I made a selective list of touristy things I wanted to do in Paris, and one of the top items on the list was getting a box of six macarons from Ladurée. After Mom had her fun on the Champs-Élysées at Louis Vuitton and Hermès, it was my turn to have fun at Ladurée. We entered through the bakery rather than the restaurant, got our desserts to-go, and enjoyed them by the French windows of our Airbnb, free of tourists (except for ourselves) and softly glowing in natural lighting (much friendlier for my photos than Ladurées dim lighting). To complete the ambience, I played Spotify’s coffee table jazz playlist.

Since I only had two days in Paris, Ariane and I made sure to meet up before I left, as she was there for her summer internship. We met on the swim team when I was a first-year at Bryn Mawr, and now she’s graduated and off to grad school in England in the fall! Anyways, she was trying to find a hip place she thought I would like, and she hit the nail right on the head. Cue Hubsy. I’m obsessed!

We celebrated Ken’s birthday on our last day in Paris with pastries from Angelina. His only request was a raspberry macaron and the rest of it was up to us. He is not a boy who wants much, except to be left alone to game to his content, and to have the occasional dessert.

Whilst making our way toward St. Paul’s Cathedral, Mira, Poonie, and I passed by Joe & the Juice. Mira was really excited about this because she had gone to the store in Iceland, and has since associated the store with Iceland. We popped in to see what all the rage was about, and I was immediately taken by the interior. I resolved to buy a drink and rest my feet there, even though I had just bought a can of Innocent bubbles lemon and lime from Sainsbury’s and was sipping away at it.

Mira, Poonie, and I hit up the Hoxton location for dinner, and surprisingly, there was no queue! We were seated right away, and there were only two other parties dining. I was told that the Soho location always has a super long queue, and I’d think probably an even longer queue for brunch, so we definitely got lucky, or perhaps we were simply more strategic.