FRANCE: PARIS
Bonjour! This weekend, I went to Paris! Going to Paris has always been at the top of my bucket list. During the trip, my friends Sarah Jane and Karly joined me!
We got to the airport early for our 10 am flight and had some time to kill. What better time than for Karly and me to read our books on our phones. Karly and I love a good book. She finished three books this weekend because she cannot go to bed without finishing a book.
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| This happened way more often than you'd think... |
Once we landed, we had some difficulty getting into the city center, and Ubers kept canceling on us. Thankfully, we were able to get one and went straight to our hostel to drop off our backpacks.
By some miracle, we were able to check into our hostel two hours early! We unpacked and started walking to find somewhere to eat for lunch. We stumbled upon Le Sarah Bernhardt and got somewhat authentic French food.
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| Ham & cheese toast, french fries, and a salad. |
After, we took the metro to our perfume-making class. When we booked the tour, I thought we were going to make a custom scent. But we ended up making the “Scent of the Year,” which was lilacs, and thankfully, I love lilacs, so it worked out.
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| Very concentrated. |
It was so much fun to learn about the different types of scents and how they are made, but I had a pounding headache after all the smells.
After the class, we found out that sunset was soon, and we wanted to try and get to the Eiffel Tower to see it. The only downside was that it was a 45-minute walk away.
We tried to get there as fast as we could, but we just missed it. But that didn’t stop us from taking a million photos.
I’m taking a quick pause for a moment while I’m writing this to talk about how crazy my life is right now. Everyone has seen photos of the Eiffel Tower a million times, but until you are staring at it in real life, it still doesn’t feel real. We were walking around it, and I was fully convinced it was a backdrop. I’ve been in Europe for over a month, and I still don’t feel like I’m actually here. There was a lot of construction because of the upcoming Olympics, so we couldn’t sit on the grass. Still, I cannot complain.
Anyway, we snapped more photos before going to a nearby restaurant for dinner called Alfio.
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| The pizza was tempting. |
Next, we went and got one of Paris’s great delicacies: macarons! Wow, they are so yummy.
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| I got chocolate, vanilla, tiramisu, and salted caramel. |
After that, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to watch it sparkle. It sparkles at the start of every hour from 8 pm to 1 am for 5 minutes. When you add three girls who want lots of pictures, it doesn’t give you a lot of time. Luckily, we quickly got our videos and photos in time, but I did lose phone storage in the process.
It had been a long day, so we came home after. The metro station was very easy to navigate, but we couldn’t figure out how to get a weekend pass that didn’t cost a lot of money. So, most of the time, we used single-use passes. Once at the hostel, I watched a bit of the Aristocats before going to bed. The next morning, we woke up early and walked to get a quick breakfast. We went to La Parisienne, and I got a cappuccino and a croissant.
After, we went to the Notre Dame and sat on the stairs, overlooking it for a bit. It was so beautiful, and I’m sure it would've been even more gorgeous if it wasn’t under construction. We looked up how long ago the fire occurred, and it was in 2019. I was a freshman in high school. Time is a thief.
Practically around the corner was the Sainte-Chapelle, but it was an expensive entrance fee so we didn’t go inside. We thought we could walk around the back to get a better view but we completely missed it so I never got to see the full Sainte-Chapelle. It didn’t bother us too much because we had to get to the Louvre for our 11:30 am tickets for the museum!
Sometimes, I love being a student because you get so many student discounts! I didn’t know that much about the Louvre except that the Mona Lisa was there. But after going inside, it was enormous. I easily could’ve spent all day inside. We thought it was the best idea to go straight to the Mona Lisa so we could take our time walking through the rest of the museum after.
No surprise, there was a crowd. But we pushed through the crowd and got front and center.
I snapped 2 pictures and a selfie and moved on. All jokes aside, it was a really cool experience seeing famous works of art that I’ve seen in movies and in history.
Because we were in a rush, we grabbed McDonald’s for lunch because it was the cheapest and quickest thing we could find. It’s safe to say this meal was the cheapest out of everything I ate this weekend. We rushed to the metro and went across the city to our Catacombs tour. We thought we were saving money by not doing the audio tour, but I majorly regretted it, especially when I found out it was free. Since I didn’t get to listen to a lot of the history, I’ll give my own insights of the Catacombs: extremely creepy.
I mean, everything is human bone! How does that not automatically give you the heebie-jeebies? I wish I got to learn more of the history, but it was still interesting to walk through it.
We definitely picked the wrong location for the hostel because we had to metro everywhere. We went straight back to the hostel after the tour to get ready for the whole reason I booked this trip to begin with: the Noah Kahan concert! I bought these concert tickets back in August while my family and I were up in Northern Wisconsin at Deer Camp (and one thing to know about Deer Camp is there is rarely any service). By some miracle, I was able to get a bar of service and buy the tickets! I’m pretty sure I’ve thought about what the concert would be like since I bought the tickets.
During this entire trip to Paris, we have been listening and singing to his music nonstop. You could say we were a little excited. Once we were dressed, we took another metro to the venue and waited in line to enter before going inside.
This concert was the best concert I have ever been to. Noah Kahan is one of my top three favorite artists and hearing his music live was beyond incredible.
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| I still can't believe how good our spots were! |
The moment he came on stage, I started to cry because there were so many emotions happening at once. This concert, trip, and whole study abroad semester has been in my mind for so long and I seriously cannot say how grateful I am that I get to do this. This was one of those moments when I realized how truly lucky I am. Not everyone gets to see their favorite artist live, let alone in Europe. He even performed two unreleased songs and three songs that he rarely performs. (If anyone is interested in videos from the concert, I have more than plenty to share.) I was a little bummed I didn’t get his merch, but it's a good thing I'm seeing him again in July!
Even with all the adrenaline after the concert, we somehow went right to sleep. The next morning, we went to Carette, which is a very famous cafe in Paris known for their hot chocolate. Naturally, I had to try it for myself.
It was the best €12 hot chocolate I’ve ever had. I felt so fancy dipping my croissant in my hot chocolate. It was a great combo.
While eating, it started to rain, and none of us had an umbrella or a raincoat. We quickly walked around until we found the first store selling umbrellas. I have no regrets buying it. I would’ve been miserable. Sarah Jane was our navigator during this trip, so she led us through the metro station and we rode it to the Arc de Triomphe.
The tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower were sold out, so the Arc was the next best thing. We weren’t sure if there was a discount but we showed our Student Visas and got to go up for free!
It was extremely windy, but the view was so pretty! The stairs going up though... I don't think I've ever been more out of breath. We then walked to find a souvenir store and walk to a lookout point of the Eiffel Tower.
It was super busy and was still raining, so we left shortly after and grabbed a quick lunch before going back to the hostel to grab our backpacks and go to the airport. We got there super early, but I finished my book and a Quizlet for my upcoming exam this week! Luckily, I was able to find a pin on this trip and a postcard but completely forgot to get another postcard for my collection.
At least the view from my window seat on the flight back was pretty!
Best Part of the Trip: Without a doubt, the concert. It was truly magical and I could’ve listened to him all night. A close second was the Louvre museum.
Worst Part of the Trip: The rain on our last day and having to continuously having to buy single use metro tickets. Still, it didn’t stop us from having an amazing weekend.
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