a ticket to go underneath the Arc and take a tour of the Tomb area.

We spent some time taking pictures and reading some of the inscriptions. And honestly, we just gawked at the 12 lanes of traffic zipping by us at record roundabout speeds!

Shopping the Champs Elysees

Next, we moved onto the Champs Elysees. We strolled along the famed avenue–wide-eyeing all the luxury shops! It satisfied the 20-year old college girl’s dreams in all of us.

Louis Vuitton, you are remarkable & it was such a fun store to visit!

By this point, we were famished! When exactly was our last solid meal?! We popped into a cafe on the Champs Elysees for a great lunch!

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A lunch of duck foie gras with a crusty baguette, creme brulee and iced coffee was on the agenda at a cute little cafe right off the Champs Elysees. There are a million cafes to pick from and honestly, they’re all great! It’s FRANCE, for the love! Our next stop was several blocks away. And, since we were trying to remain active & walk as much as possible on this trip, we needed sustenance for the trek.

Montmarte & Basilica of Sacre-Coeur

We took a self-guided tour inside of the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur. It was incredibly beautiful! As you can imagine, any Roman Catholic Church in Europe is gorgeous, but this one is something very special.

After touring the church, a walk around the Montmarte district was a must. This area is home to many cafes and shops. It is important because it nurtured most of the great artists and writers of France during the past century.

Outside of the Louvre Museum

Since the afternoon daylight was beginning to wind down, we hopped on the Paris Metro System and took a quick ride over to the Louvre Museum. We only walked the outside of this architectural monstrosity on the first day because we pre-booked queue tickets for the museum tour on the afternoon of day 3. We were in complete awe of its grandeur!

Tip: I HIGHLY recommend booking a queue ticket for the Louvre months in advance. Do this especially if you are traveling in the summer months. There are several different types of Louvre queue tickets available on the web as well. Do your due diligence and make sure your ticket guarantees a ‘skip-the-line’ access. If not, you’ll be waiting in line for 2+ hours with everyone else who has a ‘Louvre Museum Advanced Purchase Ticket’ and only thought they purchased a ‘skip-the-line’ version, but didn’t.

After walking the grounds of the Louvre Museum, we decided we had had enough site-seeing for our first full day in Paris…and we needed to rest up so we could tackle Day 2 with GUSTO!

Day 2: Perfect Paris & The Palace of Versailles

An early morning it was on Day 2-up and at it by 7 a.m.! After a little Metro System Snaffoo (you know…you take one train to connect to another train and then that train is closed for the month. WHAT?!? My first rule of travel is Do.Not.Panic.), we kindly asked a woman working in the Paris Metro Train Station how we should re-route ourselves to Versailles now that the one train that leaves the city to go to Versailles was shut down during the busiest tourist month in Paris? *Sigh*

This train station employee was somewhat annoyed with our English in her beautiful French city, so she proceeded to shout at me: “En Francais!”…And there was no s’il vous plait anywhere to be found in that request. So, in an attempt to meet her half-way, I used my incredibly beautiful (read: broken) college-level French to ask her how to get to Versailles using an alternate train route. Friends, I’ve been out of college for 15 years…you can see where I’m going with this. Twenty minutes later, she was done with me. She’d had enough of my nonsense. She wrung me out to dry and explained in English how to get there. Oh, my heavens… We had a great laugh later about this later!

Palace of Versailles

An hour and a half later, we arrived at the Palace of Versailles, just outside the city of Paris via train…

It’s virtually impossible to explain the grandeur of this French architectural marvel. It began as a hunting lodge, then onto the residence of the French Kings, and more recently, a museum.

Tip: As I’ve mentioned before, be sure to purchase your queue ticket several months in advance. Purchasing this one directly from the Palace of Versailles website seemed to make the most sense. Their website was very thorough and offered the best information. Again, purchasing a regular ticket in advance only guarantees you entrance, not a ‘skip-the-line’ entrance. Depending on your time constraints, skipping the line may be worth the extra money. We didn’t purchase a ‘skip-the-line’ for the Palace of Versailles and wish we had done that. We waited in line to get into the museum almost 2 hours and we went fairly early in the morning.

The exterior of the Palace grounds are just as beautiful and impressive as the inside of the actual Palace itself.

The Moulin Rouge Show

After spending most of the day in Versailles, we took the metro back into Paris to rest up for the entertainment highlight while in Paris: the Moulin Rouge Show!

Of course, we purchased these tickets for the Moulin Rouge show well in advance! The popular show times always book up early. We chose the later show time, 11:00 p.m., because it was less expensive and we wanted to live on the edge for one evening! Let’s face it, when you’re in your late 30’s and have young children at home, being up past 9 p.m. is living wildly! No cameras/flash photography is allowed during the show, so I don’t have photos to show off. But, what I can tell you is that if you have a background or appreciation for dance, theater or live entertainment, this is a show not to be missed while visiting Paris! It’s legendary and absolutely phenomenal!

It was a late night for us mamas. We finally made it back to our apartment around 3 a.m. (insert several yawns). And silly me…while booking these advance queue tickets for all of the Paris attractions, I told myself “we’ll be fine after only a few hours of sleep-we’ll be running on adrenaline-it’s OK to book a top of the Eiffel Tower Tour for 10 a.m.!” *Sigh*

Day 3: Perfect Paris~Eiffel Tower & The Louvre Museum

Well. That peppy pre-ticket purchaser was somewhat correct about running on adrenaline. But, her peppiness was rather annoying that morning. We were running on adrenaline and good-ol’-dad’s famous line came into play here: you can sleep when you’re dead! Once again, we were ready and out of the apartment by 8:30 to grab coffee & croissants and get to the tour guide by 10 a.m.

Tip: If you plan to take a tour of the Eiffel Tower (not just view it from below), and would like a specific day/time, it’s a very good idea to purchase an advance ticket if you want to be guaranteed to take the tour. We purchased ours on Viator.com. Note: *I am not being compensated for my opinion of Viator.com website. It was the website we used to purchase the ticket and has been a reliable site to use for many different tours I’ve taken.* If your days in Paris are flexible and you don’t mind taking a tour at odd times of the day (even nightime/darkness), then perhaps you could forgo a pre-purchase on this one. However, do your due diligence and look into it based on your flexibility.

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I’m thrilled that we spent the money and time to go to the top viewing platform of the Eiffel Tower & enjoy a glass of champagne from above! The tour we booked was very informative and worthwhile. We received a great historical education from our tour guide and wouldn’t have gotten this much information had we just viewed the structure from below!

Parc du Champ de Mars

Next up was a walk through the Parc du Champ de Mars, the expansive lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. Then, after that, a walk across Paris to The Louvre Museum where we had queue tickets for that afternoon.

Louvre Museum

Tip: I know, I know. If I haven’t said this enough, purchasing a ticket for the Louvre Museum is absolutely the most important ticket you’ll purchase ahead of time. Just getting into the museum is a production, let alone trying to view a few works of art. So, if you only plan one pre-purchase ahead of time and want to tour the Louvre, purchase the Louvre entrance ticket…and I’ll tell you why next.

Since we pre-purchased a skip-the-line queue ticket for the Louvre Museum, we only had to wait about 1 hour to get inside. Let me say that again, we still.had.to.wait 1 hour to get inside! Bahhhhh! But, it’s France and while on a European vacation, you just go with the flow! For those folks who just purchased a ticket for the day, they were waiting in a different line…about 3-4 hours long. (Hence the reason I reiterated the urgency for a pre-purchase ticket above!)

Navigating the Louvre Museum

Immediately after entering, we picked up a map of the museum. Even the map is overwhelming to say the very least! And…we bolted (read: full-on sprint) to the Mona Lisa.

Friends, you know what everyone says about the Mona Lisa, right? It’s not that impressive. Why is she so famous? All the other art works are much more grand!

But, Friends. This is the Mona Lisa.

If you go to the Louvre Museum and don’t see Mona, did you really go to the Louvre?

No. (In my opinion).

So friends, here’s what happened immediately following our 30 second viewing of our friend Mona: They.Shut.Down.The.Room.

Yes. They closed the room she resides in to all visitors.

She had had too many viewers that day and was exhausted. Poor thing.

But, in all honesty, I completely understand. In order to keep important artistic works at their prime viewing aesthetic, curators have to protect the art itself. Too many people=too much body heat. Too many cameras=risk of art deterioration…and so much more.

We would’ve been devastated to have gone to the Louvre and not seen Mona.

Tip: Inside the Louvre, make a bee-line for the Mona Lisa, if you want to see her. Then, plan to view all other works of art from there. Visitors don’t know if/when she’ll be unable to be viewed ahead of time, so this is just my suggestion based on what happened while we were at the Louvre Museum.

Dinner In Trocadero

After finishing up at the Louvre, we were a bit tired but really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night so we made plans to enjoy dinner in the Trocadero neighborhood, adjacent to the Eiffel Tower. This area is filled with adorable boutique shops & restaurants of every kind.

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After dinner, it was almost dark so we headed to the viewing platform in Trocadero just in time to watch the Eiffel Tower come to life with all the twinkling lights. It.Was.Magical!

Day 4: Perfect Paris~Notre Dame & The Ponte Neuf

Good early morning it was! Out the door by 7 a.m. to take the metro to the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris and walk across the famous Ponte Neuf. But, not before we grabbed coffee & croissants first!

Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre Dame is not to be missed during a visit to Paris especially if you’re a fan of French Gothic-style architecture. With its flying buttresses and all, it happens to be the most visited monument in Paris (Wikipedia, Paris Digest, 2018). This cathedral began construction in the 1100’s and has witnessed many modifications during its day largely due to the destruction during the French Revolution. During our hour long visit, we were able to partake in a Catholic mass, which was incredibly beautiful and humbling. There are formal tours operated daily if you’d like a more in-depth informational guide, but since we were pressed for time, reading the self-guided placards placed throughout the cathedral worked well for us.

Morning Crepes

No visit to Paris is complete without the consumption of crepes & I can’t believe it took us until day 4 to have one! We needed some energy (read: flour, sugar, butter) for our walk back to our apartment so we found a local creperie and asked them to whip us up a couple. Banana + Nutella and a warm honey crepe for the win!

Once we returned back to our apartment, it was time for us to pack up and leave our whirlwind tour in the City of Lights! Next up—>Perfect Provence & The Cote d’Azur In 5 Days! Make sure to check out this blog post for my guide to the perfect trip to Provence…and to see what happened to us after Paris!

For more gal-pal getaway inspo, check out my other travel blog posts! You’re sure to find a great place to get away to with your amazing gal-pals!

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Until next time…Eat Well. Travel Often. Love Much.

XOXO