Advice for Frequent Visitors to Paris

Advice for Frequent Visitors to Paris

In just a couple short weeks, I’ll be heading back to Paris. As someone who’s ventured into Paris probably hundreds of times, you may be wondering what else I can possibly get out of yet another visit to Paris.

I’ve done the main tourist sites so many times that the idea of going up the Eiffel Tower again makes me feel lethargic just thinking about it, and imagining the crowds at the Musée d’Orsay makes me feel instant dread and irritation.

The amazing thing about being a frequent visitor to Paris is that all the tedious stuff is old news. You don’t have to stress about learning the public transportation system because you already know it. You don’t have to meticulously plan an itinerary because you’ve already been everywhere. Once you get all of that initial learning and tourist check-listing out of the way, you’re free to simply soak up the atmosphere.

That’s what I want for this trip, to just exist in Paris. Not try to conquer it, not try to dig deep, not to try and feel edgy or cool. Just to be there completely.

But I think in order for me not to fall back into my old, expected routines, habits and walking paths, I’m changing up a few things that will add just the right amount of newness to my experience.

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The Best Versailles Itinerary | French Californian

The Best Itinerary for Versailles

Update: This post was written in 2018, and I have not been back to Versailles since then, so please double check the info in this post. Especially post-covid, I have no idea how tickets, procedures, or the layout at the palace may have changed. The general itinerary is pretty timeless though – bon voyage!

Remember how I used to live in Versailles, France? I spent over three years walking those streets, exploring the château grounds, and riding the train back and forth to Paris countless times. I think you could say I’m pretty familiar with it! That’s why I finally want to share my perfect day in Versailles.

I’ve gotten messages from travelers asking for advice about how to tackle Versailles in one day. With the main chateau, the massive gardens, two smaller palaces, more gardens, a hamlet, and not to mention the surrounding city itself, planning a successful, efficient day trip to Versailles is completely overwhelming if you’re starting from zero knowledge.

But that’s alright! I got you!

I’m going to lay out everything you ever wanted to know about spending a fantastic day in Versailles. First, I’ll go over some practical information. Then, I’ll give my ideal itinerary, step-by-step, including a walking route on a custom Google map!  You can take or leave whatever you want, but this information is bound to be super helpful.

Here we go!

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Mysteries in the Fog: Quinta da Regaleira

If someone were to ask me: What is the Quinta da Regaleira? I’d have a really hard time coming up with a short answer. In fact, it can only really be summed up through multiple pictures and an entire blog post! So here it is.

The Quinta da Regaleira is basically a mansion and its surrounding grounds situated in the mountains above a village called Sintra, in Portugal.

I first heard about Sintra when reading something about J.K. Rowling. If I remember correctly, she was describing all the things that inspired her when creating the world of Harry Potter, and one of them was Sintra. I had no idea what Sintra would actually be like, but I knew that if it had inspired one of my favorite fictional worlds, then visiting it would be worth my while.

Since reading that article, I forgot about Sintra, but as Portugal rose in popularity over the last few years as the coolest, newest travel destination, I saw more and more images pop up into my Instagram and Pinterest feeds featuring this amazing, mysterious garden with moss-covered ponds and a deep, dark spiral staircase that descended into the earth but opened up to the sky. I found out later after doing some research that the place I had seen magical little glimpses of was in fact the Quinta da Regaleira (don’t ask me to pronounce that).

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Pardon me for the next few paragraphs as I channel the great Lorelai Gilmore and gush about how wonderful and magical snow is. Did you know that snow actually sparkles in the sunlight?! It honestly looks like it has glitter in it.

I can’t get over how much it transforms a landscape so completely. The entire world becomes a bright, light-filled, monochromatic wonderland, and a peaceful silence pervades the atmosphere. All sounds are slightly dampened, while the dry crunching sound from your boots in the snow is oddly amplified.

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Tiles & Tarts in Lisbon, Portugal

For the entire month of December, I was traveling, starting with Lisbon, Portugal.

When I was planning this trip to Europe many months ago, I asked around to see if anybody could come with me. I asked friends, family members, and my husband to come along, but nobody could get the time off from work, or they didn’t have the money. Not that I was necessarily desperate to have a travel partner, I just knew that it would be out of my comfort zone and I was a little nervous about that.

After Portugal, I’d be heading to Sintra, a town outside of Lisbon, then Paris, then Sweden.

I wasn’t really nervous for Paris, since I’m so familiar with the city, and I wasn’t nervous for Sweden, since I would be meeting my husband Erik there to spend Christmas with his family – but just the idea of leaving for another country all alone is a little scary, even if I have done it before. Also, this past year has been mostly about hibernating inside my house, so to get out of that zone so suddenly and intensely was a shock to my system. I cried on my way to the airport. My Uber driver noticed and handed me some tissues. When I touched down in Paris for an overnight “layover,” I could feel that I was on the verge of panicking, from exhaustion and being overwhelmed, but I was able to calm myself down by breathing, taking a quick shower, and focusing on the the task at hand: seeing my friend Laura from Ciao Amalfi! We had planned this reunion perfectly – I couldn’t get a direct flight to Lisbon, so I booked a connecting flight in Paris, and it just so happened that Laura would be in Paris at the same time! I was so tired that by the end of our apéro, I was having trouble keeping my eyes focused, but I’m so grateful I got to see her. We’ve only been in the same city at the same time about 4 times in the past 3 years that I’ve known her, but it feels like I see her all the time. She lives in Italy, so it’s been a long distance friendship from the beginning! And if you’re wondering how we met: we used to work together remotely for Paris Perfect. At our brief Paris meeting she gifted me one of my favorite teas from Mariage Frères, and I gifted her one of my Paris calendars that I designed last-minute for my Etsy shop (they’ve since sold out).

Wait a minute, HOLD UP – this blog post is supposed to be all about Lisbon! …Let’s get back to the subject!

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Our sense of reality is not black and white. Every single person on this planet sees the world slightly differently, altered by our upbringing, our values, faiths, education, experiences and personalities. There are so many billions of factors that can affect our perception. Oftentimes, those differences go completely unnoticed by others, but they’re always alive and well within us. They don’t just work alone – they can build off of one another.

 

For instance, I grew up as the child of divorced parents, but also as the oldest among my half-siblings whom I lived with (I also have two step siblings and another half sibling, which adds a whole separate layer of complexity). I regularly attended a Christian church as a teen, but then dated a very nice Mormon guy for a while. I had pretty bad acne and used to cake on tons of makeup, and I developed breasts earlier than all my other friends and received unwanted attention because of it.

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