There’s something wildly romantic about deciding to hop on a train and make one of your biggest bucket list dreams come true.
While travelling through nearby Belgium during our engagement, we realized we had a spare couple of days in our itinerary and suddenly the idea became very real: what if we went to Paris?!
As a photographer, my mind immediately began racing with possibilities. Not only was I finally about to see Paris for the very first time, but I also started scheming ways to somehow turn this whirlwind trip into the engagement session of my dreams. Sure enough, after some searching, I found an incredibly talented local photographer willing to meet us at sunrise during our one and only morning in the city.
And just like that, our 24-hour Paris adventure began.
Our carefully timed plans almost fell apart immediately when a nationwide train strike in Belgium threw our travel day into chaos. Suddenly trains were cancelled, routes were changing, and our perfectly coordinated itinerary felt impossible. After some scrambling and rebooking, we finally made it onto a new train bound for Paris with just enough time left to salvage the day.
The second we arrived, we dropped our bags at our hotel and practically ran through the streets of Paris to take it all in. We quite literally sprinted past the Eiffel Tower just to catch our first glimpse before continuing on to Pont de Bir-Hakeim – a surprise stop I had planned for my fiancé because of our shared love for the movie Inception. Standing there together, in the middle of Paris, at a filming location from one of our favourite films felt surreal in the best possible way.
After another jog back through the city and a very quick outfit change, we headed to dinner at La Fontaine de Mars – a classic Parisian restaurant known for serving everyone from celebrities to world leaders over the years. It was the perfect cozy winter dinner. I ordered a rich creamy chicken & morels dish with rice while my fiancé surprisingly went for the more adventurous black pudding sausage… alongside what was a recurring theme of the entire trip: French fries with absolutely everything.
Our hotel, Les Jardins d’Eiffel, ended up being one of the greatest finds of the trip. Tucked away in the 7th arrondissement and within walking distance to so many iconic sights, it somehow felt both peaceful and perfectly central. Knowing how short our stay would be, I had arranged ahead of time to have champagne and locally made macarons waiting in our room. The view from our window looked directly toward the Eiffel Tower, sparkling and twinkling through the night like something straight out of a movie.
It still feels impossible that it was real.
The next morning, we woke before sunrise and made our way through the freezing streets of Paris toward Montmartre for our engagement session. It was one of the coldest stretches Paris had seen in years – it actually snowed only days after we left, which is incredibly rare for the city. We happily froze our ears and hands off wandering the cobblestone streets, photographing this once-in-a-lifetime chapter of our lives together.
Meeting another photographer while being photographed ourselves was such a unique experience, and I’m endlessly grateful both to our photographer and to my fiancé for surviving a session involving two photographers in freezing temperatures.
Afterward, we warmed up in a tiny neighborhood café with coffee and fresh croissants while the city slowly woke up around us. Since we were already nearby, we walked over to Moulin Rouge for a quick photo stop before admitting defeat to the cold and buying hats and gloves from a local street vendor. It was during this exact moment that I realized I might actually love wearing a beret.
From there, we hopped in a cab to the Louvre Museum. While the museum itself happened to be closed the day we visited, we still wandered the incredible grounds outside, completely in awe of the architecture and sheer scale of it all.
Lunch brought us to Le Saint Regis on Île Saint-Louis where we tucked into French onion soup, croque madame sandwiches, more fries, and ice cold Coke while thawing out from the winter air. Only a short walk away stood the newly reopened Notre-Dame Cathedral, which had reopened only weeks earlier after years of restoration work. Somehow, despite our incredibly limited time in Paris, we arrived at exactly the right moment to witness it.
One of my final surprises for my fiancé was a visit to Shakespeare and Company – one of the most famous bookstores in the world and a place steeped in literary history. Knowing it had once welcomed writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald made it feel almost sacred for two people who bond deeply over books and storytelling. We lost track of time wandering through narrow shelves and unique collections, leaving with far more books than we had room for.
And then, almost as quickly as it began, our 24 hours in Paris came to an end.
We walked all the way back toward our hotel along the banks of the Seine, taking in the architecture, museums, galleries, and artists lining the riverbanks. I especially loved browsing the vintage books and artwork from the famous Les Bouquinistes stalls along the water. Every street seemed to reveal another beautiful corner of Paris that we wanted to come back and properly experience someday.
Eventually, we navigated the Paris Metro back toward the train station and made our way back to Belgium – exhausted, a little frozen, and completely in love with the city.
Did we see every major highlight Paris has to offer? Not even close.
But for one whirlwind day, we saw the version of Paris that mattered most to us.
And honestly, I think leaving a little unfinished magic behind is part of what makes a city unforgettable.
There are still so many things waiting for us next time: the Arc de Triomphe, wandering through the galleries of the Louvre properly, seeing Van Gogh’s work in person, shopping along the Champs-Élysées, and strolling through the Luxembourg Gardens.
Some places in life feel almost too iconic to imagine seeing with your own eyes until suddenly you’re standing there in the moment trying not to cry because it’s actually real.
For me, this trip held two of those moments:
the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame.
And somehow, even after all these years of dreaming about Paris, reality was even more beautiful. Take a little glimpse into moments of our 24-hours below…
All Photos here taken January 2025 by Meg Kristina Photography.
