A short excerpt from Jan. 4, 2014 while on the train to Paris, “It’s Saturday 9am. I’ve only slept a little over 2 hours at the moment. It seems that the taste of beer hasn’t completely left my stomach yet. Neither my stomach nor my head seem to be friends with me right now. I am dehydrated. Instead of sleeping and waking up early to catch the 6:18am train to Paris, my friends and I decided it would be better off to party our asses off. We initially tried Ministry of Sound at first. Yes the legend, the place where all EDM was created and played and the record label that produces many many super DJs. To our disappointment, the place was closed. It was cause Christmas and New Year apparently was an extended holiday in London, more like a 2 week vacation than a 2 day vacation. No problem. This time we decided to check out Funky Buddha. It was a risk – we were wearing tourist clothes; well I was. White pants with stain. A fur jacket which was layered with another twin jacket, a mullet, and white shoes, the killer of going to a classy club. Anyway we tried going in and boom there we are, we managed to get into the ‘Sugar’ (old HK club) of London. BURP. There’s another weird taste lingering in my mouth. That’s the taste of the salted roast beef we had walking back to (my friend’s) place pretty much passing Brick Lane and all the sketchy places there was but that salty roast beef was amazingly good.”
Arriving in Paris, I clearly wasn’t in my best state. Neither did I have any time to recover as I had a short two day weekend before my trip back to London. So within this short span, I was determined to visit all the touristy locations in Paris. This included little sleep and well organized planning.
Accommodation: AIJ Paris. Address: 10 rue Trousseau, Paris, Île-de-France, 75011, France. Telephone #: 33147006200. E-mail: [email protected]. I stayed in a 2 bed dorm – Mixed (shared bathroom). Stayed in the top bunk head. Not the best of accommodations, but one of the cheapest. Well, can’t expect too much from European accommodations at budget costs.
Helpful tips:
Musee d’Orsay offers free entry on the first Sunday of each month. The Louvre offers free entry for people under 26 year round.
Here are a few most basic language tips:
Bonjour – Hello
Merci – Thank you
L’addition s’il vous plaît – Bill please.
Au Revoir – Good Bye
Je t’aime – I love you. (for you lucky ones who find someone to fall in love there)
Excusez-moi – Excuse Me.
Je ne sais pas le français – I don’t know French.
Resources: http://en.parisinfo.com/
100 Things To Do in France by Your RV Lifestyle: https://www.your-rv-lifestyle.com/things-to-do-in-france/
To be frank, it’s been more than a year since this trip. I have pictures, and I’ll do my best to describe what they are, but I may not be able to recall the entire experience as vividly as I want to. But I’ll do my best.
Having just arrived in Paris. Not the best weather, nope.
A well dressed chap.
The view of Paris.
Sacred Coeur
Also another magnificent view of Paris.
And another.
Concorde
The following images are from the famous museum, The Louvre.
The unromanticized portrait of Napoleone Bonaparte.
Do I even need a description? Although I fought with hordes of people to take this.
And that marks the end of the pictures from The Louvre.
Pyramide du Louvre.
A fountain in Jardin des Tuileries.
Really not the best weather when I went.
SEAGULLS.
This is the Abercrombie and Fitch store in Champs Elysees. If I owned a nightclub, I want an entrance like this.
And this is the people queuing for A&F. Incredible!
Laduree yums.
Arc de Triomphe.
Eiffel Tower – unlit.
Eiffel Tower – lit.
Tres bien!
Love Lock Bridge.
This was like around 2-3am.
Pantheon
Notice how all buildings in Paris are 5 stories high.
If I remember correctly, I specifically took this picture to remind myself that there was a lot of good fondue places on this street.
Anyway, maybe because I was in such a hurry or maybe I just had to endure a cold gloomy weather in Paris, but I think Paris is overrated and not as romantic as claimed. The trains and train stations were old and dirty (sort of like New York’s). Did I think the French people were rude to me? Actually, not at all. Would I go again? Probably, if I were to do a trip in other parts of France as well, I wouldn’t mind stopping by during a better season so that maybe I can have a better perspective of Paris.
How was your experience in Paris? Please share any thoughts or feedback in the Comments below!
*Originally published on May 28, 2015, last updated Nov. 14, 2022
