On Monday morning me and Rhianna met at Bourges station and set off for Paris together! We'd booked into a hostel near Gare du Nord for two nights with Chloe, who we met there. I was slightly apprehensive about the hostel as it was such a good price compared to others, and I was in a different 10 bed dorm to the others. However, it was actually really modern and, most importantly, clean, and amazingly despite the dorm being fully occupied both nights not one person snored or arrived back noisily in the middle of the night. The only downside was that when I nipped out to use a cashpoint nearby someone reached their hand out while I was using it, presumably to try and take the money. Luckily though they just walked off quickly after I hit their hand away as there were loads of people around, still it wasn't a great start and it made me heart beat at about 1000 times a minute for the next few minutes as I always get paranoid using cashpoints in cities.
After we'd checked in and dropped our bags off at the hostel we went into the centre to sight-see, and get the essential eiffel tower photos. We went to an extortionately expensive cafe nearby and bought the cheapest thing on the menu- wine! To save money we had a picnic dinner in front of the eiffel tower and waited for it to light up, then eventually headed back to the hostel. On Tuesday we went to Sacre-Coeur, which was incredibly busy but still very beautiful and there was an amazing view of the city from the top of the hill. On the steps I ran into someone from one of my history classes which is remarkable really when you consider the size of Paris, although having said that I think approximately half of the Erasmus students descended on Paris this week so I suppose I was bound to run into someone at some point! After wandering around the Montmartre area and having lunch in Starbucks (I know it's bad, but we couldn't resist!), we went to the Moulin Rouge and Champs Elysées and then got the tube to the centre and walked from the Arc de Triomphe and through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Louvre which was lit up nicely in the evening. I'm not entirely sure of the chronology but it rained a bit at some point in the afternoon so we stopped in a cafe which had amazing desserts. We headed back fairly early Tuesday evening as the others were going to Disneyland the next day and needed a good night's sleep. We had an early dinner at the bar/restaurant below the hostel, but some how still managed to consume two bottles of white wine and some cocktails!
On Wednesday we had an early breakfast at the hostel before the others set off for Disneyland and I set off on my touristy day. My plan had been to go to the Musée D'Orsay but when I got there the queue was already really long. I contemplated it a bit but slightly hesitantly decided to leave it for now, I heard some french girls in the queue say that it was never normally this busy this early so I decided I'll come back when it's not half term and hopefully it will be a bit less busy. Luckily it's pretty central anyway so I made my way back through Jardin des Tuileries and walked along the Seine to Notre-Dame, stopping at a lovely church on the way that I've annoyingly now forgotten the name of, and can't find on the map! I then walked up to Sainte-Chapelle with the intention of queuing up for it as I loved it so much when we were in Paris before for Mum's birthday. However I got sidetracked as I noticed that there was an art exhibition at the neighbouring Conciergerie and decided to go there as I could walk straight in and it is also part of the scheme which allows 18-25 year old EU citizens in for free. The theme of the exhibition was imprisonment and it was amazing, there were so many different ideas and pieces and it was probably one of, if not my favourite exhibition I've ever been to see. As well as the sculptures and images, and the projection film about mental illness and delusions, there were incredibly life-like models of sleeping elderly men in wheel chairs which moved of their own accord through the visitors. I also went to the museum there which explains the Conciergerie's past role as a prison and a holding place for prisoners awaiting execution. It was interesting to refresh my memory on the french revolution, although the whole experience was a little creepy. There's also a mini chapel there which was converted from the cell where Marie Antoinette was held.
After that I got back on the metro (which I can't stop accidentally referring to as the tube) and went to Père Lachaise cemetery, which is enormous and the site of lots of famous people's graves. I bought a little map of the cemetery (which seems to be the size of a small village!), and went to see Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf's graves, among others. Oscar Wilde's was pretty much exactly as I'd imagined, there was a group of American tourists taking their picture next to it and reciting Oscar Wilde quotes and laughing- I thought that was kind of perfect. Overall I found it a slightly strange experience though, as it's still an operating cemetry with recent gravestones and people there clearing leaves and leaving flowers for relatives, but at the same time there are quite a few tourists with maps. There also seemed to be a funeral going on at one end, there were lots of (very expensive) cars and people dressed in black. Jim Morrison's grave had attracted a bit of a crowd/queue which I think it quite impressive really. After I'd finished walking round, and finally giving up on finding Apollinaire's stone which I couldn't seem to locate, I suddenly realised I was starving and went to buy a snack, a picture for my room, and a few post cards. I had a final wander around and then I got the metro back to the hostel to pick up my things, which I'd left in the lockers there. It was a bit of a trek from the hostel to Gare Austerlitz so I accidentally ended up leaving way too much time and sitting around in the station for longer than I needed to. At least I wasn't late though, and I managed to get a proper meal and read some of my book (The Casual Vacancy). I attempted to queue up at the ticket desk and exchange my ticket for one for the train before but the queue took 30 WHOLE MINUTES so by the time I was almost at the front the train I wanted to try and get had left anyway. The queue was that exceptionally long due to ongoing staff strikes- it is France after all - but despite my lovely stay in Paris it was a reminder of why I don't want to live in France long term. I've got used to the supermarket queues/opening hours and levels of inefficiency and bureaucracy in general, but this was a new low! I wasn't actually that annoyed though, I mostly stayed in the queue out of amusement, I wanted to see how ridiculously long it would take, and I still had my original train. I took an indirect route home (Paris to Orleans-Orleans to Tours) to make it a cheaper journey, but I quite enjoy long train journeys anyway so it was fine and it gave me a chance to read a bit more.
All in all it's been a great, slightly last minute trip, and I can't wait to go back! (to Paris, and to Bourges if they'll have me)
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