Paris, Day 1 – Travelling and Taking Pictures

Hello everyone! I am back from my trip to Paris! I’ve had an amazing time and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! I’ve seen and done so many new things! Both my mom and I took so many wonderful pictures, it will be hard to choose which ones to use for my blog. I hope you will enjoy my reports! ^^

On Thursday, July 5th, we woke up very early. We were very excited, because today we were leaving for Paris! I packed the last things I would need and tidied up my room a little. Then, it was time to go and I said goodbye to my brother and dogs while my dad put our suitcases into the car. Both my mom and I had packed a lot of stuff: my mom had one big suitcase and I had a big heavy bag and a smaller suitcase for my Lolita clothes (which was necessary, believe it or not ^^’). Our dad drove us to the local trainstation, where we would take the train to Amsterdam to take the train to Paris. We said goodbye to him at the station (after our tickets were checked, which is quite rare around here) and were then left by ourselves, haha. The train came quickly and we somehow managed to drag our luggage into it. We tried to place them in a way they wouldn’t bother people too much. The train started driving and our trip had officially started! We were so excited! We had been looking forward to this for quite a while!

All of our luggage! We took so many things with us! I know I don’t
look very happy here, but I was still a bit sleepy.
The trainride went smooth and we arrived perfectly in advance at the Central Station. We headed to platform 14, where the train left on our previous trips. When a train arrived on the opposite side of the platform and a staffmemebr of the station got out, I asked him if we were at the right place, just to check, and he said yes.

Waiting for the train. Did you notice my mom has lost a lot of weight? I think she looks great!
Since I wasn’t entirely sure yet, I walked up to another man with a small computer-thingy in his hands and I asked him if we were at the right platform. He checked the thingy and told us we had to be at platform 15, not 14, so on the other side. Since he could read the number of the train, I knew he was right, so we quickly grabbed our things and proceeded to the elevator. Thank God there was one at the other platform too: the stairs were so high! We put our things down again and ate some macaroons (no, not macarons). Suddenly I discovered a poster, showing where the compartments of the train would be once the train had arrived. Our seats were in compartment 18, which was at the end of the platform. We took our things again and slowly walked to the end of the platform.
Then the train came! I jumped and waved at the driver and my mom says she saw him smile. ^^ When the train stopped, I immediately noticed we weren’t standing in front of compartment 18, but 11! It turns out the compartments were reversed, so we had to walk to the other end of the train (with our heavy luggage, again). Somehow we dragged our suitcases inside and with all our strength we got them on top of the boards above our heads. We still don’t really understand why our suitcases were so heavy. -_-“
Anyway, we were sitting! I had a seat at the window and we had a great view! The train started driving after only a little while.

We’re going to Paris! Don’t mention my no make up-face please…
The trainride was relaxing and very smooth! We had no delay at all! We had a nice breakfast (buns with egg, yoghurt drinks and more macaroons) and I even slept a little! During the ride we had all kinds of weather, from sunny to almost storm! The ride seemed to be faster than the two times before and we arrived in Paris around half past twelve.

Arrived at Gare du Nord. Let the adventures begin!
Before we went to Paris, we had calculated what would be the best for the metro. As you might remember, we have Navigos; special tickets that you can use for ten years, that you can reupload every week or month. Unfortunately, Navigos only work from Monday to Sunday night and we arrived on a Thursday. So I had discovered there are also Paris Visite cards, for one, three and five days. I thought that, if we both bought one for five days and then for three days, we would be okay. But after some calculating, we discovered that reuploading our Navigos twice would be cheaper! So we decided to do that. Once we got down the escalator, we got a little down: the line in front of the ticket office was sooo long. The machines to reupload the Navigos had a lot of people in front of them too, and I didn’t know if we could pay by card anyway. While we were looking at the line, a boy came up to us and beckoned me. I was curious, so I followed him, while my mom guarded our luggage. Only a couple of meters away, there were two Navigo machines, empty! I went back to my mom and showed her. When we walked up to the machines, we discovered we could pay by card! I didn’t really trust the boy (I was afraid he would steal my suitcase or something), but I was really glad he showed me! After we had reuploaded them, we walked through the gates (with caution, after our adventure last year we were a bit afraid of them) and we took the metro to our hotel. We stayed in the same hotel as two years ago. We loved the hotel and street it’s located in so much! We really missed the atmosphere last year!

Me at Place Jules Joffrin. We were happy to be back in our familiar neighborhood.
We arrived at the hotel and to our suprise we could already enter our room! Our room was number 22, on the second floor. We had asked for a room at the front of the hotel and this room was perfect!

The window of our room.
The hotel was in the middle of a renovation, but it didn’t bother us. Our room looked wonderful and the bathroom had both normal and red light (together you got pink light)!
Since we didn’t want to waste any time, we literally dumped our stuff and went out. We decided to, just like the first time, go to the Arc de Triomphe first. I had to get used to the metro for a moment, but like before, it wasn’t hard for me.

Our metroline, number 12. It felt so positively familiar to use this line again!
We took the metro to Pigalle and from there we went to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. We took the escalator up and there it was: the enormous construction in honour of Napoleon. I always forget how big it is!

Together at the Champs-Elysées, with the Arc de Triomphe!
We decided to take the underground road to go the the Arc itself and take some more pictures. It’s unbelievable how big that thing is! Pictures somehow don’t do it justice.

Pictures of each other!
We took pictures of every angle possible! It was so much fun! We walked around a lot.

The grave of the unknown soldier, to commemorate those who died in battle. It’s right
underneath the Arc and it always has the most beautiful flowers lying around it.
We took a lot of pictures around the Arc de Triomphe. It still impresses us so much!

We took many jumping pictures during this trip! To be honest, I had a better one
of this jump, but my face looked so stupid! XD
While we were walking around, I swear I saw a guy I know from back home! I was too afraid to walk up to him and ask: ‘Hey, don’t I know you from horse riding?’, but I’m almost a 100% sure it was him!

Portrait of my mom, because I like it.
When we were done taking pictures, we took the underground road back to the Champs-Elysées and we decided to browse the shops a little. Although I was too afraid to even look at Cartier, I love the Swarovski shop (there was a sale too)! We didn’t buy anything, but the shop is just so beautiful!

The shop has a beautiful stairs filled with crystals!
We crossed the street and crossed Louis Vuitton. It’s amazing how many people walk out of there with a shopping bag! We decided to go and take a look ourselves. There were sooo many tourists inside! The shop was way bigger than I thought and everything was even more expensive than I thought! I was bit shocked to be honest. ^^’ Well, I wasn’t planning on buying anything anyway.
We walked on to Ladurée. I had read on the site that the shop was closed, but there was a temporary smaller shop built on the sidewalk. It was nice, but I had really wanted to drink tea there. Maybe next time?

The temporary shop. It was completely in Ladurée style of course,
but it wasn’t quite the same.
We walked on for a while and crossed the street again to go to the Disney store. I really love that shop so much! We don’t have a Disney store in my country (I believe), so being there is a real treat! They had a lot of beautiful Brave-merchandise and they had the cutest dolls of Tinkerbell and her friends. My mom fell in love with a lifesized baby-ish doll of Pocahontas (if I could go back in time, I would give it to her when she was a child. She loved indians). They also had the cutest children’s clothes! Sometimes I wish I could magically turn them into a bigger size, for me!

I seriously considered to buy these! I would have loved them as a little girl (I still do)!
After we were done looking around, we decided to go see the Eiffeltower too, just like the first time. We decided to exit the metro at station École Militaire, which is located at the end of Champs-de-Mars, the park in front of the Eiffeltower. But when we got out, it was raining heavily! We walked around in a cute supermarket for a while, but eventually decided to go through the rain after all. We arrived at Champs-de-Mars and decided to take shelter underneath a big artpiece with view on the Eiffeltower, where an Asian family was constantly taking the same pictures over and over again. We did take pictures too, but they’re not so great. We realised we had gotten tired and the rain wasn’t so fun, so we decided to go back to the hotel. There, we ate at the Italian restaurant across from our hotel. We’ve been there before and the food is great, although the waiters are a bit… stiff. XD Both my mom and I chose spaghetti carbonara (loooved it)!
After dinner, we crossed the street, where we discovered a new boulangerie/patisserie where they had some beautiful-looking pastries. We decided to take two with us: I chose a chocolate pastry with macaron halves on it (it was called ‘Marbre Noir’, which means ‘black marble') and my mom chose a pastry with raspberries on it. The pastries weren’t cheap, but wow… were they good!

They were sooo delicious! No regrets at all!
We changed into our pajamas and read a little (me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for like… the fifth time! And my mom the DaVinci Code, how appropriate. :) Even though she has read it before). Then we went to sleep.