At the end of our Euro trip, Cindy and I stopped by Paris for New Year’s Eve. We were met by a few friends we made traveling and this is what we did!
What we did in a nutshell:
Food to eat: Confit de canard, escargot, French onion soup, steak tartare, coq au vin, bœuf bourguignon, croque monsieur, tartiflette
Restaurants:
Café le Danté: Eat steak tartare, escargot, anything "canard" :)
Café de la Paix: ($$$) This was our splurge meal
Ice-skated at the Christmas Markets
Explored the Latin Quarter at night
Watched the Eiffel Tower light up on New Year’s Eve.
One of the many things I wanted to check off my bucket list was ice skating at an outdoor ice-rink. Though I am a TERRIBLE ice skater, I can proudly say I only fell once - which is a miracle considering the last time I went, I fell so much that people started counting (it was 46 times in 1.5 hours for those curious).
We then spent some time wandering aimlessly near the Seine, admiring the grandiose architecture at every turn. We even stopped for a bite at the Christmas Market.
After working up an appetite, we decided to treat ourselves to an extraordinary meal at Café de la Paix. This was definitely our splurge meal of the trip, but not only was the meal incredible, but the interior was jaw-dropping, too.
The next day was New Year’s Eve, and we were meeting up with one of my high school friends also studying in France, and a few people we met along the way. We ate at Le Danté that night - I had escargot again, because when in France.
We were already in the Latin Quarter for our meal, so we wandered around watching street performers putting on amazing displays for the people sitting outside restaurants. We saw some live jazz groups and astounding break dancers who daringly blocked traffic.
We then staked out our spot amongst the hordes of people waiting for the light show at the Eiffel Tower. I assume it was because of the terror attack that had just recently happened, but there would be no fireworks this year. So instead, we did the count down until the regular light show that happens on the hour every night. We met a few other tourists from Germany, I believe, and they shared some sparklers with us. I was simply excited to be in another country for this, so the tiny little flame on the end of that stick made me ecstatic.
It was really great meeting other people while we traveled! There’s something very beautiful about connecting with total strangers while on the road, and the fact that they moved their plans to see us again was so, so special.
