This morning I woke up at one of the earliest times ever on a Sunday! ☀️☀️ (Normally I am completely knocked out well past noon… 😂😂) Nonetheless, this is just going to be a short post. After checking out from the inn, I went for a stroll around Westgate Gardens and Dane Jane Gardens before departing from Canterbury. I took so many photos of the beautiful fall scenery, I thought I have to share some here! 😉
And now I am back in London in my warm, cozy bed, reminiscing about all these beautiful imageries of the nature. ❤️❤️
After a day of being back home, I started again looking through the photos on my phone from my trip in Paris. I then realised there were many snapshots of brief, funny and cultural moments that made my time there the more special and exciting. So, here are 10 unseen bits from my Parisian adventure. 😉
1. We were never short on water
While I was worried about dehydration, many people used the hot weather to business advantages by setting up nearby long queues around attractions and sell ice cold bottled waters on the spot. (Quite honestly though, I probably won’t have made it through those 4.5 hours by the Catacombs without them. 😂 Though I thought they did bump up the price to €2 there…🤔)
2. Ice cream is your new best friend
On the subject of the hot weather, ice creams had become my staple diet… 😂
3. Toilet is the new luxury
One thing I couldn’t get over in Paris was that almost every single toilets in malls and stations need to be paid for, with prices ranging from half an euro to over one euro per entry! 😠 This particular one in Carrousel du Louvre took it to another level, costing €1.50 per entry to their ‘luxurious‘ toilets…
And they also sold coloured and patterned toilet rolls for ridiculous prices! 😂
4. Apparently being 25 is not that old at all
Being in the UK, I was used to paying for adult tickets for most things post 16. However, in Paris, it seemed that being 25 was still very much considered ‘young’ in a number of places. In Sainte-Chapelle, not only was I allowed to bypass the long queue, I also did not need to pay for any tickets. Though the words ‘European Community‘ unnerved me due to the current situation with Brexit… (I was told by a member of staff to ‘enjoy it while [I] could.’ 😬) I did get lucky though because I was only a few months away from turning 26. 😂
Though, at the Eiffel Tower, I was annoyed that I just missed out the half price ‘youth’ ticket by a year… 😓
5. CinEiffel in the Ferrié Pavilion
While I collapsed in sweats and nerves after I reached the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, I got to catch this amazing clip in the Ferrié Pavilion section there which was projected onto a three-wall screen. (P.S. I didn’t stay for the whole thing… 😂)
6. ‘Pardon, monsieur.’
On the line of Eiffel Tower, I was taking this picture when a little boy accidentally kicked a football at me… ⚽️ 😵
And when he came up to apologise, that was how I learnt ‘pardon’ meant ‘sorry’ in French. 😅 (Which I later used repeatedly throughout my trip! 😂)
7. The Metro is a whole new world underground
Vending machines on the platform? And mostly air conditioned? London underground could really take a page out of the Metro’s book!
But their exit barriers really reminded me of fire exits. (I was scared I was going to set some random alarm off when I first passed one… 😨)
8. Duck or goose?
When I was at Le Comptoir de La Gastronomie, I took a look around their shop section after my lunch. But I was a little confused by the huge variations in the prices of the different foie gras.
While most of the foie gras was in the region of around €20 to €40, this one I was holding only costed €8. When I asked for the reason, it turned out that this one was made from duck livers rather than those of geese, so it was less valuable. 😯
9. Graffiti in the Catacombs
Be respectful for the dead? (I don’t want to be haunted! 😰😱)
10. And when you’re a tourist, you just take a bunch of random pictures of stuff that you don’t even know…
Bonjour to another day in Paris! Having finally recovered from the food coma yesterday, I was up early raring to go out and explore. My first stop was to get some breakfasts from a bakery, called Du Pain et des Idées, which my friend had recommended. I chose their chausson à la pomme fraîche, which is an apple pastry. I also used this opportunity to practice my KS3 French, and I thought I did a pretty good job. That was until the server immediately answered me with English… 😅
Moving on to my next stop which was the Louvre, I decided to take the metro line there. To be honest, I was initially a bit nervous about taking the metro but it turned out to be just as straightforward as taking the underground tube in London. Directions were very easy to follow as long as you followed the signs and more importantly they have air con! (For those of you who don’t know, London underground has no air condition and can be as hot as a sauna in the summer…)
When I did arrive at the Louvre, I was taken aback by how long the queue was. (Okay, I did expect there would be a queue, but this took queuing to another level!) Looking around the place to buy a ticket, I ended up being told that tickets were only available online and all the tickets for entry today were sold out! 😭 (I think my lack of thorough research is showing…) However, I did have a great walk around outside. 😉 The temperature wasn’t too bad and it was very easy to duck back into the mall shall it get too hot. 😅
Ready for breakfast!
For lunch today, I decided to visit another restaurant that my friend recommended, called Le Comptoir de La Gastronomie. The restaurant appeared to be very well known and popular in Paris, especially their foie gras dishes. As a fan of foie gras, this place was one not to be missed by me.
Sea Bream Ceviche with LimePan-Seared Foie Gras with Gingerbread and Mixed Leaf Salad
As the reviews suggested, I was not disappointed! 😋 The ceviche was very refreshing with the lime and was very appetising. The foie gras though was absolute the star of the show as it was cooked perfectly and accompanied very well with the lightness of the salad. I was pleasantly surprised by the gingerbread as it actually worked rather well with the rest of the dish. 😊 After lunch, I took a stroll around a shopping mall nearby (to walk off the calories lol) and went back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading out again for the evening.
Arc de Triomphe
After a brief visit to the famous arc, I decided my main activity tonight was to visit the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t much of a long walk from there, and I was very much looking forward to seeing the whole view of Paris from the tower. I went for the cheapest ticket which required me to take the stairs up rather than using the lift.
Here we go!Taking the stairs up…How long do I still need to walk…? 😭😨🏃♂️There are a restaurant and some shops on the first floor. I was going to eat at the restaurant when I came down, but it was closed by then… 😕
Not going to lie, my legs were absolutely shaking as I walked up to the first floor. 😖 The gusts of wind blowing against me did not help one bit at all. (I was constantly worried that I would end up dropping my phone 😰…) I was sweating so much (mainly from nerves) that I needed to take a seat down on the first floor before continuing…
I didn’t know if it was because I got some practices or I was just suddenly filled with adrenaline, but the walk to the second floor felt a lot easier. And if you were able to conquer this fear of height like me, the views from there were absolutely breathtaking! 😮❤️❤️ (I took some videos too, you can see those from my Instagram!)
I was starving by the time I got back to the hotel though, so ended up eating a cheese-and-ham toastie (though a very subpar one… 😂) at the bar at 1am! And honestly, it felt nice to be on the ground again! 😂