Chasing the High: A Love Letter to Champagne & Paris - Paris 2025
Castles, Champagne, Pastries, and a Little Chaos
France · October 20–29
Some trips are about seeing famous things.
This one was about how it felt to be there.
Three friends. Ten days. Champagne country into Paris. A car service to a literal château, pastries at every turn, reunions that felt fated, and the quiet realization that when you let yourself participate fully, life meets you halfway.
From Plane to Château
After an overnight flight from San Francisco, we landed in Paris groggy, giddy, and suspended somewhere between time zones.
Instead of heading into the city, we were met by a car service and driven east. About an hour later, the city noise dissolved into trees, vineyards, and finally: Le Château d’Étoges.
I don’t care how composed you are as a person—arriving at a château after an overnight flight does something to your nervous system. Suddenly, you’re sprinting down stone hallways at 2 a.m. like jet-lagged Marie Antoinettes, laughing too loudly, echoing off walls that have seen centuries of other people’s stories.
We added ours anyway.
Champagne Country, Up Close
The days in Étoges unfolded slowly, luxuriously, exactly as they should have.
We visited small, family-run Champagne houses—Francis Thomas, Verrier et Fils, Borel-Lucas—where tastings felt personal and unhurried, like being welcomed into someone’s legacy rather than sold an experience.
We also descended into the legendary cellars of Moët & Chandon, sipping Champagne that tasted like history and confidence. Underground tunnels stretched forever, bottles stacked like secrets, guides reminding us (politely) that yes—this is normal here.
Lunches blurred into tastings. Tastings blurred into golden-hour walks. And evenings returned us to the château, where we dressed up just enough for dinner at L’Orangerie, letting multi-course meals and Champagne pairings convince us we could, in fact, live like this forever.
We could not.
But for two nights, we pretended.
Reims, Pommery, and a Lesson in Confidence
In Reims, we visited Pommery, descending into dramatic chalk cellars where art and Champagne coexist underground, tasting one last glass before closing that chapter.
(Somehow, we also left France with six bottles of Champagne in our luggage, which felt both excessive and extremely correct.)
Later that day, Reims offered a moment I still think about.
We walked into a restaurant and asked if we could get a table for dinner. The host looked at us—not annoyed, not rushed—just genuinely confused.
“Dinner is not being served tonight,” he said.
We apologized immediately.
“If we were serving dinner,” he continued calmly, “the restaurant would be full. You would need a reservation. There would be people here.”
He gestured lightly around the empty room.
“And you would not be able to get in.”
It wasn’t rude. It wasn’t dramatic. It was simply true.
A quiet masterclass in French confidence.
Champagne to Paris
The next morning, after Pommery, we caught the train from Reims to Paris, watching vineyards give way to apartment blocks, our bags heavier and our pace slower.
Champagne country behind us.
Paris ahead.
Paris, Familiar and New
Paris isn’t new to me. I’ve been traveling here since 2016—nine trips and counting. This was my third time here with Erika and my fourth with Brea, which meant the city already held our laughter, our shortcuts, our inside jokes.
I think I keep coming back because I’m chasing the high it gives me—the feeling of being more awake, more curious, more myself. But maybe it’s not the city I’m addicted to. Maybe it’s stories. And Paris is a place where stories are still alive—on the streets, in the cafés, in the way people play, linger, and engage. It asks you to participate. It always has.
Paris, Act I: Le Marais
We landed in Le Marais, where every street feels like it’s trying to seduce you. We wandered boutiques, lingered in bakeries, drank Champagne, and debated visiting museums versus wandering.
Wandering won. As it usually does.
This stretch felt electric—friendship in motion, city noise humming underneath everything. On Sunday evening, we hugged Brea goodbye at Orly, a soft fracture in the trip where something shifted. Travel always does this: people peel off, and the story changes shape.
One of the greatest gifts of the trip was reconnecting with friends. I got to see Saf, who I met in CDMX. She lives in London and took the train down for Paris—her first time in the city. Showing someone Paris for the first time is its own kind of magic: watching awe unfold in real time, remembering your own.
One day, we left the city entirely and took the train out to Giverny, to visit Monet’s house and gardens. Walking through his home, past the pond and the water lilies, felt like stepping into a living painting. It was quiet and intentional—a reminder that beauty is often built slowly, through devotion to noticing.
That same afternoon, I carved stone alongside a master stonemason, hands dusty, movements deliberate. There was something grounding about shaping something solid and ancient, about learning a craft passed down through generations. It felt like a different kind of conversation with history—not just observing it, but touching it.
A Perfect Last Night
On our final night, we went to Caveau de la Huchette to watch a friend perform live.
There was music. There was Champagne. There was laughter that stretched late into the night. After the show, we played 86’d together—watching something I created live inside someone else’s night, folded into jazz, history, and joy.
It felt surreal and grounding all at once.
What This Trip Left Me With
This trip was a reminder that life expands when you participate in it. That friendship deepens when you share awe. That play—real, adult play—matters more than we pretend.
The château walls and the streets of Paris have centuries of memories and stories baked into them. We walked among those old stories, connected to them—not overshadowed by them—and for a moment, made our own.
And that felt like exactly enough. 🥂
TL;DR — Where We Stayed & What We Sipped 🥂
Hotels
Le Château d’Étoges — Étoges, Champagne
Les Palmettes Hypercentre Reims — Reims
Apartments du Louvre – Le Marais — Paris
Avalon Cosy Hotel Paris — Paris
Champagne Houses
Champagne Francis Thomas
Champagne Verrier et Fils
Borel-Lucas Champagne
Moët & Chandon
Pommery