Paris with a Friend

Well it's settled. Paris with a friend > Paris on your lonesome. This week I had the pleasure of exploring Paris with my partner in crime (the crime being fabulousness...), Sarah!

I met Sarah at admitted students weekend last April. We judged each others outfits, gave approving nods and went our separate ways. It wasn't until April of this year that I realized want a gem I had on my hands.

Here are some highlights of our great Parisian adventure together. I promise to spare you most of the details about the hours we spent discussing shoe choices since our friendship was built on the fact that we are two of only a handful of people who find joy in this.

Shopping

We. Love. Shopping. That's why we weren't about to let the fact that we were in France get in the way of having a Black Friday shopping day. To our absolute delight we discovered that a few stores here had gotten in on the Black Friday bandwagon themselves. Most notably, Zara. We rewarded them by buying matching sweaters. After doing some further damage at Mango and BHV, we found ourselves at Merci.  Kind of like a French Anthropologie on steroids.

 

A Paris-Perfect Shopping Outfit:
J.Crew Silk Snood
J.Crew Silk Shirt
J.Crew Long Field Jacket
Target Mossimo Jeans
Cole Hann Shoes

Eating Out

While I wrote an entire post about the joys of eating out alone, it's true that fantastic meals are best shared with friends. Sarah and I had 3 fantastic meals and a bunch of other really great ones.

The first was at a cozy place called Le Campanella. We kind of stumbled on it after seeing the Eiffel Tower.  The food is classic French but seemed to cater to our American taste buds (in other words it was all well salted). The English menus and servers were also a delight.

Our second fantastic meal was at Caillenotte. I remember it being fantastic, I just can't remember why. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Our last and probably most fantastic of fantastic meals was at Vivant Table. We opted to go all out and have the 5 course tasting menu. Other people trolls on the internet had informed us that the service may not be so good, but we couldn't disagree more. They were happy to accommodate the menu to cater to my vegetarianismsm, which is usually scowled at.

Eating In

I like to call this, the Sarah and Ashley model. We had a few expensive meals and several very inexpensive meals at home. These included lots of wine, lots of cheese and How I Met Your Mother--the trifecta. Plus, Sarah found us the perfect Parisian Air BnB, so who would want to leave?

Isn't she gorgeous??

The perfect outfit for sitting on a Parisian Balcony:

J.Crew floppy

J.Crew Silk Blouse (note Sarah's version is from retail, but now it's only available at Factory)

Galleries Lafayette Scarf

Target Jeans

J.Crew Bangles 

 

The view from our balcony

The view from our couch. 

Sightseeing

Since Sarah used to live in Paris like me, we didn't have to do a lot of sightseeing, but it is Paris after all so why not?

 

Of course we wanted to see The Eiffel Tower at night.  This is probably something no one will ever get tired of.

 

Sarah's Eiffel Tower Outfit

Gap Leather Jacket

Ann Taylor Silk Blouse

J.Crew Marino Wool Asymmetrical Side Zip Sweater

Target Leggings

J.Crew Darby Loafers

Limited Leopard Infinity Scarf

Tiffany Pearl Earrings

J.Crew Bangles 

  

We also wanted to do something a little more unique, so on Thanksgiving we took a tour of the catacombs. Cue joke about being thankful to be alive!

 

 

 Fancy French Pâtisseries

I think you can probably tell by now that we don't like food very much. Even so, we mustered up the strength to go to two fancy pastry shops--Angelina and Ladurèe.  

 

 

And that is how we spent Thanksgiving in Paris. It could not have been more fun!