Excerpt from Cinematic Dining: Paris as seen on JustLuxe.com
In Paris, it just suddenly happens one day; the City of Love opens up for all the outdoor romance and revelry it’s known to inspire. It’s like a shot of espresso you didn’t know you needed, and it awakens the life within. They’ve made movies about it. The sunlight lingers a little longer on the façades, and the air carries the faint perfume of blossoms. A parade of life and fashion begins. Café terraces fill up with ritual, clinking plates and glinting glasses, while carefree conversations drift along the street. I recently found myself in this sweet window of time, enjoying cinematic experiences, dining en plein air, and surrendering to the Parisian seduction with iconic views all around me.
Rooftops and Reverie
Notre Dame had again been thrilling visitors since its doors opened following a five-year restoration. Its polished limestone gleamed with a renewed luminosity no one alive had ever seen before. The tulips were in full bloom, and the abundant green bouquinistes along the Seine were thriving as if winter had never happened. Beside the cathedral, Square Jean XXIII, where I once rang in a wet yet joyful New Year, dazzled in the warmth of the midday sun. Paris was suddenly pulsing with life. As I climbed the reconstructed 178-step double-helix staircase through the belfry and big bells en route to the towers, the crowds became incidental. I devoured the cinematic scenery like eye candy.
Paris is food, fashion, art, beauty, and charming historic architecture. Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement is an elevated sensorial experience that ticks all those boxes inside and out. With Chanel, Dior, Longchamp, you name it, it is a fabulous shopping haven of seductive decadence. Its intricate 1912 Art Nouveau glass dome is dizzyingly gorgeous from every angle, and can be ogled up close from a suspended 30-foot-long glass runway on the third floor. J’adore Belle Époque decadence.
The stunning Parisian grandeur culminates on the eighth-floor rooftop exterior with 360° views of Paris for days. This moment may be best savored with a sauv-blanc or spritz at Galeries Lafayette’s seasonal rooftop restaurant, New Balcon Bistro, a little love letter to Paris tucked behind the velvet ropes. Reservations are advised.
The Parisian skyline was like a sea of iconic, silvery-blue zinc rooftops, a distinctive architectural aesthetic known as the Mansard style. The steep-sloped design dominates Baron Haussmann’s blueprint for the 19th-century design modernization of Paris. In 2024, those rooftops earned their place on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Awestruck and enamored was I, overlooking the stunningly ornate Opéra Garnier and breathing in that panorama of Sacré-Cœur, both of which offer very worthwhile tours. And, yes, the Eiffel Tower is in the picture here too, but have you seen that iron lace beauty close up on a lovely spring morning?
This is Paris.
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