Obiagu in Paris
Doesn’t sound as sweet as Emily in Paris but you’d have to bear with me. I know you’d expect a picture of the Eiffel Tower but to be honest, this place was my favourite place during the trip and I couldn’t help but use it as the cover image.
Hoi my friend!
It's a beautiful Friday morning and while everyone was probably in bed, cuddled up and counting on a peaceful weekend, I and some of my colleagues from work thought to drive to Paris from Amsterdam.
We’ll get into the details in this postcard but first, I hope you’ve been well. I haven’t sent any postcards because I was just being Cynthia – always biting more than I can chew. But I thought I had to send this one and that’s why for the first time I am writing on my mobile phone – better done than perfect.
Why Paris???
So, I’ve heard lots of weird stuff about Paris and to be honest, never had it on my list of places I wanted to go to. If I was ever gonna go there, it had to be peer pressure. And in this case, it is.
We have some colleagues visiting the Amsterdam office from India and we thought it’d be nice to travel to a neighbouring country to work for a day and that’s how the idea of. ‘A day of work in Paris.’
To be honest, I had to join the trip, my colleagues are fun people to be with. We’d gone to a couple of places within the Netherlands like Keukonhof and Maastricht (which till today, two of my colleagues keep arguing if Maastricht is the oldest city in the Netherlands or not). Anyway, I just knew I couldn’t miss this trip. It was gonna be stressful but worth it (I hoped).
What’s the plan?
We had huge help from our managers and product owners to plan the trip. We were gonna leave Amsterdam at 3 am, Friday morning and arrive in Paris at 9 am or thereabout. On arrival, we’ll go to a brunch place to refuel ourselves before heading to the co-working space (where we are supposed to work. But y’all know the truth in that, no?)
We’d work till 2 pm then head out for lunch and go for a tour or walk and dinner later at 7 pm. After dinner, we’d go to the Eiffel Tower to watch the lights show.
We’d go to the hotel to rest, get back at it the next Saturday and return at noon.
It’s Saturday morning, 20th of April, 2024. I am writing this while sitting in my hotel room and thinking about yesterday. The day just went by fast.
My room was on the fifth floor but I couldn’t help but take the stairs every time. It was mostly my conscious effort to move as much as possible but also because the stairs looked pretty.
So, yesterday, was fun. Way too much fun than my average fun brain can carry. So, on arrival, we went to the brunch place but the queue threw me off. It was 4 degrees and people queued up to eat breakfast or pick up and go. It’s not just the movies — people stood in a queue to buy croissants and Pain au chocolate.
We went to the co-working space and started with work and other teammates joined us.
This space reminded me of one of my dreams — to own a cafe that also hosts a creative space for young people to come in and just get their hands dirty. It’ll probably still happen but yeah.
After a couple of minutes, we decided to go again and check the brunch place and decided to just pick things up and go back to the coworking space. I grabbed two croissants and a hot chocolate.
We got back and I just couldn’t work and Omo! I closed my laptop and put my head down to rest. I couldn’t sleep because of the noise and conversations but just having my eyes closed did a lot of good for my head.
At 2 pm, we left the coworking space to our hotel. By car, it was a 20mins ride and by walking it was 24mins, we just walked to the hotel. When we arrived, we checked in, and everyone took some time to freshen up and take a power nap because we literally walking zombies.
Classic me couldn’t sleep because if I did, I would struggle to sleep at night. So, I took a walk outside to grab some food. I found a chill restaurant and spent some time with a couple of other colleagues.
At 5 pm, we stepped out for a walk. After a long aimless walk, which included seeing some popular landmarks like the Louvre, Fontaines de la Concorde, and the Luxor Obelisk, it was time to feast.
We decided it was time for dinner. We booked a place ahead of time and had a yummy meal.
Yes, I over-ate. But yeah, it was super tasty and I couldn’t stop eating. Calorie deficit had nothing on me. After dinner, we stepped out to see the Eiffel Tower lights show and walked the rest of the evening.
We arrived at our hotel at about midnight and I just took a shower, massaged my feet, and went to bed. The next day, we went pastry hunting. We found a spot not far away from our hotel and I had Roule pistache chocolat for breakfast and people, it was super tasty!
After breakfast, we headed out for another long walk. We visited MonteMatre which was a lovely place that I promised to go back to sometime with David.
Montmartre was on a mountain with tiny streets and beautiful views, kiosks, shops, and oh my, I just wanted to stay all day but we didn’t have all day, so we spent some time getting macarons, cookies, and ice cream.
We took the metro station back to the car and it was time to drive back to Amsterdam. We set out on the journey at about 5 pm by car and arrived in Amsterdam around midnight. It took some extra time because we had to stop and charge the car two times.
On a final note…
I loved travelling to Paris with my colleagues. It was a fun ride, to and fro and the conversations, jokes, and teasers. It felt great to travel by road for six hours without having police checks or worrying about bad roads and all like I would back home (Nigeria).
Secondly, I think Paris has a good soul. Yes, some places stink and there might be actual cases of racism as I have read from different black travellers in the past. But in all, it was a good experience.
I didn’t plan to travel this year because I wanted to rest a lot more and focus on my job and graduating from school. But as it happens, the universe has other plans.
I look forward to what the rest of the year has in store for me. And I can’t wait to share them with you. Till I write to you again, Doei!
Obiagu.
