Paris

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My first trip to Paris


I left London on Tuesday 1st July. This day marked a month that I had been away from home travelling. So it seemed fitting that I after a month I should embark on my next adventure of exploring a new country, a country where I don't speak the language. I departed London at 7pm on a Eurostar train. I was so shocked when passing through security that they barely looked at my British passport and let me though. It was so different from security back in Aus where they are so thorough and safety conscious. The train ride was quick and painless, arriving at the Gare de Nord station in Paris in 3hrs. The only strange thing on the journey was that the train was moving so fast my ears could not keep up and kept blocking so I had to yawn or chew to stop it from blocking. Before leaving London I had difficulty finding a place to print my papers for my Paris journey and after printing my tickets I forgot to print a map of how to arrive at my hostel from the Gare de Nord station. To make matters worse my international phone was not working so I could not access google maps. I knew the hostel was only 250m away from the station but of course I walked in every wrong direction first before finally arriving at The Smart Place hostel, looking like a tired turtle with my travel pack. In Australia a good friend of mine Cathie had warned me to only stay in a hostel that provides safety boxes or lockers so I had purposely booked somewhere online that stated 'free safety boxes to collect from reception'. However when I checked in they said the boxes and lockers were to be paid for and were located downstairs near reception not in the rooms. So no matter how organised or safe you try to be sometimes it does not work out. I was sharing a room with four other girls and I just had to hope that no one stole anything. 



Wednesday 2nd 
My hostel was located in Montmartre. A hill in the 18th district that lead’s up to the beautiful Sacre Coeur. Montmartre is famous for being an arts hub for artists like Dali, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van-Gogh, Matisse, Renoir and Degas. And it is of course known for its nightlife, including the famous Moulin Rouge. I had no real plan for the day other then to walk around and loose myself in the streets. I was somewhat disappointed to find that most of the streets were incredibly "touristy" filled with shop after shop of tacky T-Shirts, key rings and useless overpriced junk. However the architecture of all the old buildings is what I loved! Growing up in Canberra surrounded by houses of hideous 60-70's yellow brick and mission brown and buildings of ugly concrete, it was a nice change to see so many beautiful apartments. I walked up the top of the hill to the Sacre Coeur. This was by far the most beautiful building I have ever seen. Set amongst green lawns the enormous domed basilica and stark white bricks shown spectacularly in the summer sunlight. Since it is a church and was in ceremony there was strictly no photography allowed inside the building. The inside was so ornate, with the domed ceiling covered by a giant mosaic of Jesus, brightly coloured glass windows, so many statues and paintings depicting Christ and the biblical stories and all the glowing candles people had lit for prayer.

After viewing the chapel I went outside to the side of the building to visit the crypt. It was dark, quiet and very cold inside, providing people with much needed relief from the heat of the day. The crypt was set out in a circle surrounded by many open sectioned rooms dedicated to saints crypts, statues and artifacts. If felt strange to pay a few Euros to come visit, as it was so private. After looking around the crypt I decided to walk the 300steps to the top of the dome. Walking up a tiny spiral staircase on uneven warn in stones I counted each step to make sure there were exactly 300. Arriving at the top I was blown away with the view! I could see all the landmarks in Paris and was able to get a feel for where everything was situated. The city looked so beautiful and was nicely not over built with modern new buildings like most cities, therefor keeping it's charm. 

After leaving the Sacre Coeur I walked along the streets finding my way to the artists/restaurant area. There were about 30 or so painters and sketchers in the street with their easels trying to sell their art and offering to draw/paint your portrait for pricey sums of €80, a price that I could not justify spending. I kept walking until I came across the Espace Dali, a intimate museum dedicated to works of Salvador Dali, the Surrealist artist. I paid for an audio tour and enjoyed seeing the work accompanied with great information about the works. The guy was obviously a little crazy and his work was just incredible. There was a great mix of his art, ranging from his famous melting watch sculptures, prints, sketches, paintings, furniture and glass work. 



Next I hit the streets again walking to find the Moulin Rouge. When I was younger I had always dreamt of dancing at the Moulin Rouge as a cancan dancer. However the dream was lost when I realised my stumpy legs would never grow to be the height needed to become a beautiful showgirl. So I moved on towards contemporary dance. Walking along the street I walked past sex shop after sex shop and so many brothels and bars. It was not the sparkly image I had envisaged for the famous red windmill. Once I spotted it I attempted my first vacation selfie and failed miserably. Luckily a kind Egyptian man called Oshman took my photo for me. He then asked where I was from and if I wanted a tour around Montmartre. He took me for a nice cold glass of coke to chat before we set off again in the hot sun. Oshman had been living in Paris for 5years moving after his brother found him work. He had a terrible car accident two years ago that left him with a broken back, in hospital for a year, told he would never walk again, and during this time his wife left him. To every ones surprise and by his own determination he learnt how to walk again. Now he likes to walk for hours on his days off to tire him out so he can sleep without pain and restlessness. I think this was why he was so keen to walk me around the area and act as tour guide, that and to improve his English. It was nice to hear more about the area and to be taken to streets that were not so touristy. He told me how different Paris was to Egypt. How places like Montmartres sex district were forbidden in Egypt. It made me wonder if he visited the area and if I was being taken around by a sex maniac. So I asked him and he said no, that the idea of visiting a place like this was not appealing, and answered why he would visit here when in Egypt he is entitled to four wives. Good point. He took me to a small cafe for a burger and fries (something I never normally eat) and then to a tiny bar tucked away amongst the others. It was so old and was more a hole in the wall with a bar placed in the middle. There was a big friendly black woman behind the bar and a younger girl who was probably the bars late night entertainment when the red lights where turned on in the back room. Neither woman spoke any English but they wanted to know lots about me and were very friendly. It was not exactly a swish place to visit but somewhere different and crazy. After a drink I said goodbye to Oshman and walked myself back to my hostel, making sure to stay away from the 'bad side' of town that Oshman had warned me about and found my way safely back to the hostel.

Thurday 3^rd
Travelling alone it seems the thing I get most nervous about is public transport. It all seems very daunting and I get worried I will miss my stop or get lost. However each time I set off and take the transport I realize how silly I am for feeling nervous because it is much the same to transport in Aus, and that I am a big girl and capable of working out public transport. I took the metro to the Louvre to spend the day exploring the museum. The building was so impressive let alone the artwork. The beautiful mix of old v. new with the glass pyramid surrounded my the old fortress/palace of the building. It was nice to get in free of charge with my British passport and only have to pay €5 after the student youth discount for the audio tour. Like everyone I attempted to walk around following some order of the building but it was just so huge that I got lost and just started following where ever took my interest. It took me 9hrs to walk through the entire building! Surrounded by so much art that it was at times overwhelming. There were huge crowds to see the Leonardo Da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa. Everyone fighting to get to the front of the line to take their selfie photos. I took a photo of everyone taking a photo of them selves. In such a craze to see the ‘famous’ work everyone would scramble over each other, take their photo and then leave, totally by passing Da Vinci’s other great works. Stupid sheep. I really enjoyed seeing all the Roman sculptures including the Venus de Milo. Seeing her beautiful voluptuous figure, the figure of divine beauty it’s easy to see how skinny crazed we have become lately. Everywhere in the museum spanning hundreds of years the woman pictured were all curvy, soft and fleshy. There were no thigh gaps or sunken chests or protruding collarbones. I couldn’t help feeling more at home with these women. Their thighs were strong and their quadriceps pronounced, something I have learnt to see in myself as unappealing and after trying on every style and brand of jeans to be made to think that my shape is uncommon and irregular. But looking at these women it was nice to see my shape celebrated. However if I did see one more exposed breast for no apparent reason I swear to god I was going to scream. The worst breast painting was the mother squirting her breast milk towards her child. By the time I had walked through the entire Louvre my feet were throbbing. I felt like going home to the hotel for a rest but I instead decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, along the Seine. I walked through the beautiful gardens and along the waterside. It took me around 45minutes until I was standing under the Eiffel Tower.

Being summertime the queues were an absolute nightmare but I had walked too far to turn back. I queued to buy a ticket to the 2^nd level, queued to get up to the 2^nd level, queued to by a ticket to the top, queued to get to the top and then of course queued to descend. All in all it took about 3.5 hrs! Luckily I met some great American’s who were on vacation and were funny and kept me entertained with their stories. People seem to be very friendly towards me because I am travelling alone, so they accept me quickly into their groups. It’s nice and a real positive for travelling alone. I meet people I never normal would if I was travelling with a group or other person. When I got to the top it was so beautiful. Looking down on Paris and the Seine was spectacular, well worth the wait. It was getting late so I visited a night market on the side of the river selling all sorts of food and goods. I ate my seafood paella overlooking the sun setting on the Seine. To get home I lashed out and spent some money on a small richsaw, cycled by a nice Bulgarian with excellent English having lived in the UK for years. As the sun set and the city lights came up he drove me along different streets and told me information about different sites and landmarks. It really was money well spent and opened my eyes to what a beautiful city Paris really is. He dropped me off at Sait-Michel to explore the area before catching the Metro back to my hostel. It was a spectacular day.

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