The Parisian Couples Itinerary For Those Seeking An Experience Beyond the Landmarks

By Matthew Iozzi

We all know that there are certain things one must see and do when in Paris. Climb to the top of The Eiffel Tower, stand under the Arch de Triomphe or gaze at Ms. Lisa’s iconic smile but say you have a few extra days on your trip in gay ol’ Paris or prefer to have some itinerary suggestions off the beaten track what else does the City of Lights have to offer? 

Paris deserves every superlative it has ever been given. But the Paris that newlyweds and couples tend to fall most deeply in love with is the one that takes a little longer to find, not the one that lives on a postcard. But rather the Paris that lives in the passages, courtyard gardens, rooftop bars and kitchen ateliers of a city that, once you get used to the tower piercing skyline, feels less like a destination and more like a feeling.

This is that Paris. 

Paris, like many European cities, is built for walking. More specifically, it is built for wandering slowly with someone you love and no particular obligation to be anywhere at any time. For those with time on their hands, a journey through the 2nd and 4th arrondissement rewards exactly this.

Tucked beneath the cobblestoned streets are the covered passages, glass-roofed arcades from the 19th century that exist in a kind of secret love letter between the city's past and its present. The Galerie Vivienne is, by all accounts the most beautiful, from its mosaic floors, gilded archways and the striking golden light that comes only through stained glass instantly transports you into your own little world whilst The Passage des Panoramas is the oldest and the most beguiling, its narrow corridor lined with stamp dealers and vintage postcard sellers and a bistro or two that look exactly as they did in 1834. 

If you’re travelling during the summer, these passages offer the best thing Paris doesn't advertise: shade, silence and the feeling that you have stepped somewhere private.

As a personal recommendation, stop for a pastry and coffee at the beautiful Sevenly Heart, before browsing the shelves of Librairie Jousseaume, a bookshop that has occupied the same corner of the passage since 1826. You will not need to read French to appreciate what it means to hold a book that has been sitting on this shelf since before Australia was federated.

Now not everyone is a fan of a walking exploration through a city, the ‘rues’ and streets might not intrigue every couple and for those we recommend seeing the city of lights from a different vantage, by the water. Along the banks of the Seine are many vessels capable of showing you a unique view of Paris. River Green Cruises offers private and small group tours down the Seine, leaving at both sunrise and sunset for the most picturesque of views of the landmarks away from crowds. Enjoy wines, beers or coffees as you gently float down one of the most iconic rivers in the world and whilst we said climbing to the top of the Eiffel tower might be overrated for some, seeing the monument light up from your private cruise without the sounds of other tourists is definitely a sight worth remembering. The cruise directors speak a number of languages and also make phenomenal tour guides, noting hidden facts about different parts of the city as you travel down the Seine. 

The routes pass the Île Saint-Louis, the Marais facades, the Louvre, and Notre-Dame before sweeping toward the Eiffel Tower as the morning or evening light turns everything amber. With the option to connect your phone to the boat's speakers and bring your own drinks and snacks. According to our guide, Cesar, the boats have also played host to a number of intimate proposal settings, with the sunset cruise offering couples a truly unique and magical viewpoint away from crowds for the most special of moments. For proposals, anniversaries, and honeymoons, it consistently ranks as one of the most memorable experiences Paris offers. It is easy to see why.

The Petit Palais, or ‘Small Palace’ sits on the Avenue Winston Churchill between the Grand Palais and the Pont Alexandre III, which means most visitors walk right past it on the way to one of the larger city monuments. That is their loss and your Instagramable gain. 

Originally built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, the Petit Palais is home to the fine arts collection of the City of Paris, and entry to the permanent collection is completely free, so immerse yourself and your loved one amongst the work of many a master. But the other reason to come here, the reason that has made this one of the most quietly loved spots among those who know Paris well, is the interior courtyard garden that most visitors never find.

Step through the first wing of the building and suddenly you have escaped the noise of Paris into your own quiet haven. Behind unsuspecting doors lies a hidden, lush garden of palm trees and mosaic-tiled pools, all of it covered by a vaulted ceiling painted with frescoes. At the heart of it lies a small café, Le Jardin du Petit Palais, which serves breakfast, brunch and lunch alongside pastries, wine, and champagne with small tables that spill out into the gardens. After walking through Paris, it is, genuinely, one of the most beautiful places to sit in all of the city. The fact that it is free to access and almost always quieter than anywhere else in the heart of the city, makes it something of a small miracle in a city that charges admission to nearly everything worth seeing.

Aside from their fashion, art and kisses, the French are of course known for their food and therefore it stands to reason that learning to cook here, really cook, using market ingredients chosen that morning by a professional chef, is one of the great travel experiences available to anyone visiting Paris.

Cook'n With Class has been running French cooking classes from their space in Montmartre since 2007, and what they have built over almost 20 years is something genuinely special. The flagship experience is the French Market Class, which sees you and your partner meeting your chef at the local market at 9am, choosing the day's freshest and most beautiful ingredients together, then returning to the kitchen to turn what you have selected into a four-course meal. The menu is never decided in advance but rather decided on the day by what's available at the market.

Classes are kept deliberately small, no more than eight participants, and conducted entirely in English (or French or Spanish by request) by professional chefs (if you can ask for Fabrice who has a knack for blending instruction with humour in the best way). Learn to debone fish, bake an exquisite dessert and pair meals to french wine like a true Parisian. Once the meal is prepared, you sit down together to eat it, accompanied by a selection of French cheeses and wines chosen to match. It truly is market to table in every sense of the expression, and it is one of those experiences that manages to be both educational and deeply memorable. For couples who love food and want to understand what they are eating for the rest of the trip, there is nothing better. The skills come home with you and so do the recipes.

Now Paris has also been the centre of the perfume world since the seventeenth century, and Fragonard has been one of the great names in French fragrance since 1926. If you wish for a memorable souvenir and experience that is truly unique to you and your partner visit the Fragonard workshop on the Grands Boulevards. The workshop offers private perfumery sessions where you and your partner spend ninety minutes working with a trained perfumer to create your own bespoke scent from scratch.

This is not a passive experience. You smell, you choose, you blend. The perfumer guides the process, explains the language of notes, and helps you build something that reflects the two of you rather than a generic version of what romance is supposed to smell like. At the end of the session, you leave with your creation bottled, labelled, and wrapped. As a couples' experience it is intimate in the best possible way. You now have something tactile, creative, and entirely personal. The fragrance you make becomes a memento of the trip that travels home with you in a way that photographs cannot quite manage. You will smell it six months later and be immediately back in that atelier in Paris, at the beginning of everything.

Finally, if you have one night in Paris where you want to stay out, drink something extraordinary, and dance with your person above one of the most beautiful cities in the world, there are two places we suggest to go.

The first is Brasserie Des Pres, which truly serves some of the best food and cocktails in all of Paris. Located in the heart of Saint-Germain on the Left Bank, the restaurant and bar opened in 2023 but sits on one of the oldest and most significant streets in all of Paris built in 1776. The beef bourguignon and roast duck are simply must-haves when dining here, channeling traditional recipes produced by head chef Sacko passed down by his grandmother. Inside the restaurant, history is physically visible. The building incorporates a preserved section of the Wall of Philip II Augustus, a massive stone fortification built around Paris between 1190 and 1215 and guests dining on the lower levels sit directly alongside this 800-year-old medieval ruin.

After eating your hearts content we recommend travelling to Bonnie. Sitting on the 15th and 16th floors of the SO/ Paris hotel in the 4th arrondissement, Bonnie is perched above the Seine between the Marais and Notre-Dame. Conceived by Paris Society, the hospitality group responsible for some of the city's most accomplished venues, Bonnie is a restaurant, bar, and nightclub in sequence. By 8pm you arrive for a light meal: the creative French-meets-New-York menu is genuinely excellent, and the views of the Eiffel Tower, the Panthéon, and the rooftops of the Right and Left Banks are simply staggering. The bar follows dinner, and the cocktails pay tribute to the spirits and flavours of 1960s and 70s France. And then, at some point around 11pm, what was a restaurant becomes a nightclub. The mirrored ceiling flips the Seine upside down. The DJ begins. The glass roof slides back to the sky.

It is Paris's only fully glass-roofed nightclub, and dancing under it at midnight with the city spread below you in every direction is, to put it plainly, one of the great nights of your life. The club runs Wednesday to Saturday from 10:30pm.

Paris is one of those cities that people visit with a pre-destined image or experience in mind whether it be from film, literature or instagram. The real city, the one that changes you a little, is found in the passages and the hidden gardens and the private boat at sunset and the kitchen in Montmartre where you learned how to make a proper beurre blanc. It is found in the spa in the 8th arrondissement where you remembered how to breathe, and in the glass-roofed nightclub where you danced so long the city was still dark when you finally stopped.

For newlyweds and couples celebrating something worth celebrating, Paris remains, in all of its overwhelming, impossibly beautiful complexity, one of the world's most romantic cities.