So as I was writing my post about Nimes, we somehow realized that we were on the wrong train. From Nimes, we were supposed to go to Lyon, and then from Lyon go to Grenoble. Well, on platform A there was a train that came in at around 17:53 that said Paris De Lyon that we figured was our train because hey! we don't speak French, it said 'Lyon' and it was around 17:58, which was the time of our train. Little did we know that our actual train, which was actually at 17:58, was just Lyon. That went straight to Lyon. Paris De Lyon is actually the name of the station in Paris, so we just ended up going straight to Paris, skipping our 6th city. When we got to Paris, all the trains to Grenoble the rest of the night were sold out. Not funny at the time, but definitely funny looking back on the situation. We found a last minute hostel on hostelworld that was the cheapest on the site, and started our trek on the metro towards our hostel. When we got off at our stop, we were legit in the ghetto of Paris. Now, I've walked through the streets of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn at ungodly hours of the night/morning and I've NEVER been more scared for my life ever. We arrive at our 'hostel'..if you can call it that. More like an old hospital turned hostel. Clean, but creepy. We didn't even feel comfortable leaving our hostel because of the area so our first night in Paris, we stayed in our hostel. Yasin and I decided to just stay in Paris but Ryan decided he was going to head to Grenoble the next morning.
When we awoke Yasin and I had a mission: to find the Paris Longchamp store. I wanted to buy the new limited edition white bag with the stitched flowers on it. The euro is weaker than the pound, there's no import tax, and the bag would say 'Made in Paris' as opposed to 'Made in China'. Those were all my justifications for wanting to buy the bag. I had google mapped the store and we arrived at the Metrostation but all we saw was this giant temple thing. We asked all the locals where the store was but no one seemed to know! We spent the entire morning on a wild goose chase for the store until we realized it was almost 1:00 and we had wanted to do a free walking tour. At one point, we turned around and we legit BUMPED into the Eiffel Tower. Now, I had always thought that the Eiffel Tower was just a very cliche landmark and I didn't think that I was going to like it, but my heart literally pounded in my chest when I saw it. It was so large and beautiful, I couldn't help but fall in love with it.
After excusing ourselves from the Eiffel Tower, we went to our walking tour. The tour was given by graduate students and everyone on the tour was young because they only advertised in youth hostels. Our tour guide Brian was out of control awesome; he was so knowledgeable about the Persians and the city of Paris. We went to all of the major Paris-y things and then some. At one point he made a point that saying the French were bad at wars, revolutions, government, diplomatic relations...and all they could do was party. Hence, the world fair. Hence, the Eiffel Tower. When we got to the Louve, we realized that it was also fashion week in Paris, so this was the second fashion week I had been to. Although we may have gotten mini history lessons at all of the buildings, each one ended with a lookout for GaGa.We saw models posing throughout the city and we tried to get in the background of their pictures. He taught us the history behind high heels and corsets (stupid cream sauce) and how a nazi during the second world war was actually the one who saved Paris. At the end of the tour Brian told us about their tour company that gave a pub crawl every night. Then he helped point us in the right direction of Longchamp.
We finally got to Longchamp, and it was better than we expected. It was a beautiful old building right in the middle of the shopping district of Paris where coffee is about 8Euro. Oh, did I mention that it was on the OTHER side of that temple that we ended up that first time we tired to get to it that morning? So all we would have had to do was walk around the temple and we would have been there, but whatever. We walk in and we're obviously not decked out in Chanel so we don't get a second glance. As soon as I asked them to get me a new bag of the limited edition one I wanted, I suddenly had a lady waiting on Yasin and I's need. Yasin also bought a bag and we walked out, feeling so accomplished.
We went back to our hostel and met up with Ryan, who apparently never ended up in Grenoble (all the trains were sold out that day too! He went to some French coastal town for the day). Yasin and I decided we were going to do the pub crawl throughout the city...you go to 3 pubs and end up at a club where the entrance fee is 20 euro, but with the pub crawl you don't pay entrance to any of the places and there are drink specials at all of them. We get to the Moulin Rouge and there ended up being 70 people that showed up that night for the pub crawl. Some of the crowd included a group of girls that called themselves the 'Jersey Sluts' (I can't make this up...our tour guide actually had to yell at them and told them that if they were going to dress that slutty that he couldn't promise their safety). As we start pub hopping Yasin and I realized we had barely eaten all day, and after barely eaten all week from food poisoning, we were STARVING. On the walk to one of the pubs we walked past a kebab place, ditched the pub crawl, and got falafel kebabs. Did I have one drink on the pub crawl? No. Did I meet one French person? No. I met a cool Austrailian guy named Andy who was basically doing a world tour by himself, so I guess that was kind of cool. However, he ended up getting wooed by one of the Jersey Whores so after stealing a shot glass from one of the pubs, we got some chocolate and went back to our hostel to rest up for our Eurostar back to London early in the morn. So, you know what Paris? You fail at partying too...the Worlds Fair doesn't even continue today. All in all though, the city is beautiful and full of so much history, I was definitely upset I was there for such a short amount of time. The trip itself was such a tease; being in these incredible cities for only a day. Despite my food poisoning, it was so interesting to see the clashing cultures and the rich history. It just would have been nice to eat more, considering I love to eat.
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