Air travel is quite unpredictable these days, and unless you live in Paris, you might not be able to walk its beautiful street anytime soon. For everyone who is itching to return to their favorite travel destinations, keep reading for your guide to exploring Paris without leaving your living room.
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#1 Decorate your space
The first step to planning for a night in Paris, but without leaving your house is to create a Paris-inspired environment. To do this, we suggest skimming the pages of a French design magazine for some quick inspiration. We recommend following how the French layer light, neutral tones, and reflective surfaces. We also love how they incorporate oversized mirrors and their dedication to making use of the natural colors and textures of linen, metals, and woods.
A browse through Pinterest for “Paris apartments” will serve up a ton of excellent inspiration, especially when it comes to creative DIY solutions. Brass light fixtures can be quite expensive, so why not find a used one at a flea market or a community garage sale and add your own brass finish with a good quality spray paint. Similarly, large mirrors at a retail store can easily cost you a few hundred dollars. Instead, revamp an old mirror you have lying around your house and give it a coat of gold paint. Voila! You have got yourself a vintage-style mirror, much like the French.
Photo credit: Point Two Design
#2 Wrap yourself in the streets of Paris
Another way to bring the beauty of the streets of Paris to your home is with map art. If you’re seeking to embellish your space with a French style, then it’s clear that Paris is a location that is meaningful to you, so why not use some maps of this incredible city to decorate your space and serve as a reminder of the amazing memories you made last time you were there.
Try including a framed city map print of Paris into a gallery wall or installing it in a prominent place that will capture your eye as you walk by. In order to truly capture the Parisien aesthetic, try to find a city map in a neutral black and white color combination.
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#3. Serve up a fancy french beverage
If you’ve always wanted to spring for the bottle of real Champagne, then now is the perfect time to do it. If beer is more your style, then grab a pack of Kronenburg, the flavor of which will instantly transport you onto a Parisian patio. Or fancier still would be to shake up a cocktail that is classic to Paris: a Black Rose which dates back to the Art Deco days. Mix together 2 oz French Vermouth, 1 oz blackberry cordial with 1 teaspoon blackberry syrup, and add a few fresh blackberries as a garnish.
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#4. Prepare a French dish
With the small size of apartments in Paris, it’s no wonder that Parisiens each out for many of their meals. And when you’re eating dinner at a restaurant most nights a week, almost anyone would crave classic dishes made of humble ingredients. So take a lead from a Paris menu and explore some of their classic stewed dishes such as a boeuf bourguignon which has a surprisingly short list of ingredients but is packed with the flavor that only 6 hours of baking can create.
Photo credit: Universal
#5. Enjoy a film set in Paris
There’s nothing quite like a movie to transport you into another world. And seeing as we’re looking to pretend as though we’re spending an evening in Paris, a movie set in Paris is the perfect thing to bring together our vision. Try a classic film such as Funny Face, An American in Paris, or Charade.
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#6. Buy a fancy French treat
Your food is stewing, you have a cocktail in hand and your home has the air of a Parisian apartment. There’s one last thing needed to act as the icing on the cake for creating your perfect stay-at-home evening in Paris and that is to treat yourself to something special and maybe even a little over the top.
We suggest buying some fancy French pastries from your local bakery or maybe even some of those brightly colored macarons. If sweet treats are not your thing then treat yourself to a cheese board and a crusty baguette and enjoy it after dinner instead of dessert. Hey, if it’s how the French eat their cheese, then how bad could it be?
You can never have enough travel in your life
A holiday doesn’t always need to include plane tickets and an exotic destination. Sometimes just being intentional about making an evening at home a special event is enough to recharge our batteries. It doesn’t matter how you choose to spend your Parisian stay-cation so long as you’re spending it with the people you care about.
