Lost In Paris

Dear friends,

With a couple days removed from my trip to Paris, it’s time for me to reflect on the trip overall. Did I enjoy it? Did I feel like I wasted my time? Do I feel like I could have done more? Would I have enjoyed it if I went alone? Well I am going to answer all these questions and more.

One of the things I wish I had more experience of was the use of French. Even though I did it at school, 20 years ago! I took some lessons on Duolingo to help me learn some phrases, but just like when I went to Seoul, it didn't come in useful. Not because everyone spoke English, but when it came to me having to speak it I lost it all. I forgot all the basics. I would completely blank on what I was meant to say. I would like to say that was just in the first day, but it just kept on happening. I knew the phrase to say, I am English and I don't speak a lot of french, and do you speak english? These were of no actual use. However, it didn’t hinder my experience. It just made me realise I don't know anything about the language. What didn't help were people talking to me as if I knew what they were staying.

For the local experience, I got talked too much by the locals. Which was a nice feeling as people didn't really think of me as a foreigner. They just thought i was one of them. That might have to do with there being an abundance of black people in Paris, so I just fit right in. Which was nice for a change, as I didn't really feel like I was a spectacle compared to some other places I have been. It was weird people spoke to me more, compared to The Ex, as he spoke better french than i did. I don't know if it all came down to how we looked. I don't know.

As for the city of Paris, a lot of the time I didn't feel like I was in a different country. It all felt familiar. I don't know why, nor do I say that as a bad thing. I just felt like I knew where I was going, and what I was doing. It wasn't overwhelming to me. The only time I really felt like I was somewhere else was when people came up and spoke to me. I just felt comfortable, and in my limited travel experience that can only be a good thing. I just felt like I could live there if need be. That’s saying something.

Using the metro felt so easy to use. Just like London and Seoul it was so simple to follow. I do like the way that some lines have lights to let you know where you are going. Then go out when you reach that station, it really did help with not getting lost. As the voice over speaks so fast and when spoken doesn't sound like it is written. I do also enjoy the flat rate system used for it. As in the end we only ended up using 8 tickets to get around. Which works out to about two uses a day. While we mainly just used the metro, it was a nice experience to experience the Paris buses.

Let's talk about something more fun, our activities. I genuinely enjoyed all that we did with our trip. If we had gone for a full week we could have done more, we could have gone to every single attraction. Which would have been fun, but then I think it would make me feel like I would have no need to go back. When in truth because we didn't go into the Louvre that's reason enough to go back. As well as maybe going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe next time it might just be a day stop over on my way to Disneyland, who knows.

As for food, in our entire trip we didn't have any french food. Which I guess wasn't exactly a choice, but it’s what happend. I’m glad we only went to chains as a bare minimum. What else we didn't do was go to any bakeries and sample the luxurious treats. I guess that’s kind of hard to do when the one place I really wanted to go had a queue going down the street. We had both agreed by the end of our trip we hadn't really made any wrong choices where we decided to eat. Which I think is a good thing. Just a shame all the places I bookmarked in the travel guide we never used. One negative about the food in Paris was Tea. I know they are not big tea drinkers, but no matter where we went, we couldn’t get a decent cup of tea. Next time, I’d take a few tea bags in my luggage and just ask for hot water and milk.

In terms of spending, things were okay. As I've mentioned some things were expensive, for what they were. Like paying 9.50€ for a large glass of Sprite. While getting a basic meal at McDonalds was expensive. One thing I didn't do was constantly think of things in pounds. I just took everything as its value. Which is a great maybe as it was a very close to 1:1 price. As for my travel money I decided to take 400€, an average of 100 a day, with some extra for shopping and dinner on Sunday. I did happen to come back with 99€. Which even surprised me, but I could have gone a little more wild with my spending. Maybe I would have had less if I actually ate properly for the 3 days we were there.

As for going with someone, it allowed me to have someone to do things with, so I didn't feel like I was alone. Which is a nice feeling when you’re in a strange new city. Which maybe made me feel comfortable. However, I do know if I were to have gone by myself, would I have done all the same things I did? I don't know. I’d like to think I would have done all the same activities, maybe just one a day, and then go around town. However, there wasn’t at any point I felt like I would like to do something alone. Maybe I was a little bit more aggressive in what we did, but you know that's me. I have an idea and I'm not afraid to say it.

Overall I was extremely happy with my holiday. Which is great for me to say, as so much just worked out. Compared to my last out of country holiday where so many things went wrong at the end, this time a lot of things just went so smoothly. Would there be anything I would do differently? Yes, just a few things. I’d make sure we had breakfast everyday. I would have done one of the events on Monday on another day. Other than that I don't think there is anything I would change.

I am not going to lie to myself and you, I really enjoyed my trip. No matter the reason why I went, I'm just glad I got to go. Even though I was unsure about where I wanted to go, I think choosing Paris wasn't a bad idea. When we got there and when we were going around town, I never felt anything but happy. I knew I was constantly smiling, which if you know is strange for me. I enjoyed myself and I'm genuinely happy about my experience. It's not sad to admit this is the happiest I've been all year. I just hope the next time I use my passport it’s such a pleasant experience.

I am going to give this trip to Paris an 8/10. It’s not going to be my last trip to Paris, and if you're thinking about going I would highly recommend it.

Xo FabEs