Complete with two separate trips, in three days, to Le Castiglione for their bacon burger. Heaven truly is a place on earth.
To preface, we went into our trip with the goal of being “locals” for a week. We don’t speak any French other than “bonjour” and “merci,” especially when it pertains to shopping and thanking the cashier, but that didn’t stop us. We wanted to be local Parisians. Nothing more, nothing less, which really just meant we wanted to eat well, eat a lot, and at all hours of the day. Same as at home, really!
It’s a very French idea, after all, to eat a baguette (or five) a day and be expected to remain thin — or at least, that’s what a waitress told us 😛 LIFE GOAL.
Meal-planning in Paris aside, planning out our trip really started around a year ago, with our first visit to Hotel de Jobo — a new hotel that had opened a few months prior, and one that we had just happened to find on hotels.com (day of) following our trip to Croatia. We knew nothing about the hotel other than the leopard print wallpaper we had seen on its website, and we were sold.
THE LEOPARD PRINT WALLPAPER.
421 days later and we were back at Hotel de Jobo, marking the occasion as a defining moment of, “When we visit Paris, we stay at Hotel de Jobo.” Truly. We’d be the happiest if we only stayed here for the rest of our lives.
Located in the middle of the Marais (our favorite neighborhood, both for the shopping and the gay locale, where 40% of Paris’ LGBT businesses exist), the hotel’s rooms are like Parisian apartments, not entirely huge but spaced accordingly, complete with 2017 amenities only the digitally addicted could appreciate — international adaptors already included in the outlets, USB plugs everywhere, Nespresso machines, and modern-day bathrooms with rain shower heads.
Cut to the chase: with five days and four nights left to our own devices, we ran through the streets of Paris eager to experience literally EVERYTHING. And experience everything we did, staying out until 3-5am most nights, falling asleep and waking up just four hours later. Nevermind the fact that we slept for 2 days straight after our trip, WE LIVED.
Here’s our complete Paris in the Fall City Guide (below), including that bacon burger we’d like to marry.
FOOD
Le Castiglione: THE BACON BURGER. We’re sure every other item on the menu is just as amazing, but there’s something about the burger, made up high quality chuck and smothered in their secret sauce (which is a lot like In N Out’s special sauce, but WAY better, in our opinion 😛 ).
Obermamma: some of the best pizza we’ve had in Paris EVER. And maybe some of the best pizza we’ve ever had in general, all because of the crust (crispy yet doughy). They seat first-come, first-serve, and across multiple seatings through the night (i.e. 7pm seating, 8pm seating, and onwards). HOWEVER, make note that because of the hype, the line for the waitlist starts at 6pm (for their 7pm seating), and extends well around the corner. GET THERE EARLY.
KHAO THAI: the perfect combination, their ‘peanut beef’ and cucumber gin & tonics 😛
Derriere: opened by the famed Mourad Mazouz, the pioneer behind both Momo and Sketch in London. The entire interior is designed to exist as someone’s hip ‘Parisian apartment,’ with the standard table for two being transformed into a seat at the ‘couch’ or the ‘desk’ or along a ping pong table (as just a few examples of their ‘tables). We’re OBSESSED with their beef cheeks and bread and foie gras and straciatella pasta.
Hotel Costes: the spicy lobster pasta AND the cucumber martinis AND perfect people watching. This was also the venue for Kim Kardashian’s bridal shower (and was probably the most ‘hip’ lunch we’ve been to in a long, long while) 😛
DRINK
Andy Wahloo: Pop Art meets Morocco in this intimate bar right off of Derriere (the same group owned by Sketch and Momo in London). Extensive menu, all enclosed in a cute little book 🙂
Obermamma: order the white negroni (the negroni da alberto)! In general, though, ALL of their Twist on Classics are stellar. Get your name on the list for a seating at Obermamma and then spend an hour or two at the bar 😛
Hotel de Jobo: simple drinks made exceptionally well with an amazing atmosphere and an even more amazing courtyard for people watching 😉
Hotel Costes: their cucumber martinis. THEIR CUCUMBER MARTINIS.
SHOP
Carhartt WIP: with Carhartt rising in popularity and trend, we poked in to WIP and found so many exclusives to the store (available only in Paris). We happily obliged by handing over our credit card to the cashier in exchange for MANY pastel tees.
Colette (until December 20 2017): as hype-y as the hype is surrounding Colette, we loved everything about the store, and found ourselves more and more saddened by the fact that they’re closing this December. We bought WAY TOO many trinkets all around the store. Don’t know what we’re going to do with all of the pens and lighters we bought…
Cords: a store that exists in the States, and yet we had never heard anything about it. We’re obsessed with putting together a complete corduroy outfit now. Fun colors, super luxe corduroy at a reasonable price (at least to us).
Zara: nothing novel here except for the fact that Zara Man is HUGE in Paris. We went bonkers, buying coats upon coats and silk pajama shirts.
KILO SHOP: all we can say is we were WAY too overwhelmed to even shop. You pay per kilo (prices vary, dependent on the different colored stickers/ tags) and you can basically find ANYTHING you want, from San Francisco 49ers sweatshirts to letterman jackets of all kinds. For anyone who’s a hoarder and has time to rummage through the piles and racks, this is your place.
ACTIVITIES
Musee de l’Orangerie: we’ve been to many other museums in Paris and yet there’s something about the simplicity of Musee de l’Orangerie that’ll have us going back every single trip. We sat in front of Monet’s Water Lilies for what seemed like a few hours.
Rodin Sculpture Garden: an espresso in the garden, near The Thinker — nothing sounds more tranquil than that, to us. We basically lived out our Midnight in Paris fantasies.
Windowlicking: where Americans say they’re going window shopping, Parisians lick windows 😛 figured we’d mention this just because we don’t have an limitless bank account and found ourselves licking more windows than actually shopping, hahaha.
GAY NIGHTLIFE (because, of course, we needed to include some of our input here 😛 ALTHOUGH, we have to mention we still have years upon years to experience more of the nightlight in Paris, and our notes below are a result of our time in Le Marais)
Cox Café Bar: it took us a few nights to realize that the drinks are cheap, happy hour goes until SUPER late, and everyone goes here to start the night (or at least, that’s how it seemed to us!).
RAIDD: absolutely not our favorite, but the novelty of having bartenders ‘shower’ in a tank at the back of the bar is a sight to see 😛 we hung out at the bar downstairs mostly.
Freedj: definitely more of a locals bar with a lounge-y atmosphere up top and TONS of Britney, Gaga, and Beyonce downstairs in the basement.
Le Cud: OUR FAVORITE CLUB/BAR. The basement’s ceilings are low and it all feels like you’re dancing in the cellar of an ancient building. The music was spot-on, pop hits remixed, and again, everyone definitely seemed like a local more than a tourist.
<3 B+C