Salut friends! I've decided to break up my Europe post into separate entries, one each for individual country because I have way too many photos to share. Having them all in one post, along with my lengthy recounts, would be too overwhelming.
First up is Paris, France. Viva la belle ville.
*I booked the "Winter Express" tour with Topdeck*
Day 1 & 2 of the tour.
We arrived in France quite late after a long day of ferry ride and driving. There was no time to do anything except settle into our hotel and then have dinner.
What I found was that the French (along with all the other European countries I visited) eat potato like how Asians would eat rice. I say I'm a lover of potatoes but I think I overdosed on them during my holiday.
We also had escargot! I understand it's not appealing to a lot of people but you live and you try things. In my opinion, it's not bad. I get that people have preferences when it comes to food, I know I do (like I don't favour the thought of eating fried cricket). But I'm not down for people being offensive and acting like they're too good for certain food that are foreign to their up bringing.
I've known people who freaked out over duck. Dramatic? Born for Broadway.
Don't like something, don't eat it.
Don't like something, don't eat it.
If you're a fan of Invader and his art, you'll find these little guys all over town. I think I spotted 3?
Daisy and I called it a night after dinner while a large portion of our tour went partying. They were mostly in their twenties and we were the nerdy twelvies. This will prove to be the recurring theme throughout the trip where they party and we sit on our phones. I wouldn't have minded drinking if I had been surrounded by personal close friends. Call me prudish but I don't see the fun in getting drunk with strangers and quite frankly I don't trust myself to lose my senses of logically decision making with people who don't necessary care about my well being. I mean I could share stories from the tour to solidify my stance but I'm not Perez Hilton so I won't publicise things.
On a higher note, here was my breakfast.
We were dropped off at the Eiffel tower and left to our own desires.
I had not anticipated the bitter cold. I had oe a shirt, a cardigan and a duster. Yeah not the smartest move but I honestly had never experienced extreme winters so I didn't know warm to dress. A lesson I learnt very quickly, but not until this day was over...
We chose to do the offered bike tour. It seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, even though it was quite cold. I was chatting with the guide along walk to the office where they kept the bikes. I had asked if it snowed yet in France. He said it hadn't. I was a little disappointed because in my mind, I still thought snow would be fluffy and wonderful. As our tour commenced snow began to fall. Not fluffy light snow. No, it was soggy snow. It was snow that couldn't stay frozen. It was snow that soaked everything. It was snow that made my gloves wet.
Along with the cold weather, soggy snow made the tour almost unbearable. I thought my fingers were going to fall off. I eventually had to buy new gloves half way through the tour. The snow finally stopped and I really enjoyed the last part of the tour. If it weren't for the lost of feeling in my hands, I would have enjoyed the first half of the tour a whole of a lot more.
An upside was getting to ride in the crazy traffic of France. There's no give way, it's a every-man-for-himself kinda agreement. I mean it was scary, but it was also exciting.
The tour ended and we all gladly warmed up before embarking on our own mini adventures in the time we had left of the afternoon.
Daisy, our new friend Danielle, and I decided to go shopping. Daisy was really excited about visiting Sephora and I was excited to just go into any store we don't have back here in New Zealand. The photo above is of Paul where we picked up some macarons.
We got lost trying to get to Cathédrale Notre-Dame. It was all right though. I think getting lost in Europe is just classed as a spontaneous city tour. There's always some building to see, some museums to visit or some statues to admire. In New Zealand if you get lost in the city, you just see houses and some trees (though if you visit Christchurch you can see the bronze sculptures of the Queen's corgis). If you get lost in the bush, you see a lot of trees and you should also pray to God you don't die from being stranded with no food and water (and also not getting hypothermia in winter). Moral of the story, get lost anywhere except in New Zealand. You should definitely get a gps for the city and a map for the bush.
Oh another thing. During this trip, it was fun laughing over that different terms that different countries uses. When New Zealanders say "bush", we mean a "forest". When we say "tramp", it's a hike (not a woman who has a lot of sex). "Why don't you guys just say hike???". BECAUSE TRAMPING IS THE SOUND OF OUR FEET HIKING, DUH CLEARLY OBVI GOSH.
Pont Alexandre III
Earlier before the tour, Daisy and I popped into a little cozy cafe to steal some heat and to experience the Parisian styled coffee and croissant. The second photo is of our macarons from Paul.
We finally found Cathédrale Notre-Dame with the help of a sweet old man. He advised me to come back to Paris one day with my boyfriend. He even walked us to our targeted location. The walk wasn't too long but it was still very kind of him to take the time to escort us.
Charlemagne et ses Leudes
The streets lid up as night fell,! You see, we don't get light displays in New Zealand because our buildings are not worth showing off. But I must be kind to my home country considering the fact we have little history compared to countries in Europe so I can't expect us to have beautifully romantic old buildings. Also the marketing angle of New Zealand is our mother nature. Given the facts, the word romantic would actually describe New Zealand better if we're going by the definition of the Romantic movement. That was a brain fart and irrelevent but lately I've been thinking about Classicism vs. Romanticism a lot. I just thought I'd share that, in case someone else out there just sometimes think about these random things too.
I went on a river cruise to see the city at night. It wasn't terribly exciting but I wouldn't advise anyone to avoid it either. It's not enriched with qaulity but it's a good way to briefly see some landmarks from the night's perspective. Kinda like quantity over quality.
On the way to catch a train to our hotel, a group of us (the none party-ers of the night) witnessed the Eiffel tower light up, as it always does at 10pm (correct me if I'm wrong). It was pretty magical. Ah the city of love, amour. But you know what's not so lovely? The couples who eat each others' faces in public. No, not just a sweet lock of the lips. It's a void of suction and you often have to make a effort to remove such displays from your view because they don't choose discreet locations. It's not too bad. It's better than, I donno, punching each other in the face I suppose. Love is in the air and I don't blame them too much when their surroundings look like (and are) the reference for oil paintings.
I hope you guys enjoyed my snaps of France. I know these photos hardly show my interaction with the city. I was damp from soggy snow and was not in the mood to be caught on camera. The next few posts will definitely have more of my face!
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