Euro Trippin with my Sister Part II

Right so, we’ve arrived in Paris…YAY!

I had originally planned to use public transit to save money, but once we got there and I looked at all the train changes I was like to hell with this and opened my Uber app. We had a hell of a time locating our driver for two reasons:

1. The pickup area is only in the departures section, and duh, we’re standing in arrivals
2. This mofo doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French.

So I’m confused, he’s confused we’re walking back and forth trying to figure out where the hell to go. All Mr. French and I can come up with is “Hello?!” and “Bonjour!?” so after like 20 minutes I read some signs and we went down the elevator and found him and his stereotypical French attitude. Ooh girl he was mad, at everybody. The traffic stopped moving, he’s swearing under his breath, the light went red he’s huffing and puffing.

While we were in traffic there was some display of patriotism i guess. We kept passing luxury cars with all of the passengers hanging out of the windows and sunroofs and I was like ooh what day is it? Because where I’m from the local Mexican-American population gets their flags out and hang out the windows of cars during the Mexican Independence! But it’s not May its October and these people are black, white, and brown..so I just went back to staring out the window.

So we get to the hotel, and this time it was a Hilton, Hilton Paris La Defense to be exact and this joint is super swanky and right next to the subway station. I’ve got gold status at hilton hotels (swag) so they gave us a room upgrade and some free drinks, which was great because who can afford to buy their expensive ass drinks?

The hotel is also attached to a mall, so we took our stuff to the room and went to walk around the mall. Now I guess, while I was busy geeking out over Greek and Roman history I missed France, because I was so surprised by how diverse Paris is. There are brown and black people from every where you can find brown and black people! So we’re walking when we hear singing right, so I look over the rail and see a group of black folk ramping up to start a song. They start the song, and it’s Gospel! Yes! Confirmed, black people love Jesus everywhere! Then a black woman with a thick French accent invited us to the Donnie Mcclurckin concert next week and we declined.

We went to McDonalds.

Nah like for real, we went to McDonalds. I had McDonalds in Germany once and it was like a gourmet experience, the McDonalds at La Defense was booty. And it was super expensive. So we can check that box and move on.

Between the jetlag, and the 54530395 miles we walked the day before, we decided to stay in and cram as much as we could in to the next day. We had some drinks at the bar, ordered room service , I ate a lot of fries, and knocked the hell out.

So day two is going to be action packed! The hotel gave us free breakfast so we got up early and ate and then jumped on the train headed to the Louvre museum. Because we only had one day and needed to see all the sites, we wanted to at least see the Mona Lisa. Be advised, the Louvre is probably one of the most confusing places in the world. It used to be a palace so it has all of these separate wings, and you have to make sure you’re in the right wing for the thing you want to see. We were in the wrong wing trying to find Mona, but we finally found her and took a selfie with her:

Everyone always says the Mona Lisa is lovely but its so small! Yes, it is small but its also worth like 500 million dollars so whatever.

You guys will be so proud of me because this time I got our hop on hop off tickets in advance! So we left the Louvre in the rain with no umbrellas and attempted to find the damn bus stop. The weather betrayed us but whatever we’re doing this thing. We got some rain ponchos from the bus and went to the Eifel Tower.

Paris has never really been on my list of places to visit but my sister has been wanting to go forever, with that said, I can honestly say I never knew the Eiffel tower was a Sky Scraper. Sure in the movies it sparkles in the distance, but standing under it was a whole different story. It is quite a beautiful structure and you can take an elevator to the top or stairs up to one of the lower levels. We took pictures with our selfie sticks, and then we went down the street and took more pictures, cuz why not?

People get really creative with their paris pictures. Some lady was doing a hand stand and I was trying to understand why, but then I smelled crepes and I had to go. I took a picture of her for y’all though:

There were a lot of people doing yoga poses and complex pilates moves in front of monuments. A very lovely woman was doing some human flagpole like move against a rock in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral, maybe she was inspired by the good Lord to use her core strength.

Oh so we left the Eifel and took the hop on to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We didn’t go inside, but walked around it, took some pictures and found a cafe. Jasmine has apparently fallen in love with expresso and the tiny cup it comes in so we sat and had a drink.

On the way back to the bus there were tons of touristy restaurants(boo), but I spotted one of my favorite things to have in Europe; Hot Wine! Mmmm. So we po’ up and attempt to continue walking but the wine is hot so we just end up standing on the corner.

But standing on the corner drinking my hot spiced wine outside of church apparently was inspirational. It was night now and I turned and looked at Notre Dame and saw a fantastic photo opportunity:

Girl I had to get on the ground, and now I’m one of those people I was just making fun of. That angle is so dramatic though yass…I should print this shit out and hang it somewhere or give it to someone as a gift.

So anyway, we’re hungry now and in need of more wine (we did drink lots of water too y’all don’t trip). So I reach out to my friend Christen who is an avid lover of France, for a restaurant recommendation. She sends me to a part of town that is clearly beyond all the touristy areas and quite frankly amazing!

We found this pub/wine bar/restaurant thing called Petit Gaston where I had a bomb ass bleu cheese burger. The weather calmed the hell down so we were able to sit outside under the heat lamps and people watch. This area is full of outdoor seating restaurants that are frequented by locals. Even our server was like “you are american? we don’t get many americans here” and we were like “good”

So after dinner we’re like ‘this is our last night in Europe, better do it big’ so we decide to go in to one of these bars. The first one we walked in to smelled like hot pee so we walked right the hell back out. The second one was just weird, the energy was weird, the vibe was weird we stood at the bar for 5 minutes being ignored by the bartended before we left. Finally we found an Irish pub looking joint and went in. There were only 3 other people inside so we sat at the bar and ended up having a grand ol time with the bartender. He’s a 50 year old Asian man who loves old school R&B so we’re jammin with him and he’s pouring us free shots of vodka.

Jas wrote our names and hashtag #sisytrip17 on a dollar bill and he taped it to the wall among other foreign currencies on the wall. So If you’re ever in Paris checkout the Burling Pub and hopefully Young is still working there! We took an Uber back to the hotel( Ubers are much cheaper in Paris than Rome) and went to sleep. Tomorrow we fly home.

Overall, It was a great trip, but I’m mostly grateful for the time with my sister. I can’t remember the last time I had 6 uninterrupted days with just my sister, and it turns out she’s a great travel companion! Thanks for letting me give you a quick tour of the other side of the world!

I can’t wait to go back!

AJ

 

P.s. in case you missed part one its right here