After waking last Saturday morning, 3 days previous to my 25th Birthday, I must admit I was stunned to discover a surprise 2 day trip had been planned for me as a present.
I was advised as early as 48hrs in advance, so that I had enough time to prepare the perfect Paris appropiate outfits (2 days only) and could plan our most wanted Parisian destinations.
The weather was said to be hot (shorts), with mild evenings (opportunity for 70's suede leather jacket and sheeps wool collar) and we are in France so a Breton top would obviously be in order and a classic 70's vintage shirt for day 2.
After setting an hour to two aside for researching exactly where we really wanted to go in Paris with limited time, we were ready and set to go.
We arrived in Paris, Monday, just short of 2pm French time.Crashing smack bang in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Paris Nord Railway station, we cautiously crossed the road and made our way to our hotel, (I insisted we walked the 22 estimated minute journey) and whilst on our way, experienced our first impressions of Paris, it's eateries, shops, architecture and, well, driving skills.
We followed previously jotted down directions, which was proven very easy as much of Paris is built on a grid system, we reached our hotel within half an hour (this includes time staring at a map blankly by a bus stop), unpacked our stuff and got going.
Destination numéro une: Pere Lachaise, Jim Morrison Grave.
Maybe there were cheerier places to visit first, but as we are supposed to be living up to the 'never content, always hungry, never eating, always thinking' Beatnik way of life, we hit the Metro for 'the blue line' and made our way to the iconic square metre of ground.
We arrived at Pere Lachaise and immediately saw the cemetery in front of us over a wall. We bought a map from a nice french man who thought he was funny (lost in translation I'm sure) and made our way through the gates and up in the direction of the notes i'd made in preparation of not getting lost in the 30 acre grave yard.
The cemetery was very hilly and full of gothic crypts, grand tombs with holy crosses and stars of David on tombstones (not on the same one of course). I must say in the most respectful way I can, this had to be the coolest cemetery I had ever been to. We made a few twists and turns and came to our stop after about 10 minutes.
There it was, Jim Morrisons grave. Small, somewhat more modest than I had expected for, let's face it, a man who didn't think too little of himself. Having said that, we are all guilty of a little arrogance here and there, for instance, we were arrogant enough to think we would be the only people there visiting him. I'm not entirely sure what we thought would happen when we got there or what we would see, but a quick hello, a sad stare, a scatter of tobacco and 5 photos later, we were back on our way downhill again.
Farewell Jim, it was brief, I wish I could say it was beautiful, but it was just surreal and a little depressing.
A superstar on stage should be remembered as the cocky, American poet of the 1960's.
Destination numéro deux: Eiffel Tower.
Quite frankly, not as interesting and less alive than Jims grave.
The dark, dank rusty brown monstrosity that is The Eiffel Tower, stretches almost 1000 feet high and 410 feet wide (wide enough to house the many homeless people we saw there).
I wish I could say I was impressed. I am glad to say I have seen it and that's as far as it goes I'm afraid.
Ok, it would probably have been better to actually go up it and see the view.
However, that's not actually the Eiffel Tower that's amazing is it? It would be the view.
Destination numéro trois: Notre Dame.
Amazing.
Notre Dame was one of the places I really wanted to visit. Even before I knew I was being whisked to Paris, I've wanted to go, (this could be down to me wanting to be Esmeralda in the Disney film when I was eleven) so it became a priority place.
As soon as you step off the Metro, you are met with a view of the river on one side and the spectacular Gothic Cathedral on the other.
The sun was just begining to set, so the light was hitting the top front bell towers perfectly. Every inch of the building was carved into something terrifying and Godly in a grand manner, the doors were huge, as if built for something from another world and the architecture really does pose intimidation.
The Gargoyles protect every corner, every side of the building, leering out at anyone willing to take them on. Many of the Gargoyles have been given different features, which makes them even more frightening and real.
As we walked around the cathedral, we couldn't help notice that each side looks completely different, as if it were built as four separate buildings by four separate people. Well, it was. Well sort of. Notre Dame took so long to build, four different architects actually work on it.
Destination numéro quatre: Moulin Rouge.
I'm not entirely sure what we expected here. I am sure however that I did not expect a small, model windmill on top of a building with Moulin Rouge next to it.
Again, maybe if we had gone inside and seen a show, expectations would have been closer met, then again, maybe not.
If you like tack and Burlesque gone wrong, Moulin Rouge may be your thing, but in my ( possibly ignorant) opinion it looked more Stringfellow meets Dallas, rather than Dita on the dancefloor.
Sorry.
Destination numéro cinq: Flea Market & Vintage Shop.
We arrived here at 9am, not knowing what we may find. Afterall, a flea market could be anything but selling actual fleas.
Most stalls had a mish-mash of beaten old shoes, crushed hats, leather belts, scarfs and cheap ornaments. There were however some stalls with beatuiful Vintage fur coats and mens tweed jackets.
Unfortunately, as this may come as a surprise I can have a tendency to wimp out on asking the price on something I suspect could be more than I can afford. The coats may well have been 30Euros, in which case I lost out big time.
I did however pick up a fabulous vintage 70's dress (pour moi), a 60's shift dress and a super psychedelic top to sell to you! Genuine french peices. I also picked up two scarves at 1Euro each, but I'm keeping them too!
The Vintage shop we found was right on the other side of town, around the back of the Palace gardens. Unbeknown to me, even though I had written the address's of several Vintage shops in Paris, the one I unfortunatly chose to 'check out' was a high class, designer Vintage boutique, sporting yes stunning, yes extortionate Vintage Chanel suits and Vinatge 1950's Christian Dior
shoes.
I'll level with you here. Although an incredible collection of vintage designer gowns and accessories, the shop was more impressive from the outside. Boasting two museum style windows (which you could not go into the rooms behind), the actual 'shop' was the same size as a 1 bedroom flat bathroom and came with it's very own stuck up French man, who is programmed to look at anyone not resembling Carrie Bradshaw, like a peice of excrement on the bottom of his 1930's Armani Brogue.
Destination numéro six: Cetral Shopping.
Well, what can I say? what I wanted to find was some cool, bohemian french shops tucked away down a cobbled street. What I found was very different. There were of course some french fashion shops, like The Kooples and Armor Lux, there were of course some shocks like what looked like the flagship store for Etam and C&A.
Again, I was mildly disappointed by the highstreet. Much of it was made up of shops you can find anywhere (which excuse my ignorance may well be french) and many of the Paris Fashion shops we did see, did not hold the most interesting of peices. Much of the favoured colour scheme of these shops and their ranges seemed to be brown, beige, white and grey. I am disgusted and ashamed to say, what I did buy in this area of Paris, was from H&M. I know. Terrible!
So, all in all, Paris was supurb. Beautiful weather, mostly very nice people and gorgeous architecture.
Paris has a lot to offer and I would go again and again. In my opinion, you can get around the city fairly successfully within a limited amount of time.
However, I would recommend giving yourself more time than we had, especially if it's the summer.
It's a better city to relax in than London, you can take your time and enjoy the journey. London still holds the shopping tile and has a lot more to offer as far as diversity in style goes.
