Walks Along The Seine, Laughing In The SUN – My Amazing 55 Hours In Paris

Day 1

Cancaning for DAYS, getting called up to dance for a random jazz group and a LOT of wine…

Whilst waking up at 4am for the flight didn’t feel especially fantastique at the time, it meant I got to spend lots of time out and about on that first day, walking along the Seine past architecturally STUNNING houses and blummin’ millions of people on bikes. We stopped off at the Notre Dame, avoided some wrong-uns who were trying to steal from us by getting us to sign a fake petition for disabled people (apparently, it’s a well-known trick, how mad!) and checked out these funky street dancers who were popping and locking their way around a mat. At first I thought there was just a random person stood opposite a dancer, irritating them, only to discover they were having a dance battle. Trust me, I’ve never felt cooler than I did in that moment.

After watching the dance battle, avoiding the scammers and having a look at the informative boards in front of the church, only to realise they were in French and that I couldn’t understand them, we headed off in search of the Seine!

Turns out, you only have to walk for 30 seconds to get to the Seine from Notre Dame, so it wasn’t that big of a walk. Nevertheless, we apparently felt really tired after that long stretch, so sat down for a while and chatted. I’ll do a post about it at some point, but camp is truly an amazing and developing experience, and there’s so much to reminisce on, so we were sat there for a while chatting about camp, and catching up properly for the first time in a while. I’m not going back to camp this Summer, but I’m excited for the year I do after seeing Sydney.

Next up on the list for day one was the EMILY IN PARIS SET AHHHHH. I’d binged Emily in Paris at the beginning of the year, so it was a strange but amazing moment for me. Apparently, according to Sydney, some French people are not the biggest fan of the show, as it doesn’t represent the French properly. However, I love its classic cheesy rom-com vibes, so had to go and visit the set. We saw Gabriel’s restaurant, and had a cake and coffee at the boulangerie where Emily asks for a chocolate croissant and gets corrected by the owner by calling it a pan au chocolat. She had a point tbf…

We headed next to the Atelier des Lumières and checked out a lot of paintings on a lot of walls! It was one of those interactive art experiences where the paintings are displayed in a 360 degree radius. It was fully immersive and so impressive, and the classical opera music made you feel oh so very cultured… Would fully recommend this, all joking aside, it was genuinely awesome.

We had dinner, and then went to look out at the views by the Sacré-Cœur, which were gorgeous. I was weirdly obsessed with looking at the rats by the bin there, though, but we move. We also checked out The Moulin Rouge, with its majestic red lighting, and saw many saucy shops along its street. Then, we went to a cafe, where this jazz group was playing, and they got us to stand up and dance with them. We were quite merry by this point, and obliged. It was an amazing time. WHAT AN END TO AN AMAZING FIRST DAY.

We also stopped off for a brief visit at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop! I’d seen it online for a long time, and wanted to check it off the list. Not a necessity if you’re visiting, as at the end of the day it’s a bookshop with some fake ivy in it and a couple of cool light fittings, but it had good vibes…

Waking up at midday a tiny bit hungover but nevertheless laughing with my pal and planning our day was the best start to a Friday in Paris. We headed to the supermarket, picked up some picnic grub, had to get the woman behind us to let us out of the supermarket gate with her receipt as I couldn’t figure out how to scan it to release me. In French supermarkets, you have to scan your receipt to exit the store, as a barrier will then open once you scan it, letting you exit. If only I’d got the memo… (jk Sydney I was just being stupid)

We headed to the Jardin des Plantes, and had some lovely baguette with French cheese and jamon. Soaking up the sun and checking out all the fashionable outfits, the time just flew. From there, we went and checked out the Louvre, and joined the masses taking photos of touching the tip of the Louvre, like the true individuals we are.

Then, we walked to THE EIFFEL TOWER. I know in the films it looks pretty big, but I never actually realised how ginormous it was. Like MASSIVE. At this point in the day my shoes started to hurt from all the walking, but we plodded on, checked out the sights, had some churros and ice cream and chatted on the Seine once more.

Sydney then took me to the top of Galeries Lafayette Haussman, where we got to observe this beautiful view. On the left there you can see the national opera building, and the gorgeous Eiffel Tower herself in the middle of the background. What a beautiful place.

That second night, we headed back home on the metro, picked up some supplies, did a few TikTok dances and opted for staying in and watching a film over clubbing (best choice of the whole trip.) I introduced Sydney to the holiday, arguably the best Christmas film to exist ever apart from Nativity 2 [I said what I said], and laughed a lot.