I left my heart in Paris.

Upon the second day of my arrival in Lyon, I departed for Paris by train.

Having only heard of the downsides of Paris, I headed for this city of love with no expectations at all and a head full of worst case scenarios. But boy was I in for a surprise! Paris was a gem. It was nothing like I’d imagined and it was absolutely breathtaking! It is such a beautiful city and I would love to live there for the rest of my life.

The people are extremely friendly. The view is, of course, without a doubt, stunning. The food is heavenly and the museums have amazing exhibitions with mesmerizing art so powerful and heart-rendering. The metros and RERs are easy to take and everything is so close together that you might as well walk and enjoy the gorgeous weather. That being said, apart from crowded attraction venues and some rude tourists, I don’t know what there is to hate about Paris.

My travel companion, Jessica, and I arrived on a Friday morning. We got super lost right off the bat because we did not do our homework and check with Google Maps where everything was. We’ve both agreed to travel to Paris twice followed by a trip to Nice and London (the first Paris visit being planned by her, and the rest planned by me). Since Jessica organized our first trip, I figured she should be capable of leading us and getting us to the right places. But we clearly lacked communication and we were lost for one hour looking for a restaurant that was a minute walk away from the train station.

We ended up eating somewhere else and paid five euros for a crappy sandwich that was nothing but a baguette with pickles, lunchmeat, and mayonnaise. Having recharged and looked through the maps again, we set out in search of our hotel.

I was completely dead tired from all the walking with my super duper heavy backpack, not to mention jet lag! (I couldn’t even sleep on the plane and woke up every hour during my first night in Lyon.) I relied on Jessica to find the way, but we became lost once more. There were no Starbucks or McDonalds nearby, nowhere that we could steal free Wi-Fi for a few seconds. We were basically lost for two hours (but we were also just looking around and window shopping) so by the time we finally got to our hotel, we simply collapsed in our beds.

We originally wanted to rent an apartment suite, but we found no luck hence our stay at Hotel Albion France.It’s a cozy little hotel near the Opéra and Montmartre areas with the metro (M12, stop Notre-Dame-de-Lorette) just steps away. We paid €324 for three nights which was decent considering how expensive all the other hotels are in Paris. The manager and the people working here were such lovely folks and they made us laugh and feel right at home. For this price, we really couldn’t have asked for more.

Instead of following our original schedule, we decided to push everything until tomorrow and just take it easy. We walked around Galeries Lafayette and not only were the designer purses extravagant, the building itself was astonishing.

The next morning, we woke up nice and early and prepared ourselves for a long day of adventure. 

Arc de Triomphe was our first destination and I was thoroughly disappointed! Of all the times, the building just had to be under construction during our stay here in Paris. Zut!! C’est vraiment dommage.

Following that, we paid a visit to both the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.

We later strolled along the area on Pont Alexandre III and I cannot stress the beauty of this city enough; it’s just so eyeopening!

We also passed by Hôtel des Invalides and checked out the Musée de l’Armée although we did’t physically go in, as our tickets were bought for our second visit only.

The next stop was Place de la Concorde and Église de la Madeleine.

 

For lunch, we bought macarons from Pierre Hermé and dined somewhere nearby.

We tried their escargots and mussels. And Oh. My. Gosh. When the bill came, my jaw dropped wide open. We were charged €7 for a glass of water. And we were so thirsty, we asked for two without knowing! €14 worth of water, can you believe it?! Well… we certainly learnt our lesson the hard way so there you go, always, always, ALWAYS ask for the price!

After such frustration, we headed for Centre Pompidou.

 

To wrap up the day, we departed for our last destination: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

On the metro to there, I felt a man moving closer and closer to me from behind my back. At first I disregarded it and thought that the metro was just crowded because we were literally cramped towards the glass door, but I still wanted to be careful just in case if he was anyone sketchy. Then all of a sudden, I felt him lifting up my skirt! Mon dieu! Good thing a lady had to get off as soon as I realized so girl, I moved, I moved fast. When I turned around and looked at him, he appeared exactly as how pickpockets are described online! He had a thick long leather jacket draped over his left arm so you basically couldn’t see his arm at all, let alone what his arm might be doing under that coat. Paris was hot too, no need for a leather jacket at all. So maybe he was a part-time pickpocket and a part-time molester, I don’t know! But all this time I’ve been worried about pickpockets, I neglected the fact that there might be molesters on the trains as well.

Anyways, we didn’t get a chance to visit the insides of Notre Dame since the line was terribly long. But oh well, maybe next time.

On our third day here in Paris, we began our journey by first picking up our museum passes at the Tourism Office. We then visited the Louvre and in all honesty, I hated it. I didn’t hate the art, I just hated the people there. I have no idea how many times I got pushed around and stepped on and hit on the head with cameras, not to mention someone smacked me because I accidentally walked into her photo with Vénus de Milo. What the heck!

I was seriously in no mood to admire the art at all. Plus, everyone who was there was mostly only there to take photos, not to actually appreciate the art. The atmosphere was just so suffocating. I hated it, period.

Next stop was Musée d’Orsay and of course we had to pass by Pont des Arts on the way.

They say that “Pont des Arts is for your committed love, while Pont de l’Archevêché is for your lover.” Either way, it was romantic to see couples seal away their love at the turn of a key. Oh how I wished my special someone could’ve been here with me.

Musée d’Orsay was my absolute favourite. I adoooorreeeedddd  all the pieces, especially Monet’s. The paintings are so rich in texture and the choice of color was pure genius. It was as if the seas were really glistening upon the sunset and I could almost hear the music of Pierre Auguste Renoir’s “Girls at the Piano”. Impressionist paintings are my number one bias; I totally wouldn’t mind living inside the museum.

Château de Versailles was next and don’t even get me started! It was wayyyyy more crowded, wayyyyyyyyyyyy worse than Louvre. I got pushed around by countless old Asian ladies from behind me. I was just so ticked off that I pushed them back, and I pushed hard. I even turned around and glared at them. To the hell with all the respecting elders crap! I paid money to be in there too, I deserved to be there just as much as they did. Oh mon dieu. I was almost on the verge of yelling into their faces. Seriously….. I swear by the end of my travels, I’ll probably get so used to all this ridiculousness that I’ll become so calm and patient I won’t even bat an eyelash.

Afterwards, we were supposed to visit Arc de Triomph to catch a night view of the city from the top. Unfortunately, the museum was suddenly closed for the night for some reason unknown. As a result, I suggested checking out Trocadero in hopes that we could catch the last glimpse of sunset upon the Eiffel Tower.

When we arrived, it was already getting dark. (Don’t get deceived by the picture above.) Everything felt so unreal. I could not believe that before my eyes, stood the Eiffel Tower that is so well-known and so talked about! It was as if everything went into slow motion. The passersby delayed their steps and gradually faded away into the background, their voices unheard. In this crowded plaza, I could hear nothing but my own breathing and my own pounding heart. My gaze was fixed upon the allurement of this tower and I felt as if I was standing in front of a picture perfect movie scene. (This sounds like an eternity, but it only happened for a few seconds more or less. I’ll be honest, I was too busy being a tourist and taking photos, and selfies of course.)

I wanted to stay longer but Jessica needed to head back since her parents didn’t want her out too late. Just right before we entered the metro, we got tempted by the smell of the Nutella crêpes from the street vendors so we lined up for one. All of a sudden, people around us started cheering and clapping. The next thing we knew, the tower was sparkling! It was absolutely beautiful! I’m running out of words to describe beauty but it was beautiful!!!!!! Ugh, if only WordPress would let me post videos. We’ll see, maybe I’ll compile a video at the end of my journey and upload it onto YouTube.

After our fruitful day, we followed up the next with a few last destinations just before we departed for our train back to Lyon.

Musée de l’Orangerie was up first. Just like Musée d’Orsay, photos were not allowed so people were truly there to enjoy art, and not to take photos of art. Naturally, without the annoyance of camera shutters clicking, I was delighted with my experience. I discovered several new painters that I have never heard of and their paintings are definitely unique and ravishing.

For lunch, we dined at Bistrot Marguerite and we shared, like always.

Up until now from what I have experienced, French food is extremely rich. There always seems to be a lot of butter and cream in every dish. I just hope I won’t gain so much weight here in France that when I head home, my mom can’t recognize me, LOL!

Sainte-Chapelle was next on the list. And we’ve just had no luck this entire trip! There was an official government event that day during the hour that we intended to go, so it was closed to the public. It was so disheartening! Especially since they didn’t put any news on their official website either. This was definitely on my top things to see list and bof, c’est dommage, vraiment dommage.

Now looking back, it looks like we didn’t do much in Paris since we spent so much time in the museums. On the bright side, even though we didn’t get to go to all the museums we had planned, we certainly got the most out of our museum passes! Yay!!

P.S. I hope I’m not making my travel bud sound bad in anyway (with the whole relying on her to find our way part). She’s been awesome this entire trip. She took gazillion pictres for me and put up with my annoying demand for perfection, not to mention my scary angry faces at them rude tourists.

Well, that’s a wrap for now. Until next time Paris, see you in a few days! <3