The City of Light and Love

Paris. We spent 5 nights in Paris, staying in a couple's spare room in Montmartre. Before this trip all I had known about Paris was the fairy tale stuff that gets sold to you from every possible angle. The Reject Shop is plastered with images of the Eiffel Tower and it's all designed to make you feel a certain way. A wistful romantic way. Like all those paintings of Paris in the rain, in reality, the rain isn't romantic, especially when it happens all the time. It's just annoying.


For me Paris feels a lot different to those pillow cases in 15 year olds bedrooms. It's still amazing to see all those iconic images and it can't be denied that when the Eiffel Tower glistens at night it's beautiful. But there's also that metro ride seething with people that you had to take to get to the Eiffel Tower, there's the line you had to stand in to get up there, there's the really tiny expensive apartment you just came from with the crazy stairs and there's the ghetto that surrounds the city, where you can see economic divide either side of a street. But you can't put that on a pillow case.

The Eiffel Tower as you know it

The Eiffel Tower as I know it (I think this
is my favourite photo from Paris)

Hanging out with Lisa

My favourite thing about Paris was the art. You can visit some of the most famous pieces of art in the world for a decent price. We also discovered White Night. A night once a year where they put on a big arts type festival throughout the city that goes from 7pm to 7am, (I think we made it until about 2am). There's heaps of different stuff going on, street art, bands, performances, shows - all for free. Wandering through Paris at night discovering the next piece of art was probably the best thing we did there.

White Night Street Art

My second favourtie thing was the bike tour of "Hidden Paris". We learnt heaps about the history of the city (which I've already forgotten - but I know it was interesting), we got to see lots of somewhat famous street artist's work, like Invader, and we got to ride cute bikes that matched my hair.

Paris is also famous for its food and this also didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was picturing very grand meals but French food seems to actually be pretty plain. Onion soup, steak with fries, baguettes, croque monsieurs. Theses are the things we ate, and while very French, maybe not super exciting. One night I did end up trying snails though - they were ok, had a very earthy taste. It maybe didn't help that both of us ended up getting sick in Paris. You also can't afford to dine in nice Parisian restaurants when you're backpacking for a year and the price of that meal just took a week off your holiday in South America.







The first time you go to Paris you obviously have to participate in all the cliches and I was actually excited to put our "love lock" (Shout out to Darco for the awesome present!) on the famous bridge. Turns out there's campaigns to stop people doing this because it's destroying the bridge. They are slowly replacing all the lock covered wire panels on the bridge with perspex. Obviously we still put our lock on... because you have to, but we have no idea how long it's going to be there or where it's going to end up. Maybe not the best symbol of eternal love, good thing we were given two.

The Broken Bridge

When we initially got into Paris I was worried that 5 days wouldn't be enough but I think I was happy to leave by the end. It really is a massive city and that can be quite tiring. Although I'm sure if you can afford to stay in a nice hotel, take taxi's everywhere and splash some cash about the city you'd be seeing a completely different place. I hope that next time I'll be able to see some country side France.

Disclaimer: It may look like this post contains lots of complaining, but I did enjoy myself!