We arrived in Paris in the afternoon and headed straight to our hotel, the Hotel Kyriad Brancion (DO NOT STAY THERE, EVER). We were a bit surprised on how cheap the cab was, but we quickly found out why. It was located completely on the outskirts of the city center! Needless to say that was not a good start (at least in terms of the hotel). We went up to our room (walking through the incredibly musty lobby) to find it incredibly small. And dirty. I don’t mind a small room, but dirty is a whole different story. There were stains and crusty stuff dripping from the walls, hairs all over the place, and sheets that had a whole pallet of colored stains. NOT okay by any of us. Panic started to sink in so we all tried to keep our calm. I went down to the front desk and kindly asked the man working if we could be moved into a different room as the room we were currently in was dirty. He was nothing but nice and gave me the key to another room. I went and looked but found the same problem. The sheets were stained! When I got back up to the room to tell them, one of the cleaning women was in our room yelling at us. I don’t care where we were staying but to have a women screaming at me in French will only piss me off even more. I went down to the lobby and told the man that it was NOT okay. He quickly moved us to a higher floor in a bit of a nicer room. That is after the cleaning woman followed us and yelled at us again for inspecting the sheets before telling him it was adequate.
However we really did NOT want to have to stay there and after Bre read reviews about the cleaning staff stealing from the rooms and how many people were dissatisfied we searched for other options. There was NOTHING. All the hostels were completely booked so we had to suck it up.
We figured it would be best to spend as little time as possible in the hotel room given how dirty it was so we headed out for a walk, although not before locking up all of our stuff and taking a picture of the room incase the stupid bitch of a cleaning lady decided to come in.
We wandered the streets for a while, not sure where we were going, but pretty sure we were incredibly far from everything. I didn’t even feel like I was in Paris! It was an early night for us and we headed back to the hotel in hoped of being able to get a good night sleep. Although we all agreed that we could practically feel bugs crawling on us all night.
Friday morning we woke up bright and early to head to the Eiffel Tower. Florence is so small on a map that even though things looks like a 45 min walk, they take about 10 in actuality. We figured the same for Paris. WRONG! I had no idea how huge it was, but we quickly figured it out when we walked to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel. About an hour and a half, 3 delicious pastries (I cannot remember the name of the place and it kills me because they were the best of the trip), and a free espresso from Starbucks later, we were at the Eiffel Tower. It’s gigantic, even bigger than I could have imagined! We got in line and waited our turn to go up. The elevator was so scary, Bre and I both closed our eyes on the way up but by the time we got to the top I was speechless. The views of Paris were incredible. You could see everything, even through the smog. After snapping numerous pictures, we headed back down, took some more pictures in front of it and headed across the street in search of food.
However, what we found was Trocadero, two half-U shaped buildings with gorgeous fountains. I’m not really sure what the point of it was, but it was beautiful, and lined with restaurants in the back.
However, what we found was Trocadero, two half-U shaped buildings with gorgeous fountains. I’m not really sure what the point of it was, but it was beautiful, and lined with restaurants in the back.
For Lunch we opted for some good old american food and chowed down. It was a quick lunch because we were still had a busy agenda. The day was young.
Luckily our lunch spot was only a couple blocks away from the Arc Di Triomph. It was magnificent to see although we didn’t climb it because the line was extremely long and I’m not sure if it could have toped the Eiffel Tower so we wandered around it for a little bit and then headed to the notorious Champs Elysees. While we didn’t buy much because most of the shops are extremely nice, but it was fun to window shop and see all the amazing displays. We walked the whole Champs and more through gardens making our way to the Toulerie Gardens (which lead to the Louvre). Had we been there longer, it would have been great to sit in the gardens and soak up some rays, but we were on a tight schedule. We made our way through the gardens and finally caught sight of the Louvre. This whole trip kind of felt like a deja vu. I’ve seen so many pictures of all these important monuments, and seeing them in real life almost felt surreal. It was so crazy!
Much to my surprise, there was almost no line to the Louvre, and with our Italian visa, we were able to cut the line AND get in fo freeeee. We headed straight to the Mona Lisa, which I must say, was a bit overrated (and by a bit, I mean very). It was so small compared to the pictures I’ve seen of it. After staring at it for a few minutes we made our way through the Louvre, making a point to see all the famous paintings. However, the sun was starting to set and our feet felt like they were going to fall off so we headed out into the courtyard and sat by the fountains and IMP triangle. Morgan’s friends from BC then came to meet us and we made plans to go out with them later that night.
By the time we got back to our hotel (30 min metro ride) we didn’t have much time so we quickly showered, grabbed food, and headed to her apartment. The night ended up being a lot of fun; having an actual pregame is something we haven’t done in ages and then we headed to O’Sullivans. It was a pub but had GREAT music and we danced the night away. By 2am I was exhausted and ready to go home and get sleep but we stayed out till 4 and then had to wander around Paris searching for a cab to take us back since the metro stops at 1ish. Morgan’s friends kept trying to find us a cab but they were all full so I took the matters into my own hands and hailed a random cab on my own. You can take the girl out of New York, but you can’t take the New York out of the girl.
Waking up Saturday morning was rough but we managed and made our way into the city center. Our first stop of the day was the Muse D’Orsay. MY FAVORITE! I contacted my friend Nicole before I left asking for suggestions (she studied in France last semester) and she said if there was only time to go to one museum, it should be the Muse D’Orsay. I was pretty confused by this because I always assumed people would say the Louvre. However, once I got there I completely understood why. The Muse D’Orsay is an old train station that was turned into a museum and has the most amazing selection of impressionist art. We started at the top which had a lot of Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh . Growing up my mom was obsessed with Degas paintings (his ballerina collection to be specific) and sculptures and my house is filled with replicas so seeing them in real life was a very emotional experience. I was seeing the real life work that I had grown up (and maybe even been inspired by) seeing every day. We spent a good 3 hours there and I could literally go on and on talking about how much I loved it but I’ll spare you all.
After the Muse we went to the Muse D’Orangerie, house of Monet’s water lilie paintings. It’s located near the gardens that lead to the Louvre, and you could easily miss it if you weren’t specifically in search of it. The water lilies were gorgeous and probably another one of my favorites of the trip.
After the Muse we went to the Muse D’Orangerie, house of Monet’s water lilie paintings. It’s located near the gardens that lead to the Louvre, and you could easily miss it if you weren’t specifically in search of it. The water lilies were gorgeous and probably another one of my favorites of the trip.
After these two museums, it was time to do what we did best. You can take a guess at what these activities included: shopping or eating. We did both. First it was to the Longchamp store. Following our phrase of the weekend “white girls in paris,” Bre and I each indulged a bit and bought a bag. The offer was too good to turn don considering the price different at home. And I’ve fallen in love with my longchamp that I’ve been using here so I couldn’t resist.
After grabbing a quick, but delicious, lunch, we headed back to our hotel to nap/shower/ get ready to meet up with Morgan’s friends again. It took us about 30 minutes on the metro to get to where we were meeting them but it was well worth the ride. The Sacre Couer is a church in Paris but the walk up to it and the view it gives is astonishing. In the evening people gather on the steps leading up to it, grab some beers, and just hang out while enjoying the exquisite view of all of Paris. We did just that and watched numerous street performers (who we’re actually really good!). Once the sun had set we got crepes (that were so good I could’ve eaten 5, but didn’t) and went on a boat tour in which we got to see all the big monuments lit up.
Sunday was our last day in Paris and there were still a few things we didn’t get to see so we figured it would be best to squeeze them in. Notre Dame was first on the list and it was stunning. We didn’t go in but gazed at it from the outside and marveled at all the detail.
We hadn’t bought any souvenirs since being there so that and Starbucks were our next 2 stops along the way to the Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens were so pretty and we lucked out with sunny weather so we were able to sit outside and enjoy it for a while.
The rest of the day was dedicated to shopping, or so we thought. Everything was closed! Many people had warned us about stores being closed on Sundays but in Florence it didn’t seem to be that way and I guess we figured the same for a major city like Paris. It was a bit of a let down but we were so tired that it didn’t even phase us that much. We headed back to the hotel, called a cab and were on our way back home to Florence.
Paris was an amazing city and despite our horrible hotel situation, I absolutely loved it. Even though I was sad to leave, it was nice to be heading home after a week of traveling. Not to worry though, I’m sure my travels in the future will take me back!
No comments:
Post a Comment