From Vienna, we did a “stopover” in Paris for 2 nights to use Jason’s 3 Marriot 50K free night certificates. Our flight arrived at 8:00 PM so instead of taking public transportation, it was easier and actually not that much more expensive to take a taxi because taxi from the airport to central Paris and vice versa is fixed rate: to the right bank is €56 and left bank is €65 (see Paris airports website for up to date info). The rate is for 4 people and additional person is €5.50. Agreed with the taxi driver first before getting in because some taxi drivers tried to scam tourists! It was late at night by the time we got to the hotel – Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador Hotel. Right after we checked in and dropped off our stuff in the room, we walked out for our late dinner at Kim’s Spoon, I booked via TheFork with 20% discount.
Kim’s Spoon is a family Korean restaurant, it was small but since we were there late a night, we didn’t have trouble getting a table. We ordered the Korean seafood pancake, it was okay, not much seafood:
Jason ordered the spicy squid, it was pretty good:
I ordered the soondubu (spicy tofu stew), it tasted okay but not enough seafood in it:
We ordered the bibimbap for the kids:
The dinner cost $60.71 with the 20% discount, pretty good value!
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, one of our rooms:
The next morning, Jason and I got up and walked to Ernest & Valentin Lafayette to get pastries for breakfast…OMG the cakes looked delicious!!!
So much choices!
We got crossaints, strawberry and almond pastry, chocolate rolls, breakfast for 5 people cost only $8.29. We walked back to the hotel and wake up the kids to get them ready and have breakfast. The crossaints were so crunchy and buttery!!!
After breakfast, we walked to the Chaussée d’Antin — La Fayette subway station to purchase the day ticket for 4 people (kids 3 and under is free) – €12 per person. Then, we took the bus to Musée d’Orsay where I booked tickets for entrance at 9:30 AM. When we arrived, people already lined up! Even with booked time slot, the line to get in took 15 minutes.
Once we got through security and stored our backpacks, we tried to find our way to the Van Gogh’s paintings. The interior of the musuem was very pretty:
We navigated our way to the elevator and up to the 5th floor to get to Room 36. We passed through a cafe/restaurant and then immediately into the gallery is where Vincent van Gogh’s paintings located. Photo with Van Gogh’s self portrait!
Seeing Van Gogh’s artworks in person was totally different than from online, postcards, magnets,….
Starry Night Over the Rhône was very popular with tourists, there was a line to take photo with it!
One of Monet’s famous The Water Lily Pond:
Another Monet’s masterpieces: Nymphéas Bleus
Renoir’s Danse à la ville (Dance in the City):
My daughter loves the ballerina on stage painting by Edgar Degas – “The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage”
The impressionist painting collection in Orsay is huge that there was no way we could go through all with our little kids, especially my son! Peeking out from the glass door of the balcony, we could see Sacré-Cœur!
The clock in the cafe/restaurant lined up to Sacré-Cœur as well!
Orsay is very kid-friendly, they have a dedicated area for little kids and I couldn’t believe my eyes, it is in a beautiful ballroom!
There were different sections for drawings, toys, and other workshop activities.
My daughter played with the toy house a little bit:
My son played with the stacking cubes and also the building block train:
My daughter spent the most time at the drawing table:
She hung her artwork on the rotating display 😀
After Orsay, we took the bus to our lunch restaurant – Big Bang Saint-Germain. It’s a Korean BBQ chain and TheFork offered 50% off!!! On our walk from the bus stop to the restaurant, we saw this beautiful cafe!
The interior of Big Bang Restaurant:
The complimentary Korean side dishes:
We ordered the Korean seafood pancake and it was much better than the one at Kim’s Spoon last night:
The bulgogi was really good!
The spicy pork belly was flavorful and our favorite!
We ordered the Korean ginseng chicken soup for my mom, it was okay, but can’t compare to the ones we had in South Korea!
With 50% off, our lunch bill was only $51.37!!!
Next, we walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden) so the kids could sail their boat! The garden is beautiful with blooming, colorful flowers! There are free public toilets there including a family one with a little toilet for little kids!
A “sailboat” rental stand, €8 for 30 minutes and each boat has its own country flag. The US one was taken so we rented the China boat.
The kids use a stick to push the sailboat out, the wind blows the boat across the pond, and the kids have fun chasing their boat!
After a good 30 minutes of fun, we took the metro to Notre Dame. We didn’t go in as we couldn’t get the free timed entry slot and the line was just too long. We had been into Notre Dame during our previous visit so we didn’t need to go in this time. A photo was enough 🙂
We walked along the Seine where the kids had fun spotting the boats:
We walked to Lourve to get some photos…it was a lot of people but not too bad on the “back side”.
Lightroom’s AI removal did a pretty good job removing “distractions”!
Next stop, we took the metro to Trocadéro and then a bus to the Eiffel Tower where we boarded our Seine River cruise with Bateaux Parisiens. The line was long but moved quickly, we were able to board the boat at around 6 PM. It was nice to see the landmarks that we visited earlier in the day and took a break.
My daughter was excited to see beautiful bridges and their statues.
Unfortunately, we saw homelessness taking shelter under the bridge:
Notre Dame again:
Conciergerie:
The loop took around an hour and we were back to the Eiffel Tower!
After we got off the cruise, we walked to the dinner restaurant – Vin et Maree – Suffren, booked via TheFork with 40% off!!!
On our last trip to Paris before we have kids, we took my mom to Paris and she loved the crab at Vin et Maree and has been missing it for years! We took her back again and had the same crab haha!
The grilled salmon was good quality and grilled perfectly!
Jason and I both ordered the steak and lobster, the steak was very good! The lobster was okay, we liked the Cantonese way with ginger and scallion much better!
For dessert, the kids had creme brulee;
We had the souffle! We only ate the top part because the bottom had alcohol.
It was a great dinner and even better with 40% off – $157.05! After dinner, we walked to the Eiffel Tower and waited for the top of the hour so the kids can see it sparkling. It was magical!
To get back to our hotel, it took forever for the bus to come…. supposedly the bus comes every 10-15 min but this time we waited for almost an hour! I gave up and decided to walk to the Trocadéro metro station, where we took the train back to Chaussée d’Antin — La Fayette. It was a super long day for us, especially for the kids, they were super good today 🙂
