Paris is a wonderful city but I can’t say this was anywhere near my favorite trip. I’ll just leave it at having really high expectations and being very disappointed with my experience. I wish I could say all of it was amazing, but at the very least I have all the more reason to go back. And I WILL go back because I must practice my french, which I learned is absolutely dreadful after being in Spain for 3 months. To spare you the low’s, here are the high’s of my weekend in Paris, because even when you can’t, you’ll find you’ll can-can. Oh, Paris.
I spent Thursday in Madrid with friends from high school also studying in Spain. It’s pretty much a cliche to study in Spain for us Tenafly students. Lunch was casual, and then to kill time I went to the Reina Sofía museum. Oh dear god, I loathe modern art. Got to see Guernica though so I guess that was cool. I also took a nap until a security guard rudely woke me up and said I couldn’t do that.
I had dinner with the same friend as last Saturday and then I headed to the airport to spend the night. It was cold and uncomfortable so I hardly slept three hours. Airport living is so hard! The flight was just fine and I slept for a bit of that. Pro tip: sleep every moment you can because you will have to deprive yourself at moments like this.
We got to Paris from Charles de Gaulle just fine, but our hostel was having an issue where they couldn’t keep us and sent us to a different hostel. This one was absolutely disgusting so I actually spent late Friday night before bed trying to arrange somewhere else. I did most all of this in English. You will get away with a lot of English in Europe.
First order of business after checking in to our hostel was to get lunch. We found this cute like gourmet deli type thing, we each got a plat and ate a third of each. SO GOOD. We stopped at a pastry shop and got a few things. The displays are so tantalizing. We headed to Galeries Lafayette for a fashion show we had reservations for. It wasn’t any good at all but we did get in a lot of browsing. No purchasing because my Lord was it expensive. Might as well go to Bloomingdales. Which I will. TWO WEEKS TIL IM HOME, BABY.
Next was the Arc de Triomphe where I think is probably the best view of Paris because it includes the Eiffel Tower. Climbing to the top was, like most physical activity for me, a chore. But well worth it. We walked down the Champs-Elysées and did a lot of browsing and picked up a gift or two. After all the fancy shops was the Christmas market so we browsed and shopped some more before rushing over to our dinner reservation. We met up with the rest of our group then and enjoyed a pleasant meal.
We spent an hour and a half looking for a river tour but it was way late. Our search did send us to the Eiffel Tower though so we got to see if as it sparkled. We got back to the hostel, I dealt with the arrangements and we were to be moved for the following night, much too tired to do anything that night. It did make for a late start the next day but the new hostel was much much better.
But we had all the daylight for our trip to Versailles. It was an absolutely incredible sight and museum and the gardens were really cool. Since it wasn’t spring, though, the gardens weren’t more than grass and hedges so without flowers to see, we didn’t spend too much time outside in the cold. I did pick up some vin chaud while we were walking and I didn’t really like it because it tasted like a candle, or like walking into a craft store.
We made the obligatory stop at Notre Dame once we got back to Paris and it was a pretty quick go. We scrambled next to find some dinner but we ended up getting pastries instead because we were early. Our metro passes worked for the whole day so we were free to run around the city. We stopped by a chocolatier before dinner as well. ALL THE SWEETS.
Dinner was at a casual restaurant down a cool looking alley and we all enjoyed our meal. The wine was good and we had a cheese plate, how very French of us. After we headed to the Seine to finally get our boat tour, and we took in some great views of the city. Ah, Paris.
Next day we hit up the Christmas market for some last minute gifts, the Louvre but just to see the pyramids, we did not have the time to do a proper museum outing, and although we didn’t make it to Chipotle, we had to get to the airport for our flight home. Security confiscated my face wash and lotion, even though it has gotten through security everywhere else. Sigh.
Can’t wait to go back to Paris one day! Hopefully without a budget. I could’ve eaten a lot more.
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