Paris, France
5 days and nights in a beautiful city
I’ll never forget how my week in Paris came to be. I had been help exchanging my way around Europe with my new friend Rachel. We planned to go to Switzerland for another helpx, but scheduling was mixed up and we found ourselves with one more night in Venice and no destination or place to stay in 24 hours. I still remember looking at her and saying that this wasn’t sad, it was awesome. We have 6 days to spend anywhere we want! So where do you want to go? 30 minutes later we had flights and hotels booked for Paris in the morning.
That being said, when you book Ryanair, you should check when and where the flight goes. This “Paris” airport was about 90 minutes north of Paris, and since the flight arrived at about 11pm local time we were left waiting a bit for a shuttle to the city center. We also found two Canadian girls who were just out of high school and who arrived with no real plan. They were going to sleep in the airport, so we invited them with us and told them that we had a hotel room that was pretty cheap. If they couldn’t book their own room there they could at least sleep on the floor of ours so they were safe.
When we arrived around 12:45am, the metro was no longer running. So the four of us piled into a taxi and set off for the hotel. Rachel was from rural Oklahoma and had never taken a taxi before and assumed they were all over $100. I think they total came to about $6 each when we split it 4 ways.
The Best of Paris
As cliche as it may seem, the best part of Paris is the lawn in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. There are always people picnicking, playing, and just generally being happy. It is a wonderful place to spend the afternoon as long as you can resist the opportunity to buy keychains and homemade bracelets from borderline homeless people.
Another favorite of mine was the Centre Pompidou. I love modern art and this place was the best I’ve ever been. The building itself is a masterpiece. I would highly recommend visiting even if you aren’t interested because of the walk through installations they have. It is truly a great experience.
We stayed at Mary’s Hotel in the 11th arr. It was nothing spectacular, but they let me sit in the lobby and use the wifi to watch the Celtics playoff game at 3am so they are a-ok in my book. If you need a budget place, I’d recommend it. It was really convenient to the metro as well and had a nice market out in front of it on the weekend.
I wrote on facebook about staying up and watching the Celtics and one of my friends replied that they would be in Paris tomorrow, so we spent the day sightseeing. Me, Rachel, Cris, and Lindsey. It was great to have a taste of back home after a few months on the road.
