Paris in April (before covid)

Today is day 3,067 of quarantine_{( just kidding)} and I completely miss the idea of traveling safely without the fear of catching a virus. I know that a lot of people have dared the pandemic with the $50 flight tickets to Fiji, but I’m good on that. I never shared all of the photos that I took in Paris, France last year so I thought, what better time to share some of these memories and reminisce on better days.

I went to Paris France last April for the very first time. As a matter of fact, it was my first time in Europe all together. This trip was in celebration of turning 30 with my two best friends who also turned 30 a week before me. And of course I couldn’t go to the city of love without my love!

First of all, Paris is amazing! There is literally art everywhere! We stayed in Montevrain France, just 45 minutes outside of Paris in a cute little Airbnb. It made us feel like we were living in France for a week as opposed to just visiting. The very first thing that we did when we got there was sleep! It was a pretty long flight with a layover in Canada and the jet lag was real with a 6 hour difference from our home. When we finally decided to go out, we called an Uber and went to Paris just in time to see the Eiffel Tower light up.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person at night was a dream! The tower, although already lit at night, has a light show that happens at the top of every hour at night and boy is it a sight to see! We ended up going back to the Eiffel another day on the trip to go all the way to the top. The views were stunning.

Right by the Eiffel there were vendor stands making crepes, which is another first that I had while in Paris. I’m not going to lie. I am a huge germaphobe and I can be a stickler for how my food is handled. I had to really surrender to being in the moment while I was here in order to enjoy myself without phobias taking over. And with the world the way it is now, I’m pretty sure that I’ll never be able to comfortably eat food being cooked on the street. My crepe was filled with nutella but there were so many other varieties to offer.

I’ll admit that crepes are not my favorite. I’m not the biggest fan of nutella anyway, but it was still cool to have a street crepe in Paris.

The next day we found a bakery near our home away from home that made fresh bread and pastries daily. The turkey and cheese sandwiches were soooo good. And there was this one pastry that I ended up getting every single day we were there. Before the trip I was on the Keto diet. I ate so much bread on this entire trip, I probably was out of ketosis on the first day, but I didn’t even care. Believe me, it was worth it. Every. Single. Carb.

We traveled only by way of Uber for the entire trip which could get a little expensive depending on the time of day or night. But it was great to meet some of the people who lived there their whole life and had never seen the US outside of what they saw on TV. We had a lot of great conversations with some of the drivers even with our language barriers at times. And they also were helpful in telling us about different attractions and hot spots. Here are some of the pictures we took while in these Uber rides.

Did I mention that art is everywhere in Paris? Montevrain was also beautiful with it’s modern appeal. But Paris seems to carry all of the traditional art feels just as I’ve seen in films. It was amazing to see sites such as the Mona Lisa in The Louvre in person. Our trip to the Louvre was definitely a highlight. I found so much appreciation in being able to see some of the paintings & sculptures that I’ve seen in music videos, books, etc in person.

Towards the end of the trip we decided to do a tourist package deal that included dinner on a boat ride around Paris followed by a show at Moulin Rouge. Of course I didn’t know how to act. _{*Cues Lady Marmalade*}

I really loved the alley streets in Paris and the huge doors to different buildings. Who doesn’t love a picture in front of a massive door?

So much beauty all around. So much history all around. Paris was a dream. I plan to make it back to the city of love as soon as I can and stay longer because it’s just so much to explore. I truly felt as though I could live there. I am so thankful for this experience in this beautiful country with some of the closest people to me.