Paris was lovely. I was freezing, but it was lovely. I came to realize that I had never been in cold weather for as long as I had been. Between London, Dublin, Cardiff and now super cold Paris, my body was wondering where Southern California had gone. We we’re only in Paris for a few days (because it would be a crime to pass Paris on our way to Spain without stopping for a bit. & it’s likely that we’ll return later in the trip.)
I studied the French New Wave (a French film movement) in college so I really wanted to see the beauty of Paris. And Paris IS beautiful. Unfortunately, for us we did experience unkind treatment from some Parisians. For us, the language barrier did prove to be difficult. But we did have a great time nonetheless.
As we traveled to Bordeaux we were told that it’s more Parisians that want travelers to speak French, not necessarily the French want you to speak French. We experienced much more kindness in Bordeaux & the language barrier was less of an issue. (I would love to create a post about our time in Bordeaux but I actually became ill from how cold I was in Paris. I was shivering in Paris, so I was sick in Bordeaux. 🙁 But here are the photos I posted on Instagram from Bordeaux. Here & here.)
Although we did enjoy the city of love!
Where We Stayed:
We’ve been enjoying our accommodations with Airbnb. We stayed here while in Paris and found it to be a great central location, & a great space to sleep, cook & hang out. We could even see the Eiffel Tower from our window! (See here!)
What We Did:
We bought a ticket for the Paris Bus Tour that traveled around Paris so we can see all of the sights. Paris is truly a beautiful well planned out city. The monuments were specifically placed so you can see them from far distances throughout the city. Another fascinating fact is street leading to the Palais Garnier (the opera house that inspired The Phantom of the Opera novel) purposely has no trees so you can see it’s beauty from far away. No trees block the view!) It’s really worth it to go on the bus tour so you can see all of the monuments in a few hours & get some fun facts while you’re at it!
Where We Ate:
We honestly ate in a lot. We frequented all the different markets in Paris to gather supplies for dinners in. There were a lot of baguettes, fruit & pasta with vegetables. We did go to a vegetarian restaurant called La Verrière. It was buffet style with plenty of vegan options. (You load up one plate with what you want. We were confused on if we could go back for seconds.) There was a language barrier with the gentleman pointing out the vegan options to me. He pointed to a grain based salad and said it had tofu. Turned it out it was cheese. I found out pretty quickly it wasn’t tofu. I’m not going to beat myself up over these vegan fails. They’re bound to happen. If we return to Paris I really want to try Hank Vegan Burger.
So that was our experience in Paris. Have you been to Paris before? What did you like?
By the way, we we’re in Paris on March 19th – 22nd. I’m a little behind on posting our whereabouts. If you’re interested in more up to date posts, feel free to follow me on Instagram! (@city_loveee)
– Christina