After Pie and I spent six days visiting waterfalls galore in Iceland, five days in the Faroe Islands seeing comical puffins, unique sea stacks and adorable grass-roofed houses, and two days in the most bike-friendly city in the world, Copenhagen, the only thing standing in the way of us and home was the City of Lights.

Hubby had found a cheap, non-stop flight from Paris to Denver, so we were only visiting Paris as a way to get home. We had just two brief days in Paris before heading home and that was just fine by me! Although hubby had never visited Paris before, I had and I was definitely not in love with Paris. Give me a beach or give me mountains… but definitely not a big, busy, dirty city with lots of public cigarette smoking.

There was one thing I was looking forward to with Paris though! We had booked the most adorable Airbnb in Paris to spend two nights in that boasted an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower from the sixth floor apartment balcony. I thought this apartment alone would make our trip magical!

DAY ZERO >> ARRIVING IN PARIS

We arrived in Paris at nine o’clock at night and I couldn’t wait to be sipping wine and watching the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower from our balcony that first night! Unfortunately, after spending an hour getting through the empty Charles de Gaulle Airport and another 45 minutes on a train ride to get to our apartment, all we could think about was sleep!

We enjoyed our late night view of the Eiffel Tower, which was every bit as amazing as the online photos, and quickly went to bed!

DAY ONE >> A SPEED TOUR OF PARIS SIGHTS

The next day, we enjoyed more jaw-dropping views of the Eiffel Tower from our balcony before we breezed through a bunch of popular Paris sights.

It was so unbelievably hot in Paris, especially compared to the cool temps we had just experienced in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, so it was no surprise that we decided to cut our day short by mid-afternoon and opted for a nap in our apartment until the sun went down.

Fast forward to dusk and I was a much happier camper when we were able to see some really cool views of the twinkling Eiffel Tower on the way to our incredible dinner at a quaint and authentic Paris restaurant called Seb’on.

DAY TWO >> AU REVOIR!

We spent our last, half day in Paris simply relaxing at a Starbucks and indulging in an authentic French baguette before we hopped on our flight back home and said au revoir to Paris! Our time in the City of Lights was brief and sweet!