Lisa Dawson Paris travel newsletter

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more A Three Night Mini Break: Paris, France Two sisters, the Eurostar, a chic Hotel and a dream of doing exactly what we wanted for three whole nights. Where we stayed, where we shopped, what we bought, where we ate and what we did. Lisa Dawson Oct 3 READ IN APP My experience of visiting Paris has not, to date, been particularly exciting. The first time I went was when I was working for Cisco Systems who used to run training courses in a sixties box build just outside the centre. The most exciting part of the day was when we would be taken out for lunch, where without fail we would be served cassoulet. I made this trip on multiple occasions, eating multiple bowls of cassoulet and it could never have been described as fun. The next time I visited was at the end of a two week driving holiday with my then husband, where quite frankly we were so knackered that we didn’t go anywhere but for dinner and that was Paris for me until my kids heard of Euro Disney. I have never been a theme park fan. I have never visited Orlando or even had the faintest inclination to do so, so when I realised I could tick the Disney box without having to get on a plane or take two weeks off, I booked it. It rained the entire time we were there, we didn’t have Fast Track tickets so did It’s A Small World on repeat as it had the shortest queue, a can of Coke cost a fiver (this was in 2008) and we paid over £120 to have breakfast with Mickey Mouse and Goofy who looked slightly battered and as if they’d rather be elsewhere. Paris 2010, a brief visit to the Eiffel Tower after two days of solid rain at Euro Disney with three kids and a buggy. Anyway, that was Paris for me for a while until I started working on Instagram and once again started visiting for work; Maison Objet, trips with brands, product launches. But despite the loveliness of the location, I never really got to see very much of it at all. So when my sister and I decided to go on a couple of days break, it seemed like the perfection place to visit. And even better, we could do exactly what we wanted to do. No children, no work, no husbands. What more could we ask for? We could browse the markets, peruse the galleries, drink French wine in small glasses sitting on little tables on the pavement. All the stuff. So we booked. And had the BEST time. I accosted my Instagram audience for tips beforehand and we ticked them off, one by one, seeing everything that we wanted to and covering many bases during our three night break. Here’s a rundown of what we did, what we saw, where we shopped, where we ate and what we bought. And do feel free to add your own recommendations to the comments here for other people who are planning a visit. Let’s Start With The Basics. Where Did We Stay? My sister, Annabel, and I are very Hotel fussy. Not from a price perspective (the cheaper the better, obvs) but from an aesthetic perspective. Yes, this might make us a little difficult to please but we make no excuses for it. There is a list (prepare yourselves). We do not do grey sofas, white gloss furniture, artwork that looks like it comes from The Range, anything sparkly or glittered, any decor that is dark purple or black. Nothing that houses a high backed easy clean leather dining chair. But the problem is when you are looking for a budget Hotel, there are a lot of them that look like this. And Annabel and I are not for turning. I know, we are intolerable. Obviously in an ideal world, we would have stayed in the Hotel Les Deux Gares but sadly for us, we didn’t have a) a budget to suit our aspirations or b) a budget that would even buy us one night there, let alone three, so we had to reconvene and reassess. And after trawling booking.com for a full afternoon, we came across the 30 room Hotel Arvor which was situated in South Pigalle, close to two Metro stations (Saint-Georges and Notre-Dame-De-Lorette) and was on a very quiet street, yet still in the centre of everyt