The One Where We Were Staying In Paris

In my last post, I told everyone the story of how I packed for Paris hours before leaving and somehow made it to my train on time (See The One With The Visit).

On Friday morning, I left London on the Eurostar train and traveled underwater through the English Channel. Sleeping on the train was hard, so my friend and I hung out in the bar car for the majority of the trip. We tried talking to the attendants there, practiced our French, drank a free glass of wine and toasted our arrival to the city of lights!

Our first night, we went on a boat tour of the city along the Seine River. Tip For Anyone Who Thinks Paris Isn’t Cold: It is cold, dress appropriately. But regardless of how unprepared I was for the weather, I still managed to get some great pictures! Rather than being lit up white like usual, the Eiffel Tower was lit up colorfully and projected the phrase “Made for sharing. Paris 2024” because Paris is currently a candidate for the 2024 Olympics.

Saturday we took a bus tour around the city and saw most of the major parts of the city and ended the trip with a visit to the Louvre. The Louvre itself it breathtaking; the architecture and detail to the design of it all is mind blowing! And it’s also giant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much artwork in my entire life, and the Louvre actually only has about 10% of its collections on display. I’m not sure how that’s even possible but I decided to believe them. The museum was packed like a can of sardines, and each of the sardines could be categorized into 1) artists mimicking the masterpieces (which was amazing to watch) 2) tourists like us or 3) that family with at least 15 kids with them screaming, running, touching the pieces, and carrying around selfie sticks. Tip for anyone touring the Louvre: bring your A game because it truly is a fight to see the iconic pieces (and on that note, yes you should see Mona Lisa but in my opinion she’s a little overrated).

We spent the rest of Saturday wandering around the city, practicing our French, and ended the night with dinner near Sacré Coeur at this tiny, French, you-wouldn’t-find-it-if-you-weren’t-looking, restaurant and it was one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life! I wish I could recommend it to everyone but my French was too rusty at that point to catch the name. During my visit to Paris, I think I became quite the food connoisseur (that’s a French word by the way). So many people around the world give the French a hard time for their traditional food, but I’m here to clear things up: they know what they’re doing!! L’Escargot is actually super delicious, Cuisses de Grenouille tastes like chicken wings, and I think the crêpes speak for themselves.

On Sunday, I started my day with mass at Notre Dame. One thing I truly love about my Roman Catholic faith is that no matter where I go in the world, the mass is going to be the same. So even though the entire service was sai
d in French I knew exactly what was happening. That’s amazing! There was one point at the end that made me laugh a bit, when the mass was ending and the organist started to play, what I can only describe as the theme music from any old Dracula movie. At that point everyone turned around the check and make sure we weren’t under attack from any vampires during the service. But other than that, it was a beautiful service. I am so grateful to have had to opportunity to attend.

Sunday continued with a visit to Sacré Coeur where I got “leg day” out of the way for the rest of my life because by the time we reached the top, I swear the family behind me was pushing my behind up those stairs. Now I’m in no way a fan of heights, but I would recommend the climb to anyone going to Paris.

Before I finish this post, I should tell you about the people I met in Paris. Here’s the thing about Parisians: they’re the worst. I’m sure if I were French, or not so vulnerable looking, or not an American, they would’ve liked me a lot! But that was not the case. Tip if your going to Paris: watch your pockets and purses.  Three times I had close calls with my friends either getting scammed by the “magicians” in the streets and people trying to pick-pocket them! You really can’t be too careful in that area. Tip if your going to Paris: don’t get offended easily. The stereotype that French people are rude is true, they only like you if you’re one of them. I accepted that and moved on trying to not get too offended. The one time I was
truly shocked at this French stereotype was while I was in the train station waiting to go home to London. I was in line and my train was about to board, the line was growing and everyone seemed to be in a hurry. So I turned around to grab my bag and hop on board, when the woman behind me looks me straight in the eye, shoves my luggage bags to the ground, and runs ahead of me to get a seat. Unfortunately I have no tips for what to do when this happens other than laugh about it later on.

Just so everyone knows, after one weekend in Paris, this is about the extent of my French language skills:

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Kerry. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ce soir?