What can I say about Paris? As my first weekend trip out of London, and as the second time I've ever been anywhere in Europe (this time in London being the first), I had high expectations. Plus, it was Paris. While I have heard both amazing and awful reviews of the city, in my eyes, Paris is one of the most romanticized cities in the world. I had big plans.
Our trip started late Thursday night. We decided an overnight bus would give us the most amount of time to spend in the city while simultaneously costing us the least amount of money, so we dragged our stuff to the coach station and boarded a bus at 10pm. We figured we would get some sleep on the bus, and even if we couldn't, the bus had wifi and power outlets so we wouldn't completely lose our minds. And we didn't. Well, not completely. I couldn't rest well due to my lack of pillow, the need to deboard the bus to get through customs, the hour and a half delay, the presence of vending machines before the Chunnel, the sheer awesomeness that was the Chunnel, the screaming girls running past the bus when it was on the Chunnel, the hour of sleep lost simply due to the time change, and my excitement about finally going to Paris. Needless to say, I was a bit grumpy when we arrived at 9am on Friday.
We didn't really feel like dragging our bags around, so our first destination was our hostel, which turned out to be a bit further than we all had anticipated. We managed to purchase 3-day Metro passes and thanks to my expertise of London public transportation, getting around was a cinch. After we shoved our stuff into a giant locker, we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower. Now, if you know me, there's a good chance you know that I'm afraid of heights. And falling. And falling from heights. So when we arrived at le Tour Eiffel, there was no way I was going to the top. I would not pay upwards of twenty euros to scare myself, and I certainly would not go up there with the ridiculous amount of wind that was nearly blowing all the tourists over. Suddenly my coat was too thin and I was too tired and I didn't even want to be in Paris anymore (I can be a bit dramatic). Either way, my friends were all planning to go up, so I just sulked silently behind them in line. When we reached the front of the line, however, tickets turned out to only be $7.50 for students to go up to the second floor (the top was closed due to wind *shudders*) and I remembered that it was on my bucket list to face my fears and ascend the tower. So I gave the woman my money, took my ticket, and closed my eyes on the entire elevator ride up. It took about ten minutes of quivering, but eventually I got over my fear of a giant Parisian earthquake crumbling the historic monument I was standing upon and I began to take pictures of the incredible view. I was in Paris. When my friends and I reunited on the other side of the tower we had a mini photoshoot because obviously, took a gander at the overpriced gift shop, and made our way back down one of the legs. After a few more pictures in front of the tower, we hopped on the bus to find a cute Parisian cafe.
We were struggling to find the cafe Jenevieve chose on Yelp, so we decided to pick a random one on the corner. Unfortunately it turned out to be extremely expensive - one cappuccino was 6.50 euros. No thanks. Except we were already seated upstairs, and we were ravenous, so we shrugged our shoulders and ordered the cheapest food on the menu. We all got Croque Monsieurs/Madames aka glorified ham & cheese sandwiches with an egg on top. I wasn't planning on spending 10 euros on a sandwich, but it was delicious so I guess it was a pretty good first Parisian meal.
After lunch we decided to head over to the Musée de Orsay. Unfortunately I was absolutely drained, so after checking out a few rooms Taylor, Katherine, and I rested and people-watched. We left the museum pretty soon after and made our way back to the hostel to check in and settle down. We were staying in a 12 person co-ed room which made me a bit nervous, but it was actually pretty nice inside. Each bed had its own curtain, outlet, and reading light as well as personal lockers under all the beds. After cleaning ourselves up a bit, we went downstairs and had dinner in the bar. The hostel's bar was full of people so we hung out for a bit and met some cool New Zealanders who had been traveling all over Europe for three months. It inspired me to travel as much as possible after graduation... maybe. After dinner we were all planning on going out to a club, but due to a ridiculous amount of miscommunication, Katherine and I just ended up strolling along the Champs Élysées and subsequently stuffing our faces with fancy desserts at Haagen Daaz. It was probably for the best though, as I passed out as soon as we got back to the hostel. Overnight buses really take a toll on you.
The next day I decided to take advantage of my surprisingly comfortable bed and I slept in quite a bit. When we woke up around noon, Katherine and I decided to have a trés Parisian day. We popped into some random bakery for lunch ate yummy sandwiches whilst waiting out the rain. Our bus came right as the rain stopped - it was perfect. We rode the bus to Moulin Rouge and honestly it was a bit anti-climactic. After taking one picture of the front, we wandered aimlessly around Montmarte, threatening to buy crepes at every turn. We then decided to go to Place du Tertre, where Katherine had been the last time she was in Paris. On the walk there we passed the cutest cafes, gourmet food shops, and even outdoor fish sellers. We finally decided to commit to a crepe place and we devoured our Nutella and banana crepes in front of a carousel of giggling children. It felt very authentic. When we finally reached the top of the stairs to the Place du Tertre, it was absolutely beautiful. There were a ton of artists drawing portraits and caricatures as well as some selling their artwork. Some were even painting masterpieces right then and there - I was so tempted to buy a piece of art, but alas those treats aren't currently in the budget. We walked up and down some really cute streets, popped into tourist shops, bought a few souvenirs, and made our way to the Sacré-Cœur. The Sacré-Cœur is a giant cathedral located atop some steps and although it was incredibly windy, the view was amazing so we stopped to take some photos. We didn't end up going inside, but watching the sun start to set on the horizon was breathtaking.
The sky began to darken and the rain came down just as we jumped on the metro, successfully dodging the downpour yet again. We decided to take another stab at the Champs Élysées, since nearly every store was closed when we had traipsed down it the day before. Our first stop? Ladurée for macarons - yum! Honestly I had only planned on buying three or four, but somehow I walked out of that store fifteen Euros lighter with a box of eight macarons in my hand. And I don't regret one moment of it. As we continued down the street I spotted a Disney store, so naturally I dragged Katherine inside. Unfortunately there wasn't really anything cute or cool that involved Disney and Paris, but I memorialized my trip inside with a goofy (not Goofy) picture with a children's t-shirt. We then popped inside of Louis Vuitton for funzies, talking deeply about life more than looking at merchandise. It was getting late, so we decided to walk down to the Arc de Triomphe before dinner. After a few photos we took off to fill our bellies.
Katherine suggested we dine at a restaurant with a view of the Eiffel Tower, specifially one she had been to with her mom. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite remember where it was. This led us to walking aimlessly around the Tower for about forty-five minutes. We finally found it and we each had French onion soup (or is it just onion soup when you're in France?) and drank a glass of wine - really fancy like. The soup wasn't my favorite, but I gobbled it down nonetheless. The tower sparkled twice during dinner too which just added to the magic of the day.
Before we knew it it was almost ten-o-clock, so we quickly paid our bill and skipped to the metro. We were going to try again to go to a club that night, but our hostel was about twenty minutes away so we were nervous we wouldn't be able to get ready in time. Katherine's friend Olivia, who is studying abroad in Paris, met us with her friend at our hostel and we scurried over to the club, which was located under the Seine River. It was supposed to be free before 1, and it was almost great because we arrived at 12:50! Except there was an enormous line and after waiting in it for about 25 minutes, the bouncer at the front informed us that the guest list period had ended and that the cover was now fifteen euros. I tried not to let it faze us. We were in Paris! I was confident we would have a great time. So we handed over our cash and head inside. And we did have fun. For a little bit, at least. Since the club closed at 7am, we made the decision to stay until 5am aka when the metro opened back up so we could get our money's worth at the club and then get back to our hostel for free. We tried to make our time worthwhile, but after about forty-five minutes we were no longer having fun. The club exclusively played techno music which isn't really my thing. Plus it was very much a French person club, so almost no one spoke english and there were smoking sections inside of the club, which made it difficult to dance in certain places. It was nice when we ran into Jenevieve and Taylor, whom we hadn't seen all day, but we quickly lost them in the crowd. It only got worse when Olivia's friend realized that she had her phone stolen out of her purse while we were dancing. We were more than ready to leave at 3am, two whole hours before the metro opened. We tried to stall, we tried to find an open restaurant near by, we tried to keep dancing, but all of our efforts failed. I think I spent at least thirty minutes watching French people dance animatedly. We left the club around 4:40, hoping the metro station would be open early, but when we approached a metal gate we realized we now had to wait fifteen minutes in the freezing cold. When the gate didn't open right at five am, we were miserable and frustrated. At around 5:10, some French guy decided he would try to press the button to open the gate with a super long stick and somehow he was successful. This probably sounds dramatic, but it was the first time I felt joy in three hours. When we got to the platform, we still had to wait for the train. Ours was scheduled to arrive in ten minutes but when we had to switch lines halfway through, we had to wait 20 more minutes for our second train. We finally arrived at our metro station and the cold combined with a little fear of the area our hostel was in at 6:30am led to us run from the station to the hostel. We didn't get to sleep until 7am, so needless to say when Taylor and Jenevieve tried to get us to go to the Louvre only a few hours later, we waved them off and fell back asleep.
Unfortunately, check out was at 10:30, so we had to be up and out by then anyway. I was very appreciative of the extra hour or so of sleep though, so Katherine and I got our stuff together and checked out. It sucked that our hostel was so far away because we had to haul our luggage around all day. We grabbed some breakfast from a bakery nearby and headed to the Louvre. We knew it would be impossible to meet up with Taylor and Jenevieve, considering our cell phones didn't work in Paris, but we specifically planned to meet Katherine's friend Olivia by the pyramids. We took loads of corny photos while we waited for her, and once she arrived we pulled out our student ID cards and headed inside. With the light of some sort of miracle, we ran into the other two as we were walking up the stairs to the first exhibit. They knew of some baggage storage, so we all checked our weekend luggage while we looked around for a bit. The Louvre is absolutely giant, so we only saw a few things (including Mona) before we decided to head out. Olivia wanted to take us to some famous hot chocolate place and I was more than excited.
When we arrived at the restaurant, Angelina, it was 100x fancier than I expected. What I thought would be a cute cafe turned out to feel more like tea at the Four Seasons. Regardless, we humped all our luggage into the restaurant. I ordered a hot chocolate and a pain au chocolat and holy mother of hell. The pain au chocolat was obviously amazing, but the hot chocolate was absolutely unreal. It felt more like drinking melted dark chocolate than your typical hot chocolate, and it was so delicious I wanted to cry. I honestly don't think I'll ever have hot chocolate as good as that for the rest of my life. Well, unless I go back to Angelina.
After our midday snack we headed over to McDonald's because Katherine wanted to prove to us that they had such a thing as a 'McBaguette.' Much to her dismay it wasn't on the menu when we arrived, but she still ordered a burger to celebrate the Parisian Mickey D's. (She later found the McBaguette online to prove that it did exist.) After our pit stop, we headed over to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs because there was an exhibit that Jenevieve really wanted to see. We walked around for a bit, but they started closing down the exhibits pretty soon after we arrived, so we went to pick our bags up from the bag check. The man running the bag check was so unbelievably rude - I almost left Paris without the feeling that they all hated Americans, but this man sufficiently tarnished the good reputation I had felt the entire weekend. So the moral of the story is that yes, some French are rude. But some are not.
We had a few hours before our bus ride, so we decided to head over to the famous Lovelock bridge. Katherine had lost her weekend metro pass earlier that day, so we headed on foot instead of by underground transportation. Even though we were basically dragging our luggage, the walk was really nice. We walked along the Seine and popped into a few tourist stores along the way. I was happy because the Lovelock bridge was right by Notre Dame, which was one monument I didn't get a chance to see that weekend. Night had fallen on our walk, so it was really dark when we got to the bridge. We decided to take advantage of the situation and I offered up the lock I used for my hostel storage. We all wrote our names, the date, and "London/Paris" before we locked it to the bridge and threw the keys in the water. It was very exhilarating.
Suddenly we were afraid we were going to miss our bus, so we trotted to the nearest metro station. We needed dinner, so we stopped at another crepe place and chowed down on the way to the coach station. We made it with a little time to spare, so I decided to stop by the bathroom before the bus ride. It cost .50 euros and no lie I had to go through a turnstile after I paid to get to the bathroom. After that interesting encounter, we loaded up on the bus and headed back to London. Overall, my time in Paris was great and weird and not what I expected, but it was such an amazing experience and I would do it all over again if I could. One of the best parts of the trip though was heading back to London. I love it here and I'm so proud that I can call it my home. For a few months, at least.
I'm leaving for Edinburgh in the morning. It's been three weeks since my trip to Paris and I've done so much in London since then. I promise to blog about it all, but it'll just be a bit more delayed... I can't stress to you how hard it is to keep up with everything here, not just my blog. But I'm making it work and I will keep making it work!!
Two months down, two to go.
Until next time.
Your favorite wanderer (I hope),
-h
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