Paris

A 5am rise in London took us on a 3 hour international train journey which landed us in beautiful Paris. 

A quick metro ride deposited us in Richard lenoir where our adventure began. 

Being completely over transport by this time we thought it wise to catch a cab to our apartment, so with 10kg backpacks on our shoulders we attempted to hail one. As we aimlessly walked down the street, a lovely French woman stopped us to ask where we were going, she pointed behind us and it turns out we were only a 2 minute walk from our host apartment - lucky we didn't try and catch a cab. 

Our apartment was perfect! Beautifully lit and open, a lovely view from our balcony, it was totally worth the travel troubles in the morning.

Oh, and what's better is that our host has a cat and his name is gateau - that means cake in English - meow.

We settled in, had a rest then decided to hit the streets. And by streets I mean we went and bought a baguette and sat in the park to enjoy the ambience.

We continued to stroll through the beautiful streets, enjoying the warm spring sun 

But it wasn't long until we found the patisserie store and decided to test our French. Trying to say framboise is a lot harder than you think, but a friendly smile from the waitress at our French attempt resulted in these bad boys -

Feeling as though we had satisfied our French food needs, we powered on through our sleepiness and saw the icon of Paris, le tour Eiffel! 

*found the best sneaky spot to avoid getting people in your photos AND to get pretty flowers 

Two strange men approached us and I attempted to speak in French once more, he seemed interested until he thought we were lesbians, I guess he's not pro gay rights - shame on him! But lucky for us. 

We enjoyed the Parisian sun and set home to have dinner. Helena has developed a bit of a cold and were both exhausted from non stop euro action, so we satisfied our taste buds with delicious cocktails and a burger the size of my face 

Day 2 -

This morning we woke up bright and early to see the Notre Dame! But not before stopping in the park again to eat pain du chocolat (chocolate croissaints) for breakfast 

Pretty awful view.

The chilly breeze did not stop us as we powered onto the metro (best public transport system in the world if you ask me) and got off at our stop to see the Notre Dame. The map says it's a 5min walk so we should be there in no time....

About 20 minutes later I decide to ask q teacher leading an excursion which way the landmark was, here's how it went -

Me: "bonjour Madame, ou sont Notre Dame?"

Lady: *looks at me like I'm an idiot* le Notre Dame?

Me: "Oui!"

Lady: *points in opposite direction to where we had just ventured*

Dammit. 

Back the way we came we finally found the incredible cathedral, and boy was it worth it!

It's one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've seen, and we had perfect weather to see it!

A 5 minute walk from there took us to one of the many love locks bridges in Paris, we contributed with a baby luggage lock and some nail polish 

After all this hard work sightseeing, it was time to eat again. This time, Nutella and banan crepes *dribbles*

 

Our next stop was the Catacombes, but after seeing the line that literally went around the block and to the start of the entrance, we begrudgingly decided to pop it on the bucket list for another time. 

We then head to the Lafayette Galleries to make some minor purchases - not after me getting us lost. Again. 

I'm not allowed to use the map anymore.

But with that behind us, we got ready and head out for a dinner cruise on the Seine river which passed the Notre Dame, the Hotel d'ville, the Eiffel tower and the Louvre. It was rather romantic actually, maybe there's a reason the French think we are "le lesbians"

This was followed by a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower at night, to watch the sunset and to see it twinkle at 10pm

The night was topped off with a visit to the moulin rouge! A fantastic show with a lot of boobs, like a lot. But the costumes, and music and dancing were fantastic! Such a splendid night to finish off our second day in Pari!

Day 3 -

Today was our last day in Paris, and we had every intention of getting up early to ensure we would miss a huge queue at the Lourve. However, arriving home at 2am and sleeping through your alarm will do wonders to your plans, and we woke up an hour later. Not in a rush either, we pottered around until we were alert enough for breakfast. 

The cafe down the road served us a petit dejeuner, and I managed to scrape through ordering in French! 

Proud moment :')

Not so petit. 

We hopped on the metro, another thing we're rather confident about now too, and head towards le musee de lourve. 

After fighting through what can only be explained as a museum mosh...

We selfied with Mona Lisa herself! 

Then Venus de Milo

And I embarrassed myself by sitting on the floor to photograph the roof... 

...totally worth it.

 And just when you thought the day couldn't get better than that, we spent the afternoon shopping down the Champs élysées

Eating boutique store macarons

And finished it all off with wine and cheese, and in my opinion, you can't get much more French than that! 

We're leaving Paris with a heavy heart, but Barcelona is calling! 

Au revoir Paris, je t'aime x