My time in Paris last week really changed my impression of this city dramatically compared to my last trip in December.

(cc) BY NC SA, Rodrigo SEPÚLVEDA SCHULZ

There are several reasons for it, not just the spring atmosphere and therefore the increase in the amount of sunshine!

This time I stayed in the very quirky Philippe Starck hotel ‘Mama Shelter’ with the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. 

Not to mention free Wi-Fi and iMac television in the rooms and a bartender who can do amazing tricks. 

The only critical point I have to make is the daily challenge being a girl and trying to put on make up in a dark room … Luckily, I didn’t get any funny comments at the M2C Conference, so I guess I managed somehow. (;  

Another reason might be the great French cuisine I enjoyed in four quite different, but equally good French restaurants, which I can only recommend:

• the Mama Shelter restaurant, where I ate my very first duck foie gras…and I have to admit, it was delicious. However, it made me feel very guilty…and I am still not sure if I would order it ever again.
• The Drouant, where we had a blogger dinner in the same room where “The Goncourt literary prize” members meet on a monthly basis since 1914 to decide which author did “the best and most imaginative prose work of the year“.
• Le Petit Curieux, where I had the best chocolate desert ever!!!
• Chez Julien, in the beautiful 4^th arrondissement with a great atmosphere and a lovely terrace that I definitely want to try during my next visit.

The best part of this Paris in spring trip though, was an afternoon photo-walk through ‘The Pletzl’, the Jewish quarter in the fourth arrondissement of Paris that I enjoyed with Rodrigo. (Thanks again for the guided tour!)

We walked through narrow medieval streets, passing the tiniest synagogues, and Jewish delicates stores, through small pathways and across beautiful squares. 

The prettiest one was definitely Place des Vosges, which is also the oldest planned square in Paris.

During our walk I also saw pieces of really old Paris, like two medieval wood-framed houses that have remnants of 14th-century cores. And we went to some of the most amazing private gardens, belonging to historic private urban chateaux known as “hôtels”.  

My Paris short trip ended with a visit to the Monroe Gallery of Photography to see the current ‘Henri Huet: Vietnam’ exhibition. Henri was an Associated Press photographer, who died 1971 in a burning helicopter over the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. This exhibition opened forty years to the day of Henri Huet’s death, and pays tribute to him and his close photographer friends, and is definitely a must see if you are in Paris before April 10^th!

I was told that I am more the type of girl that would be living in the 7^th quarter, but I have to say I fell in love with Paris 4!