wow
I generally write these posts about a week in delay and let me just say Paris was perfect. In ways I literally wish I had spent the whole week there instead of the last 5 days since then when I explored other cities. I get why it’s so hyped up. It makes sense. It is for a very good reason.
Mind you, as I travel in the off-season I have a lot more luxury to travel freely, but it’s also cold and there is a lot less sun. Okay.
So the worst part of Paris was arriving. I got off at the Paris Bercy Seine bus station which TripAdvisor said was mega sketchy, so I freaked, but I would describe it only as dirty and not very nice. I hurriedly walked the 20 minutes to the nearest metro stop (Bercy) and got my first of many single ride tickets on the Paris metro. It is awesome, better than any transit system yet! Very, very fortunate for me, they had JUST finished a long transportation strike like literally the day before, and at that time no trains were running.The trains come literally every two minutes, the lines are not very long but there are a LOT of them, and the stations are all very safe!
I got off at Gare du Nord and hauled my suitcase to Vintage Hostel by Hiphophostel which I strongly recommend! I was able to check in my luggage at 7 AM and then got a 6 euro breakfast to warm up and caffeinated for the day (I didn’t get much sleep on that overnight bus…)
I realized I might catch the sunrise if I hurried to a cool view of the Eiffel Tower but then decided to get off at Arc de Triomphe instead (which was the move, because it would have been too far away from the rest of my itinerary). Snapped a few quick pics of this absolutely massive, iconic landmark and then walked about a mile to Trocadero. If you are free at sunrise, go here. In my first hour of Paris, the sight of the orange sun rising behind the Eiffel Tower truly took my breath away. That might be one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen (and will ever see). Everything on this trip has given me such goosebumps because these destinations have only ever been something that I dreamt of going to someday, but even two months ago I had no idea this adventure would come into my life.
I decided to walk along the main park, and around the tower, and I didn’t learn this until later but several young women/ petitioners came up to me and these were actually hopeful pickpockets! Luckily I know not to engage with strangers and keep all my valuables on my person, so no harm was done. I then hopped on the the Metro to Plaza St. Michel where I signed up for another Sandeman’s tips-based tour around the Latin Quarter area, aka a lot of the older and historical buildings. We saw the Notre Dame, or at least the intact part after the fires, and a few government buildings which I could honestly not tell you I remember much about. I heard about the installation of the guillotine, the River Seine, and the Louvre and the obelisk that was a “gift” from Egypt.
After the tour, about 2.5 hours later, my back ached from my big pack so I got a reasonably priced salad/quinoa bowl nearby which hit the spot. I quickly hopped back to my hostel to check in and drop off my backpack and chill for a hot second. I had quite the language barrier trying to communicate with my Ukrainian roommate. We literally pulled out Google Translate to talk to each other lol.
My hostel was located near the Montmartre neighborhood (which I hadn’t researched whatsoever) so I headed into it with no expectations. Well as it turns out, this little neighborhood is not that different from a castle on the hill. Shout out to Ed Sheehan whomst I’m listening to as I write this haha. There is a massive, beautiful cathedral at the top of this tiny hilly neighborhood, and you get there from several flights of stairs leading directly up. The view from the top is splendid, and all kinds of people sit on the steps to enjoy. I almost saw it like how San Franciscans treat Mission Dolores Park as a way to enjoy the city views.
I thought it couldn’t get better and as I rounded the corner there was a beautiful neighborhood, every street looked out of a movie. There were vendors and proper artists wearing berets and painting portraits of couples. It was absolutely magical to enjoy in the sweet light of the day, I ended up returning the next day because it made me so happy.
I decided to finish the day off with sunset at Tour Montparnasse, the tallest tower in Paris, which was controversial because it interrupts the historical skyline of Paris. Nonetheless, you can view the Eiffel Tower from above, and that is exactly what I did. It was only NINE euros to go to the top because of an off-season discount, and I went up on both the open-air deck as well as the inside windowed view to enjoy the light show that happens on the tower at the top of the hour. It was amazing to watch the city light up as the sun set.
I needed to eat something but I was also very tired and nervous of venturing past dark, so I stayed relatively local by walking around my hostel and to Pigalle, the Red Lights district, and walking past Moulin Rouge (I still don’t know what it is but I was told not to miss it). I got an egg and cheese crepe #vegetarianprotein and was still hungry so get McDonald’s VEGGIE wrap. Hold up real quick because Mickey D’s had all compostable packaging and I could actually eat something that wasn’t potatoes!
At this point I was POOPED. I did a little research for the next day, took a long overdue shower, and passed out.
