Hello, lovelies! Today, I’m finally getting started on my Europe Recap posts. I wrote travel diaries for my month in Europe last summer, but I never went in-depth into what I did in each country, so what better place to start with than Paris.
I finished writing this post weeks ago, but WordPress is still being weird about my images, which is why this wasn’t up in time on Tuesday. Sorry if the pictures are bad quality. I’ve given up at this point and just decided to publish it, as is. I hope you enjoy.
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I took a Topdeck bus tour to get around Europe. Our first stop was in Paris. The night before, we took a guided tour around the city learning the history of many of the sights and had a gourmet picnic inside of our bus because it was pouring rain outside. I pretty much crossed off my entire French food bucket list there because they gave us all the bread, cheese, and pastries we could ever want, along with frogs legs and escargot (I tried both).
We spent the night at a hostel called St.Christopher’s Inn Paris Canal. It was a really nice hostel and I would gladly stay in it again (I wouldn’t say that about all hostels). I went to Europe in early May in order to get cheaper plane tickets, so I wasn’t completely done with the Spring semester yet. I still had a final paper for my cognitive science class that I had to do. I had been working on it intermittently in London after trying to finish it on the plane. I remember reading the article over and over again trying to convey everything into words for my paper. I ended up finishing it in the hostel room our first night in Paris, so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
That first free day in Paris holds a happy place in my heart because it’s the day I got to know the friends I would travel around Europe with for the rest of the month. We became really close very quickly, and I’m so glad I met them.
// Wake-Up Call + Breakfast
We woke up at 7:30 AM the next morning to get ready. The night before, our tour leader told us that the bus driver would take us to the center of the city at 8:15 in the morning if we wanted to wake up early. My friends and I decided the night before that we would do that and get in line for the Louvre museum before it opened to avoid the crowds.
Once we got ready, we went downstairs to eat the included hostel breakfast. It mainly consisted of bread, cheese, and ham. One of my friends who had been traveling around London for a month before told me that she would save a bunch in a ziplock bag for a sandwich for lunch. That’s a really smart way to save money, but I don’t eat ham, and pork was a surprisingly more common type of meat than I expected all over Europe.
//Bus Ride To The Center Of The City
This was around the time of the Notre Dame fire, so there were a lot of protests going on in Paris (because the government was spending millions of dollars to repair it instead of using that money to support the poor and homeless of the city). A lot of the roads were blocked off, so our bus driver, Don, couldn’t drop us off in the city center. We ended up getting off in the middle of a stop and walked to the Louvre. Our friend, M had data on her phone and became our navigator throughout our entire trip. It was drizzling rain at around this time, but it would clear up later in the day.
// Explored The Louvre Museum
We got to the Louvre at around 8:45 and waited in line in the rain till it opened. We were some of the first people in the museum. After buying our tickets, we beelined to the room where the Mona Lisa was displayed, knowing it would get crowded soon.
The room was actually pretty empty when we got there. I had always heard in art classes that the Mona Lisa is smaller than you’d expect, but it was actually bigger than I expected. So many people had told me it was small that I expected it to be the size of a regular canvas.
After seeing the famous painting and taking pictures in front of it, we explored the museum. We hadn’t even scratched the surface. We knew it would be impossible to see everything after learning on our guided tour the night before that it would take 75 days to see the entire museum if you looked at each piece of art for one minute. After looking at many of the paintings (and the extravagant gold frames around them), we went to see the Venus de Milo, the famous armless Greek statue. Up close, I thought she looked like Drew Barrymore. When I mentioned it, my friends agreed.
//Walk Around Paris + Grab Lunch
We left the museum at around 11, then started walking toward the Seine River. We had gotten tickets for a Seine River cruise through TopDeck for ten euros that we could use at any time throughout the day. We pretty much spent the next two hours walking around Paris. We couldn’t take a straight direct path anywhere since the roads were sectioned off or blocked for the Notre Dame protests. We ended up seeing more than we would’ve with significantly fewer crowds despite the detour. There were also policemen on the streets directing traffic.
We took a bunch of pictures, and I saw a statue that looks exactly like the Washington Monument in D.C. I guess it’s what it was based on (because nothing in America is really original.) We hung out on a bench next to the river for a bit because our feet were killing us (Cobble-stone streets are beautiful, but you never think of how hard it is on the ankles when you look at Wanderlust photos on Pinterest), then grabbed some food to eat for lunch on the cruise.
//Seine River Cruise
We got on the cruise at around 1:00. The line wasn’t super long, and we were happy to find a place to sit and eat. We hung out in the indoor area for a bit to eat lunch and chocolate croissants before chilling outside. It was sunny and windy, and we took a bunch of photos.
I recommend taking this cruise with friends because you get to see a lot of Paris from the boat, but the tour translates everything into six different languages. My friends and I would just listen to the historical details in English, then converse in between the other languages. I got a lot of really nice photos and it was a cool way to spend the afternoon. (We also got a really nice view of the Eiffel Tower.)
//Eiffel Tower
After the cruise, we started walking towards the Eiffel Tower. The weather just seemed to be on our side that day because it stopped raining whenever we were outside and would start again when we were indoors. At this point in the day, the sun was out and shining, and we were really grateful for it.
We weren’t in a rush, so we spend our time talking and enjoying the scenery. I never realized how large the Eiffel Tower was. That seemed to be a trend in Europe. All thethings I heard of or read about were so much bigger and more impressive in person. You could see the Eiffel Tower from different corners of the city. Mainly because the buildings in that area were shorter, unlike the skyscrapers we have in the U.S.
Since it’s a huge tourist attraction, the place was crowded with pickpockets and people trying to sell things. Someone actually tried to do it to our friend by knocking into him, but we could tell what the pickpocket was doing, so we got out of there quickly.
We spent a lot of time looking up at the Eiffel Tower and taking pictures. Afterward, we headed toward the metro station to head to the catacombs.
//Take The Subway To The Catacombs
After finding a subway station, buying tickets from the machine, and figuring out our route, we got on a train. The ride wasn’t that long, and it was interesting to see how different their metro was from subways in the U.S. For example, you open and close the subway car if that’s your stop. The door doesn’t open automatically at every stop (There was a bit of confusion regarding that)
We got to the line to enter the catacombs and pretty much sat outside for an hour and a half. Since the catacombs are an underground tomb of bones, there’s a 200-people limit on how many people can be inside at once. We didn’t mind the wait too much because the weather was sunny and nice. We all just got to know each other better since this was only our third day on the month-long trip. Paris wasn’t my favorite city out of all the ones we went to, but I have fond memories of it since it’s where I got to know my friends. At one point, two of us left the line to go to a convenience store to buy chocolate and snacks.
When we got near the front of the line, it started drizzling, and the guy in front of us let us share his umbrella. I remember he was American and I didn’t realize how nice it was to be around another American since I was the only American in the room many times throughout our trip. This also added to our luck in terms of the weather because it was sunny up until we were about to go inside, then it was sunny again when we got out of the catacombs.
//Catacombs
There are a lot of stairs going down into the catacombs, then you have to walk through a mine shaft. I turned on the song “Heigh-Ho” from the movie Snow White while we were in the mine to lighten the mood. I have a very blase attitude when it comes to death, and when I’m dead, I hope people play music near my grave.
Eventually, we got to the part where the walls were lined with bones and skulls. I’m not going to go into the history of it all. You can look it up, but basically, Paris was over-run with dead bodies( I think due to the plague) and the cemeteries didn’t have enough room to bury them. This was the solution. Apparently, people hid down there during World War II and the French Resistance used the tunnel system to get around. There’s literally a movie theatre down there if you can believe that for the people who were hiding.
//Take Train Back To Hostel To Get Ready
We could’ve stayed down in the catacombs for a lot longer, but we had to get back to the hostel to get ready for a Cabaret show. Three of us bought tickets for it, and we had to meet our tour guide by a specific time. I only wore makeup twice throughout this entire trip, and this was one of those days. The three of us got ready together then waited at the bottom floor of our hostel with all the other people going with us.
//Cabaret Show
Around fifteen of us went to the Cabaret show. We all walked to the subway station with our tour guide (she bought the train tickets since it was through the tour), and I remember that my feet were killing me after walking all-day and that it was very cold.
The show was really fun. Parts of it were in French, but we could still understand a lot of what was going on. There was tons of music and dancing, and we laughed a lot throughout. We left the building at around midnight before walking to the train station and heading back to the hostel.
//Crepes at 1 AM For Dinner
My two friends and I didn’t go straight to the hostel because we were hungry and wanted crepes. We skipped dinner since we were too busy exploring Paris and needed to be back at the hostel by a certain time, so we were very hungry. None of us were in the mood for anything healthy, so we all had dessert crepes for dinner. It was delicious!
After eating, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. I was exhausted but decided to take a shower knowing that I wouldn’t be up for one in the morning. I was asleep by 2 AM.
So yeah, that’s pretty much how we spent our free day in Paris. I have many fond memories of that day. I sent pictures to my parents throughout the day, and my dad responded: “I can feel the magic.” Yesterday, I was thinking about all the places I want to travel to, but I also want to revisit the places I’ve already been. Once just isn’t enough.
Anyway, the next two travel posts I plan on writing about are for Switzerland and Italy, so stay tuned for that. Sorry about the photo quality. I’ll probably end up fixing the WordPress issue after I graduate because I don’t have the time or care right now. Until next time!
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Have you been to Paris? Is it on your bucket list? Where would you like to go?
Very cool! Your trip sounds amazing ?