We booked this trip over Thanksgiving, which was pretty short notice for what we’re used to! It still didn’t feel real that we’re going to Paris. We got to the airport and checked in with no issues, which honestly surprised us given our usual flight luck.

One thing did pop up early that morning though. Jordan got a message saying the Louvre was closed due to strikes, so he had to reach out to our tour company to reschedule our guided tour. He was able to move it to a different day, and now I’m just hoping the strikes don’t affect anything else.

Our first flight went smoothly and we made it to Atlanta with plenty of time for lunch and coffee. We stopped at my new favorite ATL airport restaurant, One Flew South. I got the salmon curry and Jordan ordered a smash burger with bacon jam and caramelized onions. Both were so good.

After lunch, we walked around a bit and exchanged some currency to get ready for France. Then we boarded our flight and settled in for the long journey ahead. We took off at 4 PM and were scheduled to land at 11:30 PM local time, which was 5:30 AM for us. Since the goal was to stay up the entire first day to adjust to the time change, we tried to sleep as much as possible on the plane. That didn’t really work out since we were attempting to fall asleep at 5 PM our time.

We enjoyed the in flight meals, slept on and off, and did a lot of reading. Once we landed at Charles de Gaulle, we went through customs, grabbed our luggage, and headed out to find a taxi so we could drop our bags and start sightseeing.

We were a little nervous about the taxi situation because Jordan had read about scam taxis and how you are not supposed to respond to people asking if you need a ride. I remembered that advice and ignored everyone, which turned out to be the wrong move because we ended up walking back to the actual taxi queue.

Once we were assigned a driver, we were on our way. There was a brief moment of confusion when he said Hotel de Saint Germain instead of our hotel, Hotel de Fleurie. It turns out Saint Germain is just the district, so we did end up at the right place.

At the hotel, we grabbed a change of clothes and freshened up a bit. Brushing our teeth felt incredible. After leaving our luggage, we headed out in search of what I had been looking forward to most: a pain au chocolat and a cappuccino.

We decided to skip Googling and just walk around to see what we found. At 7:30 AM, not much was open. We wandered until I spotted a lit up sign and, like moths, we went to investigate. That place was closed, but there was a cute café right next door that was open, so we stopped in for cappuccinos and pain au chocolats.

Sitting in a window booth, we watched the sun come up and saw the city slowly wake up as more people and shops appeared. It was really neat seeing the morning hustle start to build.

Eventually, we had to leave our cozy little café bubble and continue on. We wandered through mostly closed streets until we reached the Seine River and walked along it for a while. We spotted some interesting buildings in the distance and just started heading toward them.

At one point, I hit emergency bathroom mode and there were absolutely no shops around. Thankfully, Jordan found a bathroom map and guided us to some public restrooms in a nearby garden. The view of the Eiffel Tower from here was very cool!

Jordan looked into museum tickets in the area, but nothing had availability. Instead, he grabbed hop on hop off tickets for the Big Red Bus. On our way to the stop, we stumbled into an old car show, which was a fun surprise.

Our first bus stop took us to the Opera House. We hoped to tour it, but the main stage was closed for rehearsals. We also tried to get tickets for the next show, but it was opening night on the 27th and completely sold out.

We hopped back on the bus and rode through the city, taking in all the major landmarks. We passed Notre Dame and learned more about the 2019 fire and its long reconstruction. Seeing it in person was surreal.

Another must see was the Arc de Triomphe. Riding down that massive road toward it was incredible, and the roundabout traffic was wild to watch. Cars in the middle yield to incoming traffic, which is the complete opposite of roundabouts in the US. I was very glad I was not driving.

When we reached the Trocadéro area, we got off because it was close to lunchtime and I was starting to feel pretty rough. It was only noon and we still had a long way to go if we wanted to beat the jet lag. Our goal bedtime was 8 PM, which meant about 30 hours without sleep.

The Trocadéro area was extremely busy, so we walked a bit to escape the crowds and found a lovely restaurant called La Place. We ordered oven roasted camembert with honey and bread for dipping. We weren’t sure if you were supposed to eat the rind, but I tried it and it was actually pretty good.

Jordan ordered the ravioli and I got the beef bourguignon. Everything was delicious, but the sleep deprivation started hitting hard. Jordan barely made a dent in his ravioli. I ordered a cappuccino to try to push through the rest of the day, even though caffeine felt risky at that point.

After sitting for a while to hydrate and recover, we headed back toward the Trocadéro to get on the bus again. Before boarding, we popped into the Architecture et Patrimoine museum, mostly because we desperately needed a bathroom. At that point, we were really not feeling great.

By the time we left, it had started sprinkling. We crossed the street and got back on the bus for what turned into a one hour semi conscious ride. We were somehow both awake and asleep at the same time. We were not even listening to the tour anymore, just fighting jet lag and losing. I do remember seeing the Eiffel Tower though.

Once the bus loop was done, we decided it was finally time to check into the hotel. We rode until the stop closest to us and arrived around 4 PM. We hung out in the room for a bit and tried very hard not to nap.

Around 5 PM, I started looking up restaurants because we had heard reservations were important. I booked a 5:30 reservation, but when we walked by, the place was completely empty. That took the pressure off, so we kept walking to see what else was around.

That is when we passed a ramen shop with a Michelin 2025 sticker in the window, which immediately caught our attention. We joined the virtual queue and were seated almost right away. The décor was adorable and designed to feel like a Japanese street vendor stall, complete with subway sounds playing in the background.

We ordered two appetizers and shared the shoyu ramen, chef style. The starters came out quickly and were amazing. The ramen was honestly one of the best I have ever had. Everything is homemade and ethically sourced, which was a nice bonus.

I also ordered a glass of plum wine, which turned out to be an excellent decision and confirmed that I love plum wine. We will absolutely need to go back so I can have another.

After dinner, we took an evening walk along the Seine. It was beautiful at night, but once we hit our 8 PM limit, we turned back and headed to the hotel to settle in.

It was such a long, full day and a lot of it was just battling jet lag, but we had so much fun and managed to see and do a ton for our first day in Paris.