Happy Bastille Day!

Bastille Day is two days away and I'm celebrating on the blog as I do every year! I'm such a francophile and my love of all things Parisian increased tenfold after visiting for the second time in May with Alexa (see recaps here and here; Paris and London are definitely my two favorite cities). 

In honor of Bastille Day, we decided to spend a day in the city visiting French spots, which is what we did last year as well. We always end up finding new places and we lucked out with absolutely beautiful weather too. 

Our first stop was brunch at Cafe D'Alsace, a popular French brunch spots on the Upper East Side. We got there 15 minutes before it opened on a Saturday and there was already a bit of a line. We were seated right away though. I got buttermilk pancakes, Alexa got a Belgian waffle and we shared an omelette Lorraine (caramelized onions, double-smoked bacon, aged Gruyère, roasted potatoes, mixed greens). It was very easy to see why this place is so popular! 

From there we walked to the Central Park Conservatory Gardens, which I didn't even know existed until I started planning our outing! It's "Central Park's six-acre formal garden and divided into three smaller gardens, each with a distinct style: Italian, French, and English." Of course we headed straight to the French one. The garden overall was smaller than I expected but still charming and great for a casual stroll or photo op (in our case, we did both). 

Our next stop was The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which we hadn't been to in years! Even though this museum is overwhelming in size, there's something very calming about just walking around leisurely and taking in all the art. Since we were celebrating Bastille Day, we purposely kept an eye out for French art. We can't resist Degas (ballet lovers over here as you now) and that Joan of Arc is one of my faves. We ended up spending only a little over an hour here but it was worth it to see paintings I adore. 

The last leg of our day was more walking and eating. We walked to La Librairie des Enfants, which is another one of those spots I never knew existed! It's a quaint children's French bookstore, that not only sells solely French literature but also gives French lessons to all ages. We then stopped for snacks at Maison Kayser (croissants and coffee!) and Laduree (macarons that we picked up to go). And finally we walked by French Institute Alliance Française (they host a Bastille Day celebration every year) and Chanel (we didn't go inside because too tempting!).

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It was so fun to walk around NYC and pretend for a few hours that we were in Paris again together. 

Have you been to any of these places?