Paris

Paris blog

Paris was quite the adventure for Kelsey and I. We were very lost and confused Americans the first day. We tried to brush up on some French phrases because we thought it would be helpful. Once we got there though we realized French is much harder than it looks and no matter how many times we practiced we still said the phrases wrong. 
They have an underground train system similar to London. We were familiar with how to ride this so had no trouble at all finding our hotel. It was a very cute, very simple older hotel we stayed in right in a main area of town, Bastille. 
We learned pretty quickly the terms used regularly- from foods to simple phrases like closed or push/pull. Not all the French were friendly and welcoming, but almost everywhere we went they could speech English or at least bear with us as we attempted to ask them a question. We did a lot of observing to see how the culture worked there and what was appropriate and what wasn't.
There were a lot of tourist there from all over the place. It was easy to spot out the Americans  and other English speaking people. Most were just as confused as we were so that was always reassuring.
Every place we went took our breath away and made us speechless. The sites and historic locations are beyond massive, with intricate detail. Just mind-blowing. I think we took a hundred photos, if not more, at each location. 

Blow are some lists that Kelsey and I made from our whole trip...

French terms that were most useful:
Bonjour= hello
Au revoir= good bye
Pardon= sorry
Excusez-moi= excuse me
Merci= thank you
Parlez-vous anglais?= do you speak English? 
S'il vous plaît= please
Jamon= ham
Fromage= cheese
Les toilettes= toliet
Etc......

Trends:
High fashion, dressy attire
Long champ bags 
Roller blades
Mopeds/motorcycles
Smoking
Coffee breaks
Crêpes
Public Display of Affection
casual drinks- anytime of the day

Places we went:
Bastille (the area we stayed in)
The Eiffel Tower (we went all the way to the TOP! This is over 80 stories and more than 600 flights of stairs. Scared out of my mind. I almost cried so I wouldn't have to go.)
Musee de Louvre "The Louvre" ( this contained over 35,000 works of art. It would take one person 9 months to view every piece. So we just glanced thru parts of it seeing a Michael Anglo sculpture and the Mona Lisa)
Galeries Layafette (the capitals best known departments store with high-end fashion items)
Place de la Concord (an enormous square with a large tower on the opposite end of Arc de Triophe  along Avenue des Champs Élysées )
Walked down Avenue des Champs Élysées 
Arc de Triophe (surrounding this arc is surrounded by the worlds busiest intersection, with 12 streets forming at a round about)
Versailles-château and gardens
Montimartre-Basilique Du Sacré Cœur (known for it's best view of the city, minus the Eiffel Tower) 
Notre Dame (a massive Gothic Cathedral) 

Things we learned:
- if you sit outside, someone is going to be smoking next to you
- all of the machines are in French(which makes it hard to understand what you are getting into)
- no matter what time of day The Metro (the underground train) is going to be packed
- if you act confused, people will speak to you in English
- you stand out like a sore thumb as an American
- all English speaking people find each other- whether this is to take a picture, ask a question, or just to hear a familiar language
- read your tour book before considering crossing the world's busiest intersection with 12 streets forming at a round about. (good thing we pulled out the book, seconds before running across. Turns out there is an underground passage. We had no idea)
-always look up to find where you are going
- stores open late and close early
- there is not true time- stores hours are subjective, trains arrive anywhere between 5-15mins of when they say
-the hardest thing about shopping was not being able to buy something because it was too expensive, you didn't have enough room in your bag, or you knew if you bought one thing you would have to buy 3 more things to go with it...



Paris was definitely far out from my comfort zone! I ate things I would never eat, faced fears I will probably never get over, got around without knowing a word of French, and truly experienced the French culture. It was an exceptional trip!