Allons-y! by Zianne Agustin
I clutched my sweater around me tighter as I hopped off the bus we took from Geneva. I was groggy, drowsy, and worn out– unfortunate things to feel in the supposed City of Love. We missed our flight that afternoon and had to take a bus, the earliest one leaving at five in the afternoon. Seeing that the trip took six hours, we ended up arriving in the wee hours of morning.
Our residence was quite nice and was right across a grocery store and had a street with many shops nearby. The only thing I disliked was the lack of an elevator because we were staying on the sixth floor. Perhaps this is why majority of Parisians are slim?
After a good night’s sleep, our day begun! Paris looked much friendlier and picturesque in the day. The street near our lodging was lovely and well, it smelled great. It was lined with several coffee shops, bakeries, and fruit stalls where I found locals purchasing fresh fruit and pastries. The locals were lovely, as well, dismissing my initial worry that they were snobbish. They smiled and some greeted us, saying “Bonjour,” which is French for “Hello.” A kind lady that worked at a bakery even helped us by giving us instructions on how and where to get tickets for the metro, the most essential means of transportation in many European cities.
On our first day, we went on a free walking tour with SANDEMANs. Their company’s tour guides are very knowledgeable on the cities they’re touring people in and are very entertaining and humorous, so after trying their tours in Prague the week prior, we signed up for one in Paris, as well. The tour began at Place St. Michel at 9AM and took about two hours and a half. In those two hours, we saw La Conciergerie, the prison where Marie Antoinette was held captive, now a museum. We also got views of the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, the latter appearing very small since we were quite far. It truly was a beautiful city. However, we happened to visit Paris on the aftermath of heavy rains, causing the Seine River to reach its highest point in sixty years. Due to this, the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay were closed, many of the artwork having been evacuated in case the water levels rose again.
But of course, we refused to let the gloomy weather deter us from making the most of our trip. On our second day, we booked a Hop-On Hop-Off bus– another convenient way of touring the city. We stayed on the bus’ upper deck despite the fact it was about 12 degrees out so we could further appreciate Paris’ atmosphere, both literally and figuratively. From there, you really will appreciate the city’s splendor– streets lined with Gothic-style structures, mostly painted in warm colors like brown and peach. There were also a number of various street artists; some sold watercolor paintings of landmarks while some sold charcoal sketches of tourists that would request. At this point, I realized that Hollywood lies, as I found many street performers but no mimes at all.
Through that day, we visited the Notre Dame again, but went closer this time. It was breathtaking and I guess that explained why the line for entry was awfully long, so we decided not to enter anymore. But as we were to leave, we saw Filipino celebrities Carla Abellana and Tom Rodriguez. It’s quite peculiar how they seem like ordinary tourists here while they’re fussed over back home. Afterwards, we bought macarons from Pierre Herme– I got the salted caramel flavored one and I could swear that if it were a person, I would marry it. We went back and bought four more and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Seeing the Eiffel Tower is on a lot of people’s bucket lists but personally, I wasn’t blown away. Yes, it was a colossal beauty but the fact it’s overrated might’ve raised my expectations. We were told by our tour guide two days prior that the best reason to actually go up the Eiffel Tower is, well, to tick it off your bucket list. But if you’re looking for a breathtaking view of the French city, Montmartre is the way to go. After taking a couple of photos of the tower, we sat on the gardens and people watched for a while. It was at this point that I was overcome with a wave of thankfulness, having gotten the chance to visit the city. The area surrounding the tower was full of merriment. Many tourists were taking photographs and groups of people were having picnics as tuk-tuks, small tricycle-like vehicles, played loud French music.
Musée de l’Armée, Assemblee Nationale, Champ-Élysées, and Arc de Triomphe were a few of the many Parisian landmarks I was able to visit in the next two days. In those two days, I was also able to try a variety of food. Among my favorites are the ice cream from Berthillon and from Jeff de Bruges, hot chocolate from Angelina’s, and crepe from Au P’Tit Grec.
On our last day, we visited Musée Rodin, a museum dedicated to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. My favorite sculptures in the museum were The Thinker, The Kiss, and Eve. The museum was like a mansion and had vast gardens outside where you would find not only tourists, but artists, as well. I found many people hunched over sketchbooks, sketching the sculptures. We ended the trip by going to the Montmartre to get a nice view of the city we will be departing from in a few hours. The tour guide was right for the view was spectacular and the atmosphere was very pleasant and warm, a street musician playing nice music in the background.
Despite only seeing the sun on our last day and experiencing momentary hiccups throughout the trip, among the cities I was able to visit, Paris is one of my favorites and I would absolutely love to go back.
