N**gers In Paris
Dear friends,
I’ve been traveling again. I have returned to a place I have been before, and that’s Paris. Which like most places I’ve gone, somewhere I thought I would visit, but not so soon. However, this time I travelled with Mon Mere (mum) and we did a late Christmas/Early Mother’s Day gift. Let me tell you about what happened this time around.
We were gone for 4 nights and five days. I had planned on staying where I stayed before, as I knew where it was, and it was convenient. However, when it came to booking, I left it far too late. Which is the reason why we went for any extra night. As it was cheaper to spend a bit more, and get an extra night. While also this time I was able to get a breakfast included, so that was a nice money saver in the long run.
The hotel we stayed at was Bella Hotel, a three star hotel in the 10th Arrondissements of Paris. Which was close to the station of Gare Du Nord. This place was not modern at all, which was a little gripe of mine. As I had to remind myself, it's just somewhere to sleep, it doesn't have to be fancy. As I did learn it had a nice location near a metro, and it was a line that took us practically where we wanted to go. Not only that, it was right by a canal, so not bad in the long run.
As what we did, we did the normal tourist things, as this was my mum's first time. I felt like she would enjoy a lot of the things one does in Paris. The only request my mum had was taking her to Notre Dame. Of course I had to oblige as it has now opened. Other than that I took her to all the viewing platforms of The Arc De Triomphe, and then of course she wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, which is where I almost killed her.
I had made it very clear that going up the tower was only going to be done by taking the stairs. A little detail that had slipped her mind. As this was my second time I was prepared for the walk, as I do a lot of cardio. My mum does not. This was a real test of her new hip. Even though she was almost coughing up a lung, and having a borderline asthma attack. We got there in the end. Then we appreciated the view of Paris.
For me, being able to go into Notre Dame was good. I must say the church is really doing well for itself. As well as admiring the building itself, it's crazy it has been up as long as it has. While also looking really beautiful inside, I would also call it a borderline museum because of the art on the wall. It made me want to build the Lego model even more, as well as take a walk around in Assassin’s Creed.
There were a lot of things that changed during this visit. First of all was confidence. As I had been there before I knew how a lot of things work, where certain things were. How to generally follow instructions. This might have been helped with the fact that I have been doing French for almost 2 years on Duolingo (RIP). Which allowed me to notice and understand a lot more worlds than I previously did. Not only that, being able to somewhat read labels and signs with the vocabulary I had.
This didn't happen when people spoke to me. As now I can totally understand when people say to me I speak too fast. I would only understand the end of what they were saying. My best phase became, “nous nous anglais’ “We are English ". When this happened people either spoke in English, or said they didn’t speak, but spoke slower, for me to get an idea of what they were saying. However, watching tv with the subtitles did allow me to get a general gist of what was going on, even if it was something I had seen before (Ducktails In French). Also, it was sad that only one show we watched had subtitles.
Now something i am well aware of in Paris is the amount of black people around. It was more evident to me, as it was something I was aware of. As lot of the service staff around us were black. Which is why when some in the hotel decided to get kind of rude towards my mum about where the sugar was. It was not a great experience.
I bring this up as I'm more conscious lately about where people of colour tend to be. Which is why it was more evident every morning at breakfast we were the only people of colour staying in our hotel. Which wasn’t odd, but it was something I noticed. Also, the amount of times people approached us, and just started talking to us as if we lived there, was like before a shock, but a welcome one. As I have always been, I have always been aware of where I go, and how the portion of coloured people is different to those who are not. This was just one of the first times I was really aware of where black people seemed to be.
Now that I am back home, I do miss a few things. Besides Paris being a lovely city, and somewhat different from London, it was a trip. I do miss just getting up and finding breakfast ready to go. As well coming back to find clean sheets and towels, but until I’m rich it just something i had to enjoy on holiday.
Not only that, this time around I managed to come back with a lot more money than I did previously. Which is down to a few decisions, but I wasn't trying to be conservative as I did last time. There are a few highlights that only appeal to me:
Having my name spelt correct and pronounced correctly at Starbucks
Meeting another Fabian at the Lego store!
Find manga on sale for €3 to read French.
Finding the beer I like
7up Mijito.
All in all this was a good trip. Would I go back, yes I would. There's still a lot of things I didn't get to do. Not only that, I still have a lot of tourist euros to collect [Collection of Euros]. iIt was a nice smooth journey, and everything went the way I expected. Now I can see why [people visit the same places time and time again. While also being a safe mode of travel for my mum, the bad traveler. Next time I use my passport it is time to go to another European country. Somewhere, where James and Lara have been perhaps (answers on a postcard).
Salut FabEs XO
