Is Lisbon the New Paris?

It sure felt like it (All the pics from our trip!)

Happy Sunday!

Let me start this newsletter off by saying that I fucking love Paris. Who doesn’t? From the moment humans emerge from the womb popular culture trains us to see Paris as the epitome of both romantic and sophisticated travel.

And frankly, it always lives up to the hype.

But Paris is also crowded, often overcrowded, and wildly expensive. Getting a reservation at any restaurant that has ever graced the pages of any travel magazine or blog in the past five years is impossible and even hotel rooms can be hard to come by. We spent four days there for my birthday last year when I was massively pregnant and ate all the cheese and butter and meat and strolled along the Seine and bought cheapo but wonderful French beauty products in the pharmacies. It was a delight.

When Nick was planning a surprise trip for my birthday this year I thought we might be going to Paris again (my husband hoards frequent flyer miles and credit card points, lest you think we are the sort of people who hop on euro flights at a moment’s notice with our suitcases crammed with cash).

But this year’s destination was a new one for both of us, LISBON. It’s not like Lisbon just became hip or hot or anything. In fact most travel influencers and journalists I know probably already think “it’s over,” but whatever. I’m not hip any more and I just went for the first time and I loved it!

I loved it because it had all of the charm, grace and beauty of Paris at affordable prices. I loved it because we could walk and bike everywhere and wander into delicious retsuarants without a reservation. I loved it because the shop keepers were actually excited when we walked into a store, which is not always the case in the French capital (though I will say that the stereotype of Parisian being rude isn’t true….they are just vaguely disinterested in you).

Lisbon felt easy and nice and in my middle age, easy is the sexiest, most romantic adjective I can think of.

Check out this adorable bookstore bar where beer and wine were less than $5 and you could spend all day in there browsing, reading and sipping while Fado music plays outside.

And you can buy wine and oysters from a tiny truck next to the river.