The first weekend of October, I embarked on my first trip outside of Spain. And where did I go? Well none other than the city of lights: PARIS! This 48-hour trip marked my third time visiting Paris and it was nice to be there without having to visit all of Paris’ many tourist attractions because I had already seen them! I did hit a few though because the Eiffel Tower is amazing to visit regardless of if it’s your first or 500th time seeing it. I also found myself at these places because my sister was with me for about the first 24 hours of my weekend. She had been in England for my cousin’s wedding reception earlier in the week and decided to stop in Paris, coinciding perfectly with the weekend trip I had already planned!
I left Madrid at 12:55pm and arrived in Paris (after some delays) at around 3pm. From the CDG airport, I took the RER train to Gare de Châtelet-Les Halles (fun fact: this underground station is the largest in the world) then walked for a few minutes to my hostel. This weekend marked my first and only time staying in a hostel. Needless to say, I hated it. While most people would also prefer the privacy and amenities of a hotel, I actually had real anxiety about leaving my things (mainly my laptop) in a communal room. Also, I’m a light sleeper when I’m somewhere new so I instantly woke up on both nights when my room’s other residents came back in the wee hours of the night. Like, my eyes actually shot open because I could hear the doorknob turning open.
After checking in and dropping my bags off at the crap-shack hostel (not going to sugarcoat it, the place was terrible), my sister (who was also staying at the hostel) and I headed out to dinner. We were staying right near the Louvre on a street adjacent to the Rue Saint-Honoré, where the restaurant I had reserved was located. We were a little early for our reservation time so walked by the Louvre Pyramid and popped into the dope boutique Colette.
This weekend was my sister’s first time in Paris!
Now, I haven’t yet mentioned it, but this weekend also happened to be Fashion Week in Paris. In our little walk down Saint-Honoré we had already seen enough well dressed people for a lifetime and when we entered Colette, the shop was buzzing with customers and noise from an exclusive party happening on the top floor. We walked around the store, reveling in its many knick-knacks and hip clothing before noticing a sign advertising book signings. We had already known that Aimee Song of the blog Song of Style was going to be there on Saturday night, but the sign informed up that Grace Coddington would also be at the store. When, you wonder? Well, that night! We had already done a lap around the store and no redheaded fashion icon was to be found, but after seeing the sign we did a quick little glance over our shoulder and saw that Grace was sitting mere feet away from us signing books at a table in the middle of the store. It was insane. No, it was magic. NO! It was insanely magical. We dashed over to the line next to the table, snapping our obligatory pictures and uploading Snapchat stories. The books were expensive ($100+ if I remember correctly) and my sister already owned one, so we forewent getting a book signed but we still got plenty of photos of Vogue’s genius former Creative Director! It was honestly such a crazy, “only in Paris” moment for us two fashion-obsessed, “September Issue” loving chicas. And funny enough, it turned out the Grace sighting was not going to be the only celebrity sighting of the night…
It’s Grace!
A chilly two-block walk from Colette was Hôtel Costes, our dinner spot for the night. I had wanted to eat at Hôtel Costes ever since I saw the episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians where Kim flew to Paris for their cheesecake and for churros at Ferdi (another restaurant that I visited while in Paris this weekend… read about that day here). I had no idea what type of food they served or at what price or what the ambiance was. I just thought that if Kim K. flew halfway across the world for their cheesecake, it should be good enough for me.
It turns out that Hôtel Costes is an uber-glamorous hotpsot for fashion people and general people of wealth. My sister and I aspire to be such people, so I guess dining there was good training for us. The restaurant’s velvet and crystal décor was just as beautiful as its clientele, and my sister and I were lucky to get a table that the hostess walked by many a time with said clientele. It was the best type of people watching.
The inside of Hôtel Costes (photo courtesy of flickr.com)
In terms of food, the menu was small and pricey. We splurged though and each ordered an approximately $50 entree: I got lobster pasta and my sister got a Thai fish curry. The food was fine, not amazing but definitely not bad. Then again, I don’t think the food at Hôtel Costes needs to be remarkable because they are already such an institution.
As I mentioned earlier, this restaurant was on my radar because of Queen Kim herself. So, naturally, I was hoping that God might grace me with her presence at the restaurant that night ever since I made the reservation two weeks ago. According to Kim’s snap story, she had dined at Hôtel Costes the night before so I thought my luck had run out because, well, who eats at the same restaurant two nights in a row? Well, the Kardashian Klan, that’s who. Somewhere in between bites of my semi-bland pasta, my sister nudges me to look up and whispers “is that…” She doesn’t even need to finish her question because I could tell that Kourtney Kardashian had just walked by our table. Hand in hand with a tall blond (who turned out to be the model Jasmine Sanders), Kourtney zipped by and I was lucky enough to see the side of her face as she passed and to also hear her voice. She said something along the ways of “It’s really pretty” or “It’s really nice.” I truly felt blessed to see one of the Kardashians and there were some baby teardrops falling out of my eyes after she walked by. We also for sure know it was her because a few minutes later, the family’s make-up artist Joyce Bonelli walked back from the direction Kourtney had gone in.
Paparazzi shot of Jasmine Sanders, Kourtney, and Kim walking into Hôtel Costes the same night I was there.
The Kourtney sighting came a bit before 8pm, halfway through our entrees, and an Instagram location search showed us that Kim was also at the restaurant (someone had posted a blurry shot of her, Kourtney, and Jasmine walking in, so we knew it was from that night). We wanted to stay at the restaurant as long as possible in case we caught another glimpse, so we slowly finished our entrees and ordered a dessert. Kiran made the smart move to order a tea after I finished the cheesecake and she sipped that thing like a sloth. Note that I didn’t mention slowly eating my cheesecake because I wolfed that thing down. It was so small, but creamy and amazing. Kim did not fail me with this cheesecake. God bless her.
The amazing cheesecake
Thank god European people take meals so slowly because our waitress didn’t bat an eyelash about how slow we were going. In fact, when we did finally decide it was time to go and got the check around 10pm, she suddenly because a tortoise and walked by our check and credit card several times. Like, we saw her look at our ready to swipe card and then keep walking. I secretly think she also wanted us to stay longer for a Kardashian sighting (I saw the next day on Instagram that Kris Jenner and Olivier Rousteing also ended up showed up that night, so it really was a star-studded evening).
Once we paid way too much money for our Costes experience, we left the restaurant, which was seriously popping at this hour, and headed out into the cold Parisian streets. From the glamour of Costes to the dungeon of our hostel, we went. No matter how much I hated our accommodation, I feel very lucky that I have the privilege to eat at such a ritzy restaurant and that I got to see Kourtney Kardashian. I had been in Paris for barely 10 hours and I felt satiated for a lifetime by la magie de la Ville Lumière.
Bonne nuit, Paris 😉
Read about Day 2 in Paris here
Read about Day 3 in Paris here
