Paris oh la la...

17.04.2013

I’m so glad I’ve lived in France for almost 8 months now. Hmm I’m glad because when we first came to Paris there wasn’t any of the big ‘wow it’s Paris!’ thing. I felt normal, familiar with everything and didn’t behave like a Japanese tourist. I guess only the plan guide gave away the fact that we were tourists. The journey to Paris was exhausting. Carrying a huge backpack, small suitcase and a medium size travel bag was NOT fun at all. My back is hurting so much. The same is waiting for me on my way to the UK… God why?! I’d really use a man carrying the entire luggage for me. But wait, I can do it! I’ve done it so many times before. I’ll be fine. I’m sure I will.

First day in Paris was the day of our arrival. We started the journey at about 6am, arrived in Paris at noon and then it took us an hour or so to find the bloody hotel. When we finally arrived there we decided to have a power nap to get our strength back and maybe try to visit some places in the evening. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it ended up quite a long one as we got up after 7 or 8pm. Already being too late for visiting we decided it was time to try some of the French cuisine, so we went on restaurant-hunting. Beside the food being delicious and me breaking almost every rule of my diet (fortunately there wasn’t any side effects… ouff), the weirdest thing was the behaviour of the French. I’d already noticed it back in Besancon but I believe in Paris it was visible on much bigger level. The French are absolutely weird (I know I’ve said it so many times now and I guess I’ll be saying it until the end of my life unless I find a really nice French guy who will accept all my disadvantages). I don’t know why but when they meet a foreigner they get either completely paralysed and just ignore you as if you weren’t there at all (literally not even looking at you) or speak to you in English even though you have started the conversation in French and you’re replying to all their questions in French. The other ones are the over-excited ones who just try finding in their memory any people they know of your nationality or jump around you all the time (bear in mind that they’re the minority). I find it quite amusing but at the same time so disturbing and weird. I guess it only happens in France as I haven’t experienced it anywhere else.

Day two was a much nicer one. We went to see most of the tourist attractions. Yes, I went up the Eiffel tower and I have a picture with it (I know how tacky it is). I must say that it was nice, even though I have a little fear of heights, but in general I guess I expected more. Don’t get me wrong, the view was amazing and all that stuff but still the magic of the place somehow disappeared. However, the place that astonished me the most was Montmartre. It looked the exact way as I imagined France would be, although without all those tacky souvenirs, but I guess it has to exist in every tourist town. On our way to the actual place we passed by few galleries. I need to go back there one day and have a closer look as the paintings were incredible! I especially liked one artist who painted faces as a compilation of human bodies; I can’t really explain it you would have to see it on your own, anyway for me they were interesting enough and I hope in few years’ time they’ll still be there. I would have forgotten about the Sacre Coeur church which is also situated in the same district and when you get inside its beauty hits you right away. In my opinion it was even better than the famous Notre Dame. I guess in my case I had too great expectations if it came to Paris (after all it was my first time properly visiting the city and not only going to Porte Maillot to catch the bus to the airport). The most annoying thing during the whole journey was American tourists. For God’s sake! Not all the fucking world speaks English. Show some respect and learn at least ‘Bonjour’, ‘merci’ and ‘au revoir’. Either you’re so terribly lazy or just dumb as fuck. Although I might not be totally objective, I do know that not all Americans are like that and I even met some who speak quite good French but the ones in Paris were extremely annoying and so overconfident, just as they thought that the world lies upon their feet.  

Day three which at the same time was the last day of our visit to Paris started very early in the morning. We wanted to visit Musee du Louvre but un/fortunately it was closed – on Tuesday. Anyway I’m not surprised, it’s France, the country where everything closes down on Sundays or is open until noon because the French need some time to rest. I don’t have a clue why they’re so tired as they make themselves an extra day off almost every week due to a strike. In my opinion they should work a full-time shift on Sunday, every week they have a strike. Anyway after the Louvre we decided to see Notre Dame, the Jewish district called Le Marais and we walked down quite a busy street called Rue de Ravoli in order to find vintage shops. In fact we only found two or three, of which the first one was expensive as hell but I saw amazing dark brown Prada heels (my size!) studded at the back. I really wanted to try them on but after seeing the prices of other shoes (btw they not only had Prada but YSL, Louis Vuitton, Dior, etc.) which was about 200 euro I walked out with a broken smile on my face. I guess I’ll have to wait to afford a brand new pair then.  Anyway in the last one I found black Levis’ shorts which are going to be amazing for a night out ;) We then walked back to our hotel, had a nap and started preparing for the long and exhausting journeys ahead of us. Mine is about to end while I finish my little writing.

My little Paris’ trip has gone to an end. I’m so happy about the easiness of the subway in Paris. I guess it’s the only thing the French has ever done properly. It was a nice spent of both time and money with an amazing company of the meanest of them all ;p I only wish we had some more time to visit the places we didn’t manage to and perhaps go out clubbing. Anyway it’s time to begin chapter 2 of these holidays – Aberystwyth, Wales.

A bientot!