The City Of Lights and Naps In Gardens
09.51
So I recently went to beautiful Paris on a school trip with my french class. And let me just tell you that if you have to go on an obligatory trip with your tiny class, Paris is not the worst place to visit! We were about fifteen students who chose to spend a week in a country where nobody spoke english (besides the tourists but we scuffed at those). It was our teacher's wish that we would strike up random conversations with the locals and magically become fluent in French and thereby making her job easier. I can already tell you that this particular wish, might have been a little too optimistic, since the only times we spoke french was to order at McDonalds...
Anyways, since this was a school trip, we stayed at a little hotel, with no elevators - and as fate would have it, we got placed on the fourth floor - in the 11th Arrondissement. Our teachers specifically told us that it was a very, very, very safe neighbourhood, with the exception of a terrorist attack (Charlie Hebdo)... So that was splendid!
We spend the first day walking around in the amazing weather. We went to Notre Dame, The Latin Quarter and my French teacher's favourite ice cream shop! By 4 o'clock we were all so tired we looked like a hoard of zombies. We wanted to blame the jetlag, but considering that we came from a country in the same timezone, that wouldn't have made sense. But when the teachers let us off, and we could spend the rest of the day doing whatever we wanted as long as we came back by 1 am, we instantly felt much better. We spent the rest of the evening shopping, walking, taking photos and eating dinner at the Place de La Bastille. Afterwards we went out for some cocktails and had a very lovely girl's night.
The next day we explored more of Paris. Walking the Champs Elysées, shopping on the Rue St. Honoré, enjoying Le Louvre, falling asleep in Jardin des Tuileries and getting lost in the Paris metro (a lot). At night we found a little restaurant in Montmartre where we did some experimenting with la cuisine francaise - meaning escargots.
The following days went by very quickly. Exploring every little crevice of Paris one shop at a time. Running around, trying to find food and getting more lost in the Paris metro. Then getting stuck at the gates.
And of course we visited Versailles, though I would recommend getting there early in the morning, since the queue is crazy with absolutely no queue culture! But since we were a bunch of bored teenagers stuck in people traffic, we let off some steam by accapella-ing Bohemian Rhapsody.
After ten hours we got a house tour in the palace, and afterwards we sat down on the grass in the huge garden, sang a few songs and fell asleep (that seemed to be a pattern whenever we were placed in a garden). We also spent some of our abundant free time discussing the potential for placing torture chambers and rollercoasters in the house. You know, in case we ever ended up living in it.
On our last day, it was unfortunately raining, so we decided to wander some more. Now you might be asking; “Where are the teachers at this point?” Well, we did find them out past curfew drinking at the same bar as my girls and I. We knew they were drunk when they only waved enthusiastically at us and kept talking.
So in the end, this was probably one of the more enjoyable school trips. And of course, one of the last things we did was to spend 150 Euros on macarons.
And of course, almost missing our plane 'cause of the getting-lost-in-the-Paris-metro tradition ^^
Have you ever been to Paris? What was your favourite place to eat, shop, explore, get lost and nap?
0 Comments