Days 17-19: Paris!

Paris has exceeded my expectations immensely. I’ve heard that it’s a dirty city and that the French are rude. While the latter may be true, Paris is absolutely beautiful. It is so comparable to Washington DC, except its better. And older. My trip was wonderful.

Amy (Maryland), Stephanie (Vermont, Upstate NY), Cathrin (Indiana), Sonja (Finland), and I took the overnight bus from Canterbury to Paris on Thursday night, arriving Friday morning around 6:30 AM. Instead of travelling through the Chunnel, as I thought we would, we took the ferry across from Dover. Side note- the white cliffs of Dover are breath-taking. Planning a day-trip there ASAP. And the ferry was really cool too. I expected some big plain boat, maybe with a couple of bathrooms. But we’re talking a mini-cruise-ship. Dining halls, duty-free liquor stores, the works. The bad part about the ferry: we got very little sleep for a full-day of sight-seeing.

When we finally got into the city, we bought 3-day subway passes and headed in the direction of our hotel. Low point- its freezing cold out, its 6:30 AM, and no one’s around to point us into the direction of the hotel. But after about 15 minutes of groggy wandering, we found it. High point- we were able to check in, (even though check-in wasn’t until 4ish), and go to sleep for a few hours.

Around 11:30 we met my good friend Anthony, a true Parisian, who graciously showed us around the city. We walked to the Eiffel Tower and took the elevator up to the middle area. What an amazing view! Afterwards, we wandered the streets and took the metro to a wonderful area called St Michel. There, we found a café with 3 course meals for 8.80 Euros. Holy cow, whatta deal. I got (and I wish I could remember this in French), a cheese crepe for an appetizer, roast chicken with salad and chips (that’s FF for all of Europe), and a chocolate crepe for desert. And it was DELICIOUS.

After our late lunch, Anthony went home to study and Sonja went back to the hotel to nap. The rest of us walked over to the Notre Dame, went inside awestruck, and then walked over towards the Pantheon. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go inside… but we did discover a gorgeous cathedral right next to it, (and I should know the name of it), that was even more amazing than the Notre Dame. The inside of the church was absolutely stunning.

We then wandered around back towards the subway, passing a beautiful park, and some great candy shops, (and yes, we did stop), bought 3 bottles of wine, and headed back to the hotel. We all showered and freshened up then started playing drinking games and chugging are extremely cheap wine. After we all obtained a good buzz, we went back to St Michel and met Anthony again for a night out in Paris.

The Subway ride was so much fun. Some guy got off the subway, turned and stood towards the window, flicking all of us off as the train pulled away. When we asked Anthony about it later, he said, “Well you are all pretty girls. That’s why he did that.” Ummm?????

When we got there, we bar-hopped for a few solid hours- dancing salsa, drinking extravagantly, having a blast. When we were done drinking, we got some Drunk French Food, (some delicious crepes and baguettes), and almost stole a monster container of Nutella. Fun times!!!

Problem: Subway closed. 35 minutes from hotel. 30 Euros of taxi ride. Solution: Follow Anthony to train and hope to God it goes in our direction. Depart from our tour guide. Somehow jump on a completely random bus that ended up dropping us off RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOTEL. Without paying one dime. Highlight of bus ride: Amy talking to some random guy. I text her, “Taken”. (Movie reference). The guy somehow sees and says, “Oh no reason to fear.” HAHA. Amy replies, “Oh I know. My huge football player boyfriend would brutally kill anyone that touched me.” You really had to be there.

Saturday morning we woke up, and Amy, Stephanie, and I headed for Versailles. (Cathrin wanted extra time at the Louvre and Sonja wanted to sleep later.) With Amy’s aggressive attitude, we were able to get in for absolutely free and skip the 45 minute line. (We just showed our Kent Cards and she said, “Everyone’s letting us in with that. Come on, you should too!” But, Versailles was amazing. The gold woven into the architecture was so pretty and each room’s design had such intricate detail- truly stunning. I could’ve easily spent the entire day there.

But we had so much to see! So we took the train back and met Cat and Sonja at The Louvre. We only stayed in there for about 30 minutes. We saw the Mona Lisa and da Vinci’s other artwork and headed for the exit. Once again, could’ve spent the entire day there. The Louvre is HUGE. But we were starving so we had to find lunch ASAP.

So we went back to St Michel and got some quick lunch. I had this monstrous gyro filled with chicken and the usual stuff and…. French Fries. HAHA weird. After lunch, we went back to the hotel to shower, and get ready for the evening.

We met Anthony again that night at my favorite spot in Paris, La Basilique de Sacre Couer, a beautiful white church that sits up on this huge hill. The view from the top is breath-taking. If you look one way, you can see the landscape of Paris and if you turn around, you look up at this amazing church. I love it there so much.

We then walked down to the Moulin Rouge, which I was not a fan of. This is probably the dirtiest part of Paris that we saw. Sex stores everywhere, strip clubs, not a classy place. But we found a nice Irish Pub and sat down to dinner and drinks. I had a club sandwich and a couple pints of Strongbow.

Afterwards, Amy and Sonja headed back to the hotel cause they weren’t feeling well, and the rest of us walked down to this ridiculous karaoke bar. It was entertaining but somewhat painful to listen. And drinks were really pricy, so after a little while, we went to another bar with a great atmosphere. There was live indie music and good drink prices. We ended the night there.

Sunday, we packed up our stuff, checked out, and headed to the Notre Dame for an international church service. This was so cool. I love going to church in huge cathedrals, especially THE NOTRE DAME! But it was a bit annoying, having all the parishioners taking pictures during the service. Manners, please….

After church, we went to the Arc de Triomphe to see how the rich people live. (This is the great, but super expensive shopping area of Paris.) I wish I could shop there. But I can’t. So we went to where the poor people shop on the other side of town (H&M and stores like it). But for some weird reason, these stores are closed on Sundays. And this area is also where the homeless people like to gather their mattresses. Uncomfortable….

So we went to this cemetery instead, where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. And that place was MASSIVE. We walked around forever and never found their tombs. But as weird as this sounds, I actually really liked it there… There was such great grandeur; now that’s how you pay respect to the dead!

Afterwards, we went back to the area where the La Basilique de Sacre Couer is, and shopped in touristy stores. I got a really cute hat and a pair of kick-butt sunglasses for 10 Euros… I had to do at least SOME shopping in Paris. And we got dinner at another wonderful restaurant. I got vegetable potage and roast chicken pasta for only 10Euros. And I really thought Parisian food would be outrageously expensive!

After dinner, we shopped a bit more and headed back to the hotel to get our luggage. Got it. Took our last subway ride to the bus station. Got on. Got my wallet stolen. Had a panic attack. Living nightmare. Don’t take Eurolines ever. Don’t sleep on sketchy buses. Don’t keep all your important stuff together in one place. Just don’t do it.

Really though, besides my ridiculously stressful end to the trip, Paris couldn’t have been better. I loved every single minute of it and I think I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.