Bonjour! Paris Day One

After months of preparation, unabashed bragging and never ending last-minute-shopping runs, the time finally came. I was off to Paris! I have been dreaming of the day ever since I can remember wanting to be a can-can girl wearing a beret and eating a baguette while singing Belle's 'Bonjour'. Since it was my maiden voyage to the City of Lights, and Love (non-applicable), I made sure I knew where I was going. Of course I didn't go at it alone. I was with three of my bestfriends; Carla, Danes and Becky. Luckily, all four of us wanted to see and go to the same places and do the same things so I made an itinerary tailored for the week. With a little help from the Paris Ex-Pat, the Girl's Guide to Paris, my housemate Virginie and my mother's trusty map, we were off across the channel and onto the Continent. 

I'm not going to bother talking about the mini roadtrip we took to Luton airport at 2am because that's just what it was. The flight went smoothly and it was on time. We flew with EasyJet, and while it was hardly the perfect way to kickstart my Gossip-Girl-Season-3/Funny-Face-Parisian adventure, it was the best thing my student budget can afford. It only took an hour or so, making it officially closer to me than Leeds. We landed at around 8am, grabbed a cab and set off to Saint-Denis Basilique, where our hotel was located. Mr. Joe Le Taxi (a.k.a Mehdi) was very nice and cheeky with an opening line of Ça va jolies filles? Since we weren't accomplished francophones, he was kind enough to speak to us in Frenglish while pointing out places to visit during the half an hour cab ride.

Arriving at Saint-Denis was an unexpected surprise, and not the good kind. Instead of impeccably dressed doormen wearing this Fall's line of Louis Vuitton hats, we were greeted by rude hotel clerks. Bonjour, indeed. In all fairness, we didn't really look into Saint-Denis Basilique prior to the trip and the reviews on Hotel Campanile were mostly mixed to good, so none of us wondered if it was all too good to be true. After all, we did pay a bargain for five days at a B&B including the flight, so there had to be a catch. Well, there was. We were in a French ghetto. Actually, ghetto seems pretty harsh, especially since nothing bad happened to us really. It was just a bit too urban than what I expected. And while there was nothing wrong with that, mostly I was bummed about not having a terraced window sill that overlooked something other than roadworks and a drilled sewage canal. The staff at the hotel didn't help the situation either, since both the receptioniste le bitch and the hotel supervisor le bastard were both teaming up to ruin my day. Nevertheless, I was willing to put all that aside, forget about that inkstain and get on with my holiday. It was only the hotel and looking back, we hardly spent more than two hours at the place because for most of the time we were gallivanting around central Paris. 

Check in was at noon and since we got there at around 9ish, we decided to leave our luggage at the hotel and roam around to explore the area. The town square was a mere stone throw away from the hotel and the Saint-Denis Cathedral was right smack in the middle of it all. There weren't many people around just yet since I assume they were all still asleep. We walked around the area and thought overall it wasn't too bad. In fact, if there was anything that Saint-Denis showed us, it was the real deal. It wasn't a touristy place and so the people there just went on about their business and we saw a glimpse of life without the pink goggles. There was still a bit of romance in it though, however disillusioned I was. There were couples having breakfast, market stalls being set up, boulangeries opening; all the Parisian elements co-existing in a very real, urban and an in-your-face context...it was idyllic realism if there ever was such a thing. What I didn't know, until today when I wikipedia-d the Basilica, was that Saint-Denis was even more notable and romantic than I thought. While walking around the ground of the cathedral, it was unbeknown to us that we were metres away from the remains of all but three of France's monarchs. Yes, that includes Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette! ARGH! So frustrating! Ah well, at least I can say that I was next door neighbours with the French Queen for a week.

So far, I haven't had to employ my shabby French beyond the courteous Bonjour and Merci, but when we decided to check the metro fares before checking in, I was in for a quick and snappy reality check. The lovely man behind the partition hardly spoke any English, so I had to whip up something quick, albeit grammatically poor, but nonetheless comprehensive enough. The girls didn't speak French either, and with a queue building up behind us, it was like a go-big-or-go-home scene from a movie. 'Combien est une billet pout cinq jours?', I asked (to this day I have no idea if what I've been blabbing on was correct!). Fortunately, he understood and showed us the price. It was my first time to speak the language again since my GCSE recorded oral exam, and just like then, it felt like I was under exam conditions, from which I think I passed. Now that that was done and dusted, we went to the hotel, checked in and dove into our beds.

It was 1pm, and both C and B were knackered from lack of sleep due to last minute packing and driving fatigue, so D and I decided to christen our new metro passes and explore the city for ourselves. The other two didn't mind, since they've both been to Paris before, but D and I couldn't pass up wasting a day, so we freshened up and hit the tube.

Our first stop was the Grand Palais. It was beautiful! The first thing I said was "Wow! THIS is the Paris I was expecting!", and so it was. We walked around, cameras in tow, and just marvelled at the beautiful buildings. Walking along Pont Alexandre, we decided to search for the Eiffel tower since it's at plain sight already, we figured it couldn't be that far. Using only a map, we walked a LONG way along the Seine, past the Musée du Quai Branly and finally got to the base of the tower. Now, I'll you guys the pain of reading reams of gushing, but needless to say I was just speechless. How touristy of me right? It didn't help that I walked around with an SLR camera slung around my neck, but I embraced it and gave everyone the peace. Speaking of which, I found a lot of my fellow Asians roaming around looking very swish! You can't see it, but one of the girls (the one with the white blouse) had a bag that I thought was really cute! I could never pull off kitsch-chic like they do. Jealous.  

D was having a great time too, and we ended up having dinner on the ground of Champs de Mars whilst people-watching at the same time. We didn't get back to the hotel till around 8-ish and by then we were knackered. C and B were nice and pepped up and have been exploring the supermarkets around the vicinity of the hotel when we got back, so when they asked if we wanted to eat out, D and I both said we were going to call it a night. But not before a last minute, party-pooping problem of course! The people at the hotel didn't bother putting towels in our room because apparently we checked in too early. Noon on the dot was too early for them, yet even though we've been out for almost seven hours, they still couldn't give us any towels. Luckily for us, the day clerks were gone and the night shift manager just moved us to another room equipped with the necessary accoutrements we paid for. After a hot shower, D and I were snoozing in no time.

xoxo