Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 13 Paris

Our first activity for the day was a 10 AM timed entry reservation for the Musée d’Orsay. This absolutely stunning museum is housed in a former train station and is home to a large collection of impressionist artwork. There’s also a cool photo op in front of one of the clock faces of the former station. We went throughout the entire upper floor of impressionist art and then took a super quick spin through some of the other galleries.

We left the museum and got some lunch nearby before taking the metro back to our apartment to relax before our afternoon activity. While at the apartment I noticed my Islander bag was having a little issue with the strap. All is well though because I reached out to Islander and they are shipping a new bag base to me so I can swap it out - what great customer service!

After relaxing for a bit, we took the metro to Montmartre and had my favorite coffee we had in Paris. After coffee it was time to meet our guide for our afternoon activity: a walking tour of Montmartre. This ended up being one of my favorite things from the whole trip. We slowly made our way up the hill of Montmartre and our really wonderful guide gave us a lot of history and interesting information (as well as a croissant) as we went. We stopped by the house where Van Gogh lived with his brother, Theo, while he was living in Paris. We also saw where Picasso and many other artists lived and worked, the famous, original Moulin Rouge, and a little cafe where some of the movie Amelie was filmed. The tour ended at the very top of the hill at Sacré-Cœur. Until we got to the front of the church, the whole tour felt so far from the crowds and tourists. It was just a really peaceful and enjoyable couple of hours.

We got a couple of dinner recommendations from our guide, but we were sort of feeling a little done with French food and instead ended up at an Italian restaurant and actually one of my favorite meals from the trip. I got a pesto topped with burrata and it was phenomenal. While we ate dinner it rained but the timing was just perfect because it ended when we were done and we headed back to our place, stopping by a boulangerie on the way to pick up a traditional baguette and some pastries for dessert. Actually I haven’t talked a ton about the weather since talking about the rain in London, but I will say it rained off and on while we were in Paris. It didn’t trouble us too much, but we were fine with the trade-off being that it was fairly cool while we were there.