Paris In The Spring – Packing, Getting There & Where I Stayed

Paris in the spring! In this post I’m sharing some of the basics of my recent travel to Paris. I must have taken over 500 images with my iPhone 14Pro and have been working on editing them and uploading to the blog. This is just the first of what may turn out to be several Paris posts, so if it interests you then stick around and sign up for my mailing list if you haven’t already! I promise that it’s going to be a lot of fun and history and most of all…oh the beauty!! But let’s dive into the packing and traveling parts of this journey first.

Oh, by the way, I’ve been to Paris probably a dozen times over the years and it’s a city that I’m fairly familiar with. The first time for me was when I was 14 years old and my parents put me on a plane (alone, which was rare for a kid back then!) to spend 3 months with my French cousins over a summer break. While most young girls fall in love with a boy crush, I fell into a deep love of Paris and it was just the beginning of a lifelong affair!

My husband and I hadn’t been back to Paris since 2019 and although we planned on celebrating a big anniversary there, the pandemic put our plans on hold. So I say with all honesty that we had been saving up for this trip and were able to stay longer and spend more on the basics by careful planning. Between a day of travel on both ends (such a long flight!) we were gone for almost 2 weeks. I’m grateful that both of our daughters were able to be at our home to care for the animal menagerie and when they could not we have a wonderful pet sitter.

Planning & Packing For Paris In The Spring

We booked our flight around 6 months in advance to be sure of the dates we wanted. We flew Air France through Delta airlines and opted for business class on the overnight flight so that we could sleep. As I mentioned, we saved up for this trip and knew that would be a pricey ticket. However, we did not fly business class on the return since it was a daytime flight, but we did book premium economy for roomier seats towards the front of the plane. If you do this, the seats recline much more than on other airlines I’ve flown and there is a footrest as well. Sort of like a recliner in the air! The service and meals on Air France are excellent. Here is my appetizer plate before dinner (ordered the bland, so as not to upset my tummy) which was too much food to eat before a meal so I grazed. After dinner we pulled back our seats into a bed and both of us slept fairly well.

Once we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport we had a taxi waiting for us that I booked in advance. There are several good taxi services in Paris and I highly recommend booking one, since you’ll be sure to have a vetted professional and don’t need to get in a queue. Our preferred service is Victor’s Cabs and the drivers do speak some English.

I don’t feel that it’s necessary to have fancy luggage, but I do opt for quality. My sensible suitcase is this Swiss Army carry on and I’ve had it for years! It’s highly rated on Amazon, has lots of pockets and fits easily in the overhead bins. Also, it’s a matter of personal preference but I prefer soft sided luggage (have had both) as you can cram more in! I recently purchased this backpack on Amazon, strictly for travel. While I don’t carry a backpack, it held a lot more than my usual tote and fit under the seat in front. I’m impressed and it comfortably held my laptop, iPad and everything else under the sun that I needed for almost 2 weeks! Plus, it looks great and the price is so good!

What I Packed For Paris – A Carry-On Capsule Wardrobe

I’ve been to Paris in every season and you never know what exactly to expect in terms of the weather! Generally the month of May is warm and there is always rain to be expected. I had been checking the weather app for a couple of weeks before leaving and saw that it was cold and rainy. Ugh! Not my preferred Paris in the spring weather as a Florida girl, but I knew how to pack in my carry on with layers.

Below is when we just arrived after the overnight flight and it was pretty much the only sun we saw!

This is basically a capsule wardrobe that you can wear all year long and mix and match with what you already have. We did have one of those European washer/dryer combos in our apartment and although they are far from perfect I used it twice. Since those units do a poor job of drying I hung my clothes on the heated towel holder in the bathroom which helped.

We’ve done a good amount of travel abroad over the years and I’m always the family planner. Is that the case with you? Seems like most women I know take on this responsibility. I’ve never seen the need personally for utilizing a travel agent but if you do need some help then why not! Planning in advance can save headaches down the road, so here’s a list of what I did and I hope that you find it useful.

Planning Ahead For A Smooth Trip

• Looking for flights is the first on my list. We try to travel pre-busy seasons of summer when families tend to travel. You can set up alerts for the best fares and grab them when they become available.
• Once flights are in place I start the search for lodging. It can be frustrating to find what you want these days if you wait too long. Since folks are traveling more now that definitely seems to be the case. We prefer to stay in an apartment so that we can have our own kitchen for breakfast and flexibility of meals. I’ve had good experiences with both AirBnB and VRBO, but for Paris we stay with Paris Perfect.
• Trip insurance is a good idea and we booked with Travelex.
• Next I book any day trips or day tours. There are several ways that you can do this like hire a local, a private driver or a group tour. We booked a day trip with Viator (given via Blue Fox Travel) that included Fontainebleau and Vaux-Le-Vicomte Castles in a small group of 6 people and the guide. We also did a super fun bike tour of Versailles with Fat Tire Tours and I’ll post more about both of these with photos in another post.
• If you are going to visit museums in Paris then a Paris Museum Pass is a must in my opinion. It opens the doors to over 50 museums and monuments in Paris and the Paris region and you have a choice as to the number of days the pass is going to be good for. I’m especially glad that we did this, since it wasn’t the typical Paris in the spring weather so we popped into a museum almost every day.
• Book your museum visits in advance! You’ll skip the line and be ensured of entry as there are daily limits for crowd control. We found that it depended on the museum’s popularity and while we did reserve several there were others that we could just walk into without plans. I’ll be sharing the museums in another post soon!
• Money! Be sure to check and see if your credit card companies need to be informed that you’ll be out of the country. We found that some of ours did and others did not, so we took the later. I also recommend getting a small amount of euros before leaving home. You should be able to order euros at your local bank. I went to my branch to order and had them the next day. Cash is great for flea markets, adding an extra tip and sometimes necessary for purchases under a certain amount where they don’t take credit cards. Don’t wait until you get to Europe as it’s much easier to have it on hand and avoid fees.
• There are several ways to get around Paris and they have an excellent network on the city’s public transport system. There is the metro (subway), RER, bus system (all electric now!), Paris city bus tours (hop on and off) Seine River boats (perfect for Paris in the spring) (Batobus) and taxi (G7). You can purchase a Paris Visite travel card once there or a Passe Navigo to make life easier. For this trip we decided to either walk (lots of miles put in!) or take an Uber.

Where We Stayed – Our Paris Apartment

As I mentioned, we’ve been to Paris in the spring many times and generally prefer the 7th arrondissement. This time we stayed in the 1st on the Île de la Cité which is the island that is the center of Paris. The apartment was located right in the charming Place Dauphine. Read more about the Place Dauphine and its history dating back to 1606 here. With several restaurants down in the square we had a choice for dining right at our doorstep. I am all about convenience these days, and that extends into traveling. The chestnut trees were in full bloom providing shade and such a pretty sight! Despite it being Paris in the spring, there was a definite lack of bloom in the rest of the city.

The lobby of our building was well appointed and had a bathroom and luggage storage off to the side.

Our apartment was a quiet respite at the end of each busy day and gave us a chance to unwind. Below is the lovely living room and it was quite comfortable as well as chic. One of the first things that I did on arrival in Paris was to purchase flowers. No surprise there and with Paris in the spring there were peonies in every flower market!

The bedroom had a queen sized bed and a good size closet for our clothing. It was handy to have an outlet on both sides for charging our phones at night.

The apartment had one full bathroom and a powder room off the kitchen, which can be hard to find in Paris.

Despite construction going on across the plaza, the view from our apartment was a romantic one of Paris in the spring!

I’ll be posting more Paris in the spring soon so that you can armchair travel along with me if you’d like.