Planning for Paris - It's Coming Along

There are days where I feel completely overwhelmed planning our fifth anniversary trip to Paris.  I sit on the couch with the laptop and three travel guides cross referencing hotspots, must sees, don't bothers, etc!  My head is spinning from all of the choices.  I wish I was a fly by the seat of her pants kind of gal, but I'm a planner.  I will say though, for me, the planning is half of the fun.  And we're getting there...

We have our arrival day planned.  A casual lunch by our hotel (the Hotel des Grandse Hommes near the Pantheon) when we check in, off to the Champs-Elysees where we will stroll down this beautiful boulevard taking in all of the sights.  We're going to take a boat tour of the Seine that evening before we head to dinner at Hidden Kitchen.  Yay! 

We're still mapping out Monday and Tuesday, but we're going to get a two day bus pass on the L'Open Tour - bus tours of Paris.  They let you hop on and off all over the city, so we thought that'd be a good introduction to our trip.  Wednedsay is my cooking class and food tour day. I think we might also have a late night date with The Mona Lisa since the Lourve stays open late on Wednesdays!!

I am very excited to announce that we have our Thursday plans all set!!!  I am so looking forward to our plan to stroll through the St. Germain!  We will start with breakfast and hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots.
We plan to spend the morning walking through the neighborhood before we set off on our picnic lunch in the Jardin-du-Luxembourg.  I had read about all of these great little places to make the perfect picnic lunch, so we'll be stopping at a few different places to gather all of the things we need:

• Fromagerie Quatrehomme - fiirst stop: cheese!!
• La Grande Epicerie - for sliced meats and pates
• Boulangerie Poilane - for freshly baked bread
• Patissier Pierre Herme - for something sweet

And off to enjoy some sunshine is such beautiful gardens!

That evening we will be going to the Yves St. Laurent exhibit at the Petit Palais which I am so excited about.  We've decided to try to have dinner close to the hotel to avoid zig zagging across Paris, and we found the perfect little spot  called Chez Dumone - Josephine.  It just looks like the kind of bisto I imagined dining in from the day we starting talking about making this trip.

And so there you have it.  Our Thursday in Paris.  I guess the only thing left out of my little travel planning hands is the weather.  Hope for a lovely day!

Are you like me and plan every detail of your trip?  Or do you spontaneously take in the sights?