Valentines Day in Paris is always a great idea. Back when I worked for an airline, I had started a silly tradition of trying to making it over to Paris every February 14th. People weren’t usually flying to Paris in the middle of the winter so there were plenty of available seats to be taken for stand-by travel. I started the tradition with my mom and continued it with Tony after we got engaged and decided to get married there.
Now that we are back in Europe and so much closer to Paris, we wanted to try and reignite this tradition. And so, my husband and I went to Paris for Valentines day. We arrived on Friday, Valentines morning, and checked into one of my favorite hotels in Paris, Hotel du Louvre. It is in the heart of the first arrondissement – a perfect location – and one of the most authentic monuments you could ever see while in the city of love.
After checking in, we met up with one of my previous French classmates from Chicago. Her husband was treating her to a Parisian Valentines as well. We met them behind the I.M. Pei pyramid in the middle of the Louvre’s courtyard. She had heard about a Valentines kiss flash mob that was occurring at 2:14pm. What an amazing idea – of course we wanted to participate!
As we approached the controversial glass pyramid, we saw a bunch of people, many with heart balloons with postcards taped to them. We were in the right place but at 2:14pm nothing really happened. I figured there would be some sort of figurehead to say,”Okay…..kiss!” to cue the flash mob…but nothing.
Oh well. We stayed for a few, bopped along to the fun music, and just relished at being in Paris on the world’s most romantic day.
From there we headed over to Angelina’s for some delicious African hot chocolate. Angelina’s is a Paris staple, at least for us, situated in front of Place Vendôme and behind the Tuileries (depending on how you look at it). I instantly went for the hot chocolate, but they were also offering a yin-yang chocolate cake for the romantic holiday.
We spent the rest of the day wandering down Rue St. Honore looking at the stores and catching up. We shared a bottle of wine at the hotel with our friends and then took a nap before meeting our other, Paris based friends, for a Valentine’s dinner.
We headed to Hotel Amour, located in the 9th, and enjoyed a quirky, pre-set menu for the great holiday. We caught up with our friends we hadn’t seen in awhile and relaxed. It was exactly what we wanted – that electric feeling of being in Paris.
Saturday found us sleeping in and wandering around the city. We did some shopping and both Tony and I got our hair cut.
That night we had a great, local dinner with our Parisian friends and a few other couples near Place des Vosges. It was a social and wine-filled end to a clear day in Paris. This city is just too perfect for words.
On Sunday, Tony and I ventured off on our own to truly relish our last day of our Valentine’s trip. We started with mass at the church we were married in, St. Germain l’Auxerrois. From there we did some of the tourist-y things – Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower. We had to – the Eiffel Tower graces our household at every turn – we needed to pay homage.
We finished with a decadent and delicious dinner at the hotel and went to bed. As we watched the Olympic ice skaters, we were feeling thankful that we were able to reignite our Valentine’s tradition in our favorite city.
There were a few things I learned, however, now being a true European, celebrating Valentine’s in Europe:
(1) Paris is always a good idea on Valentines day – even if the flash mob doesn’t quite work
(2) Europeans celebrate this holiday – but watch out, they call it “St. Valentines” Day – good thing we went to church
(3) For the life of me, I couldn’t find One Direction nor Frozen mini-valentine cards to distribute to my friends ANYWHERE – no Migros had them – I was so bummed
Happy St. Valentine’s, everyone!
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