The Paris Story

November 14, 2017

Paris, the city of love and romance. So what's a woman who is perpetually in a loving relationship with herself (and her 3 months prego friend and equally in-a-perpetually-loving-relationship-with-herself cousin) doing in a place like it? Ooh la la-ing to Parisian architecture, culture, and food, of course!

I get why Paris is home to a lot of novelists, poets, and artists in general, or why it is a favorite setting for books and movies. I can easily see myself picking out a random cafe or a cramped apartment on a cold end of summer / start of fall day and writing about a boy crazy city girl and an eternal bachelor finally having THE kiss on a bridge over the Seine river after realizing that they have always drifted towards each other anyway (oh wait, that's the plot of the finale of SATC haha). Something about being amidst infrastructures that have been there for ages, seeing intricate designs characteristic of different periods in history, and living the Parisian life (which is often glamourized in that it seems to be all about French-with-many-silent-letters-i-don't-know-how-to-say-it-right food, Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy-- save for some scary stories about young, pretty, and notorious pickpockets) just make everything a bit more dreamy and, ermm, romantic.

For me, a tad dreamier than the rest of Paris is Montmarte. More than looking at framed artworks put up on walls, I tend to enjoy experiencing places through random finds while aimlessly walking around and through food. Montmarte is a lively village famous for the Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge but the restaurants and shops lining the streets and the artists doing their thing make for an interesting walk.

📷Rora

You get a peep of the Sacre Coeur from here
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Some locals find Montmarte touristy. I think it's just purrfect.
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These macarons are not from Laduree but they're just as yum

Ordered duck confit because I said in my cover letter that
part of the reason why I want to go to Paris is to eat 'legit duck confit'
hahaha true story

I got crepe from a place literally called "Creperie"

Oh and croque madame and tea too. Ticking off all "must-eats"
is always part of the itinerary.

Right after eating our crepe, we went out and saw this
📷Rora

Sacre Coeur's very pretty in that moment when the sun's setting and its pinkish orange color's
reflecting on the white church <3

Palais Garnier is a close second. This Opera House is the setting for Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera". Everything's lit (and I mean it literally haha) and majestic.

I wanted a Belle going down the staircase moment here but, people!
I wish I had Vicky Belo's money so I can have this place to myself as well.

"In Paris, our lives are one masked ball." - Gaston Leroux

The Grand Foyer, inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

Paris' most iconic landmarks, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, are beautiful in broad daylight but are something else at night.

We went to Trocadero to get a view of the Eiffel Tower. Didn't bother going up the Eiffel Tower, though.
I guess that's filed under "Things to Do in Paris when I Come Back with the One'. Lol?

There was construction going on so we had to pose strategically to hide the crane haha

My favorite Eiffel Tower photo (out of so many!) This was taken at the Champ de Mars.
Original plan was to bring sandwiches and wine for a picnic here with the Eiffel Tower as background
but due to the wetness of the grass, we had to change plans.

The Eiffel Tower at night. This photo doesn't do it justice.
With the changing lights on and Celine Dion singing "My Heart Will Go on" at the background,
I just wanted to hug random people :))

Everyone's fussing about the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, but I personally think
the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities are more interesting

Like, what are we looking for here again? hahaha

If you're not a museum person like me, maybe you can skip the Louvre museum and go straight to the pyramid

Louvre at night <3

Like the Eiffel and Louvre, I think Notre-Dame and the city view would have been a fairy tale if only we climbed up the cathedral tower (and maybe saw Quasimodo). Unfortunately, the friend and the cousin were not willing to climb the 422 steps up the tower (and I'm not too sure if the lola in me could have handled it as well haha). Anyways, I had my Esmeralda moment looking at the gargoyles at the Notre-Dame.

We had to skip what looked like straight-from-a-storybook buildings in the area because we wanted to see the Tuileries Garden at dusk. The garden was just okay, though.

They do have this area though where you can just sit and watch
the sunset, and the ducks waddling in the pond

This is the part where I get a bit candid and talk about those that I felt fell below expectations and were... blah. One's the Tuileries Garden. Then there's also the Arc de Triomphe. I've read that it was built in honour of the soldiers who died fighting in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. However, you don't get to see it up close. This is the closest that you can get:

Nevertheless, it's leading to Champs-Elysees, so things aren't that bad 😉

I also thought Versailles was not worth the (almost) 1 hour commute and more hours in line under the scorching heat only to see what used to be the living rooms, receiving areas, bedrooms, and whatnots of the royal family.

The super long line. It didn't matter that we bought tickets online.

Several parts of the palace were even closed when we were there. The redeeming factor would be the well-manicured French gardens, but not really haha.