Welcome back! I have just returned from a 5-day trip to Paris, and I had the time of my life. Prepare yourselves, because there is a lot to cover in this series!
Let’s start with some essential background information.
This was my third time in Paris!
First of all, I had been to Paris twice before with my friend Mariah. We were 17/18 years old and visiting our friend Clem in Paris and Nantes, her hometown. Paris 2019 was my first ever international trip! The reason you don’t see any posts about it on my site is because I hadn’t yet developed the idea of having a travel blog, and I did not yet know how to create a blog at that time. Just trust that I had the most amazing time going to a Post Malone concert, seeing the Eiffel Tower, clubbing, staying with Clem’s family, and going to Disneyland Paris. Lots of great memories were made.
A decision fueled by FOMO
A few months ago, I saw a post from Cercle about an opening party for Cercle Festival in the Eiffel Tower. There were going to be 50 tickets on sale, so of course I had to try to get them. I texted Eric (from my Mexico trip) about it and found out that he was planning to go to the festival. As time went on, people continued texting in our Mexico group chat about going to the festival. It seemed like almost everyone was going, so I decided I would go too.
The Eiffel Tower party tickets sold out in a matter of milliseconds, but I did manage to get tickets for all three days of the festival.
Now, let’s take a step back and fill in the gaps of how I met all of these people in the first place…
Flashback to Cercle Moment – Echoes of Mexico
Last winter, I went on a trip to Mexico City for the Echoes of Mexico Cercle Moment. For about 4 days, I traveled with a group of 30-40 people who are passionate about EDM music. We had VIP access to Cercle Odyssey concerts, flew over the pyramids in hot air balloons, and attended private DJ sets at Quetzalcoatl Park, Casa Chavela, and Salon Palomilla.
My participation in the Cercle Moment was thanks to Mark, my former PI from my internships at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He had booked the trip and could no longer go, so he gave it to me!
People on the trip were so curious how a 23 yr old grad student ended up on a Cercle Moment. When I told them the story, they often told me something along the lines of “you are the luckiest girl in the world”. Despite this being only my second introduction to EDM music (the first being a concert on a boat with colleagues in Boston, also thanks to Mark), they all welcomed me into their group.
Okay, now back to the present.
Leading up to the trip, I had no real expectations. I knew the music would be great, and I knew several of my friends would be there. That’s about it. I figured I could explore Paris a little bit if I tacked on two free days to the front and tail ends of the festival, so that’s what I did. I also knew Clem (my friend from high school) was living in Paris, so I hoped I would get to see her.
In April, Mark was in Ann Arbor so we met up for coffee. I told him all about my trip to Prague, and then he asked “where’s your next trip?”. So, I told him about my plans to attend Cercle Festival in Paris. He replied with, “No way. I am also going to that!”. We agreed that we would definitely have to meet up in Paris.
Turns out, we both arrived to CDG on Thursday morning just about an hour apart. Clem wasn’t available on Thursday, so I had the whole day to do whatever we wanted.
As always, I was way too excited and couldn’t sleep more than 30 minutes on my overnight flight. It felt pretty long because we had to sit on the runway for about two hours due to 1.) people not sitting down during the safety video, which led to 2.) us losing our spot in line for takeoff and 3.) getting caught in a thunderstorm. Oh well. I still made it to Paris at a reasonable time! Thankfully, the lunch reservations Mark had made weren’t until 1:30pm.
I met Mark at the airport and we set off into the city for lunch. Luckily, we had enough time to drop his bags off at his hotel near the airport and then mine in downtown Paris. A change of clothes was also needed, especially considering the place we were about to go to had a dress code! Surprisingly, it took about 1-1.5 hours to get to downtown by Uber due to some sort of truck parade. My guess would be a protest of sorts.
Lunch at L’Oiseau Blanc
From my hotel in the 5th arrondissement, we walked through the streets of Paris to L’Oiseau Blanc for lunch. It was the perfect time to catch up, move after sitting for so long, and also admire the city. We stopped at The Louvre to take photos in front of the pyramid. I was just 17 years old in my last picture in front of the Louvre!
We arrived at the restaurant just in time for our 1:30 reservation. The restaurant is located on the top floor of a hotel called The Peninsula. I have truly not seen anything like it before. When we walked in, someone asked where we needed to go. Mark told them that we have reservations for the restaurant, but apparently, there are two so they needed the name. I remembered that it was L’Oiseau Blanc because it means “white bird”. When I said the name, the hotel concierge asked me if I knew what it meant. When I told her “white bird” she was so shocked! I guess my one semester of French in high school paid off.
When we arrived in the restaurant, I was instantly in awe. We had the most spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, and everything in the restaurant was super elegant and also plane-themed! I found it fitting, considering the festival is at the Air and Space Museum. It felt like we were setting the theme for the weekend. Our waiter pulled my chair out for me and always referred to me as “madame”. It reminded me of the time I went to New York Café in Budapest, and my waiter kept saying “my love”.
The menu featured really interesting dishes such as blue lobster, pigeon, and white asparagus. We each ordered starters, a main dish, and dessert. I got the pigeon because… when am I EVER going to eat pigeon?! I didn’t even know that was something that people ate. After I did so, however, Mark told me that he has a phobia of pigeons 😂 He also had to laugh at the face I made when the waiter asked me, “Would you like the pigeon cooked longer? It typically comes out rare”. I wish I could’ve seen it! I have no poker face.
In addition to what we ordered, the meal also included about 5 rounds of small bites in between. I wish I could remember what everything was exactly, but in general it was typically fish of sorts. They also brought sourdough bread and the best butter I’ve ever tasted! It was so yellow and warm enough to spread easily onto the bread.
For a starter, I got the smoked sardine with caviar. I hadn’t had caviar since being in Boston, but WOW this was delicious. The sardine didn’t taste fishy at all because it was very fresh. Mark got the white asparagus and the onion. I tried a bite of both and was blown away by the flavor. I didn’t know it was possible to make vegetables that delicious! The sauces were so flavorful. I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe it.
The pigeon came out looking way more colorful than I anticipated! It tasted really good. It was tender but not raw, and not too gamey.
I think my favorite dish overall was the chocolate dessert that I had. It was a mousse infused with tea and topped with crunchy wafers filled with caviar. Mark, being a lot more experienced in gastronomy than I am, had the brilliant thought that perhaps the caviar was a creative way of making the dark chocolate / sea salt combo that we all know and love.
Having an undivided 4ish hours to catch up with Mark over the BEST meal of my entire life (I am not exaggerating) was definitely a great start to my weekend in Paris!
After lunch, Mark returned to his hotel to get some rest. Unfortunately, he had also not been able to sleep on the plane. It’s actually quite impressive that we could hold a conversation for so long, considering our brains were fried!
Musée de Cluny
Next, I took the metro back to the 5th arrondissement and went to the Musée de Cluny, which was conveniently only a block from my hotel. I had wanted to go there to see one of the most well-preserved Roman structures in Europe: a fridgidarium! A frigidarium is an ancient Roman cold bath. Why do I care about it? Well, I learned a LOT about the Roman Empire during my J-term trip to Greece & Turkey in 2024! I remember visiting frigidariums in Turkey, so it’s fun to see them in France as well.
The main exhibit that they had on display at the museum was all about unicorns (in French, “la licorne ”). Interestingly, most of the depictions of unicorns with women were positive while those with men were negative. I think my favorite piece, though, was the seal from 2000 BCE which showed one of the first ever depictions of a unicorn. I had no idea people were thinking about unicorns 2000 years ago!
There were a lot of other artifacts to see from the Middle Ages, such as armor, game pieces, tapestries, and everyday items such as combs. I admired all of it, but I can’t say I read all of the captions due to the fact that I had about one brain cell left.
Speaking of having one brain cell, I had walked the entire museum and couldn’t find the frigidarium! I followed the signs and walked back into the area where the unicorn exhibit was, only to realize that the room itself was the frigidarium. Duh! It was so well preserved that I didn’t even notice I was standing in it to begin with.
After the museum, I did some more walking around the Latin Quarter (5th arrondissement) and Saint Germaine (6th arrondissement). I found the famous Shakespeare and Co bookstore just 20 minutes before close. I ended up finding a copy of Anna Karenina, which I was so excited about! I have been looking for a copy with a cover that I actually like. They stamped the inside of the book which was cool too.
At about 8pm, I went to a restaurant called Cafe Louise for dinner. I ordered escargot (snails) because it is my favorite French food, and I hardly ever have them. I sat next to a French couple, and the man kept making jokes about the snails jumping out. I think he was afraid I didn’t know how to use the clamps! He also said that he used to eat escargot until he realized green beans with garlic taste the same. To each their own, I guess! I’ll eat all the escargot 😍
I was debating going back to my hotel and sleeping, but I thought “when am I going to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night if I don’t go now?!” So, I hopped on the metro and made my way in the opposite direction of my hotel, towards the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower only sparkles for the first 5 minutes of every hour, and it was looking like I would arrive at the nearest metro station at 9:58pm. That gave me two minutes to sprint from the station to the bridge where I would have a nice view. I ran down some random, quiet side street and then up the stairs to the bridge. The moment I laid my eyes on the Eiffel Tower, it started to sparkle. I was so happy to have made it on time! This wasn’t my first time seeing the tower sparkle (I saw it in 2019), but it was just as magical as the first time.
I made it back to my hotel by midnight and slept fast… because I had plans starting at 5:45 am the next day!
Check back to find out how I started my day 👀
Until next time,
Clara