France Itinerary

As promised, here is our 8 day itinerary for France! We spent 4 days in Paris and 4 days in Southern France. There are many beautiful and interesting places in France but we decided to do just Paris and Nice/Eze and we have NO regrets!

Day 1: Landed in Paris at 10 am

• The Charles de Gaulle airport is about 30 minutes outside of Paris, so plan accordingly.
• We checked into our hotel, Rive Gauche , near the Notre Dame. Note that you can drop off you bags prior to check in at your hotel for free. Take advantage! We grabbed our Paris Passes that were delivered to our hotel and headed out for the day.
• We headed to Notre Dame (read the previous post about our tips for Notre Dame).
• We then quickly walked over to Sainte Chapelle which is only a couple minute walk from Notre Dame and is included in the Paris Pass.
• Next we stopped by the Conciergerie, which is right next door to Sainte Chapelle.
• At this point we were really fighting our jet lag, but we wanted to check out Napolean’s Tomb so we started to walk.
• We stopped by the famous lock bridge and FORGOT our lock at the hotel….
• We then grabbed an Uber and explored Les Invalides for a couple hours (with a few Espresso and Macroon breaks).
• Afterwards, we toured the Catacombs. Pretty eery!
• When then ended the night by grabbing some baguette sandwiches from a local shop and heading to bed early.

Day 2: Paris

• After sleeping for 14 HOURS, we got up and headed to the Louve. Make sure you wear good shoes, you will do a TON of walking.
• Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to freshen up and head out to go to the Arch de Triomphe, once again bring your walking shoes.
• The day we went to the Arch de Triomphe, was free for some reason so it was actually pretty quick to get up.
• Afterwards we walked over to the famous steak and fries restaurant, Le Relais de l’Entrecôte, this place is AMAZING! There is no menu. They only serve you steak and fries. They also give you two servings. So it is pretty much heaven.
• Since we had to wait an hour, we got back pretty late and went to bed.

Day 3: Nice

• We got up early, checked out of the hotel and headed to the Train Station (buy your tickets online ahead of time because it gets a little confusing at the station. But it is still doable to buy them there).
• Pro TIP: Buy second class tickets. It is the EXACT same as first class except you do not get to sit in the lounge before the train leaves, but who has time for that before a 9 am train. Not us.
• We rode the train for 6 hours. It was quite fun to just relax, sleep and write. There is no wifi on the train, so bring things to entertain yourself. Or just enjoy the views outside, that is why we rode it. It is actually about the same price as flying.
• When we got off the train, we went and grabbed our rental car and headed to Eze
• We were very tired so we checked into our hotel, went to the local market and got wine and dinner.

Day 4: Monaco

• Since Monaco is only 15 minutes from Eze, we decided to spend the day in Monaco. Monaco is actually the world’s second smallest country, next to Vatican City.
• We parked our car for the day in a parking garage and started to walk the country, with no plan.
• We walked through an outdoor mall and found the Prince’s car museum. The car museum has over 100 cars. It was only 6 euros a person and was a fun little museum to walk through.
• Afterwards, we headed up the steep hill to the Palace. At the top of the hill next to the Palace, there is a lot to do. Lot’s of shops and food. We grabbed a sandwich and walked over to the Ocean Museum.
• In front of the Ocean Museum, there is a little train tour you can take of all of Monaco. It was super fun and worth the 10 euros a person.
• Afterwards we explored the Ocean Museum and Palace. Note in the Palace you cannot take any photos. And if you try to take photos, they will find you. They are watching.
• When we were done with the Palace, we walked down the hill and to our car, to drive back to Eze.
• We decided to take a night drive and drove up a hill to see the sunset and take pictures. The view was breath taking! We went up near the Observatory.
• We then drove down to a light house in Nice and it was closed, so we headed back to our Airbnb.

Day 5: Eze

• Day 5 was my husband’s birthday so we decided to explore Eze. Eze is very small and can be explore in half a day.
• We walked up the hill to the church at the top of Eze. To our surprise, there were tons of shops and food places as we walked up the hill. Eze is beautiful! It is a medieval town and the old stones were so pretty to look at.
• We bought a few items and headed to the top of the hill. At the top of the hill is a hidden garden. There are hundreds of plants and some waterfalls. We actually spent a few hours up there and it was 6 euros a person.
• Afterwards, we headed back down and ate at cafe for lunch before heading back to our Airbnb to freshen up.
• Afterwards, we drove down to a beach to enjoy the crystal clear, blue water. It was actually stormy so we did not stay long. And, the jelly fish were out and about and we did not want to get stung.
• Afterwards, we stopped by the perfume factory in Eze, Fragonard. They do a free tour and perfume testers. We were hooked on the wonderful smells and bought a few items like perfume and soap.
• To finish up the night, we went to a fun little restaurant, Pinocchio, for dinner in town.

Day 6: Nice

• Our last full day in southern France was dedicated to Nice.
• We parked near the main town square and walked to the beach.
• We found a random resort and purchased two ocean front beach chairs with an umbrella. We ordered food and drinks and just relaxed for a good 6 hours.
• Afterwards, we headed to La Ronronnerie, a cat cafe with delicious drinks and desserts. They have 6 pure bred cats that walk around as well. Super fun!
• We then grabbed food from the market to make dinner and headed back to Eze.

Day 7: Back to Paris

• We woke up super early to head to the airport. Note that if you need to fill up your rental car, the gas is more expensive near the airport.
• Our flight was delayed for 3 hours due to a strike and the door not closing in our airplane (see my pervious posts to see how you can get 250 euros back).
• We made it to Paris and checked into our hotel near the Eiffel Tower, First Hotel.
• We quickly freshened up and headed to our lunch in the Eiffel Tower, Le Jules Verne. This was a 5 star, 3 hour lunch. So if you go, plan to carve out some time to enjoy the meal.
• Afterwards, we headed down the Eiffel Tower and went to buy some oil painting from vendors by the river. At this time, the only oil painting vendors were by the Notre Dame, about a 40 minute walk away.
• Afterwards, we were supposed to summit the Eiffel Tower, however because of the country-wide strike we were unable to.
• Instead, we went back to our hotel to relax and freshen up for our dinner boat cruise.
• For dinner, we dressed up and did a dinner boat cruise with Bateaux-Mouches. This was hands down my favorite thing we did. We had to dress classy and they served us a 4 course meal with live music playing. We got to cruise next to all the major attractions in Paris and see them light up at night. You cannot miss this.
• We then headed back to our hotel room full of wine and good food.

Day 8: Our last day in Disneyland

• For our last day, we decided to go to Disneyland Paris. I will post another blog post all about Disneyland next! You can easily ride a metro all the way to Disneyland. It is super easy and fairly inexpensive. It is the last stop on the metro.
• Afterwards, we headed back to Paris and went back to the Steak and Fries restaurant. Too good to not go again.

Day 9: Heading Home

• When you leave Paris, make sure you get to the airport with plenty of time! You will have to go through checking in, answer some questions with a worker about your trip, wait in a long line to get through passport control and then again through security. It took us almost 3 hours from the time we were dropped off the airport to the time we go through security. It was insane.

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