Paris ‘14, Day 2 – Alone in Paris

On Saturday, July 5th, my mom and I took the train to Amsterdam Central Station, from where I would take the Thalys to Paris. Yes, again! I’ll spare you the details… Anyway, this time I was really going all by myself, for three days. My friend Mila had offered to let me stay at her place and I was super happy and enthusiastic of course! I would be staying in an actual Parisian apartment, so exciting! *o*
My train would leave at 1:18 pm, although there were some misunderstandings as to which platform the train would arrive (as per usual at Central).

Waiting for the Thalys to arrive!
Luckily the train was right on time and I managed to get my bag on the shelf above my head without any troubles. The train started driving and my mom and I waved each other goodbye. So the adventure began~!
I had food, candy and Harry Potter for on the road, which was very nice. But I also slept a lot, I was very tired somehow. We left the Netherlands, drove through Belgium and entered La France.

The interior of a Thalys train. Interesting huh? XD
Just a little after 4:30 pm I arrived in Paris!
Of course Mila had given me her address and I had looked everything up well in advance, but I was still super nervous. What if I couldn’t find the right building? What if I somehow couldn’t enter it? I had no choice but to go on my way and found out.
I went down the escalators to buy a metro day ticket. Charging my faithful Navigo would have been a waste, so I had to make do with normal tickets. Unfortunately, queues for ticket machines are always much longer. Oh well, at least there was a nice (English-speaking) guy to help anyone in need. ^^
I bought my ticket and then took the metro to the right station. It wasn’t far from Gare du Nord, so that was nice. I followed my map into the right street and immediately found the right building! I wanted to open the door, but… it was locked! I pushed again, but no movement at all. I don’t know why, but apparently I was so nervous that I wasn’t thinking straight: right next to the door was a pad with numbers to insert a code and on my paper with information that Mila had given me there was the code. -_- How could I have missed that? Oh well, I figured it out eventually.
I entered the building, dragged my suitcase up some stairs, took a tiny elevator up and went to look for the right apartment. Luckily there were name tags and Mila had left the key for me, so I could finally enter the right apartment!
If I still had any doubts whether I was in the right apartment or not, my doubts were lifted within instants. The room on the right was clearly Mila’s: there were lavender Lolita dresses placed on a chair, the closet consisted of chocolate and cloud-printed dresses and cardigans, on the bed lay a constellation head dress and on the floor stood a Dreamy Girl bag. All this together equalled Mila for sure! ^^

Mila’s cute Dreamy Girl bag. I really love it! ♥
The apartment was small, but really cosy. I felt home immediately! The two bed rooms both had a view upon the inner courtyard, which is super Parisian and super cool!
After I installed my stuff for a bit and fixed my hair, I went to get some food. I decided to have a delicious meal at Princess Crêpe!
I took the metro to St-Paul and walked to the crêperie on my own. I didn’t mind being all by myself, but it did feel a bit strange. I am so used to being accompanied by someone and talking about everything and nothing. I had no one to talk to now, haha!
I entered the super cute Princess Crêpe and ordered a fairly simple crêpe with fruit and whipped cream.

The atmosphere at Pincess Crêpe makes eating there extra fun. ^^
After I finished my crêpe, I thanked the staff and exited. Of course I couldn’t leave without taking a picture of the shop’s window, as it is just so cute and stand out a lot!

Princess Crêpe in Paris.
I went on my way to my next destination: the Angelic Pretty pop up store! I wanted to have another look inside, so I went back to the metro. I had to go via Chatelet, which is a giant station that was under construction, forcing me to walk through endless and narrow halls. It was quite an adventure!
I exited the metro station and… was at a complete loss. I recognized the beautiful street where I was standing, as it was the same one my mom and I had walked around in a couple of days earlier. I could see l’Opéra in the distance, but somehow I couldn’t figure out where to go. Eventually I dared ask a girl in French whether she knew where the Rue St Anne was located and together we managed to find out! ^^

It’s streets like this that make me love Paris so much…
I walked into the right street and quickly recognised one of the supermarkets on my right. Soon I found the shop, where I immediately noticed the shop window had changed. The left mannequin was wearing Angelic Pretty’s Lucienne Dream jumperskirt in navy (it had a sign on it saying ‘not for sale’ by the way) and the right mannequin wore a cute navy Putumayo dress with a red bow. I took some pictures and entered the store with a bright smile, where I was greeted by the kind shop girl I had met a couple of days before .

The mannequins in Harajuku Mode’s shopping window.
I looked around for a bit to see what was still left. Many things were up for sale now and even though I still wasn’t planning to buy a dress, I went to check them out nonetheless. The mannequin at the back of the shop was wearing a beautiful princess one piece in pink with an amazing print with all kinds of sights from Paris! Of course now I know it was Angelic Pretty’s Cameo Window print, but back then it wasn’t even announced yet! I thought it was very pretty.
I talked a bit with the kind shop girl, who told me she lived in France but took care of all the important things like communication between the Japanese shop staff and Parisian authorities and also took care of their place to stay. I thought that was very interesting. ^^
There were two girls browsing the shop as the same time as me and we ended up talking a bit. They would come to the two events I was attending in the upcoming two days as well, so I would meet them again for sure. Only then we would all be in Lolita of course. :3
Naturally, I couldn’t leave the shop empty handed, so I chose another set of cards (Day Dream Carnival and Royal Unicorn), a poster of Crystal Dream Carnival and the big Putumayo necklace I had liked so much on Wednesday. Since everything was on sale, the necklace (which was already very affordable), ended up being even less than the original price! Yay for me!
I left the shop again and took some last pictures.

A last look into the Angelic Pretty pop up store. You can see Cameo Window on the right.
I started walking, when suddenly I spotted a Lolita in the distance. It turned out to be Asuka! When she spotted me as well, she walked up to me to say hi and we talked a bit. She looked really cute in her red Berry Garden dress, quite casual. I asked her how her day had been and she said she had been shopping and that she was now returning to the store for an appointment while Maki had gone back to the hotel. When I told her I liked her outfit, she said it was very toned down without her usual head bow, hihi. ^^ Of course I asked her for a picture as well.

Asuka. ♥ Doesn’t she look super sweet?
I said goodbye to Asuka and went on my way again. Since I had no idea what time Mila would be back and it was still light, I decided to walk up to the Louvre, just for fun. I was alone, in Paris, so why not?
I entered the square next to the roundabout in front of the Louvre and tried to take some selfies with the glass pyramid behind me, but I suck at taking selfies so they didn’t turn out so great. XD I also took selfies with the beautiful arch behind me and they are a lot better. ^^

Musée du Louvre, one of my (many) favourite buildings in Paris.
I decided to head back to Mila’s apartment. For a moment, I thought of taking the bus, but the metro was easier after all.
I arrived back at Mila’s place, where I couldn’t resist the urge to try her two(!) adorable sets of bunny ears. They were just too cute! >0<

Aren’t they super fluffy and cute? I want a set of bunny ear now too…
I sat down on the bed and read a Sailor Moon manga in French. I understood it quite well if I may say so. ^^ Finally, I heard voices in the hallway and someone calling my name. When I opened the door, Mila and Marie were standing in the hallway! ♥ I was so happy to see them! And they had brought pizza with them! *angels singing* The poor girls had been at the Japan Expo all day, such a busy schedule!
The rest of the evening we spent eating pizza and talking and laughing. It was so much fun! I was so happy to spend time with these sweet girls! ^^
Finally, we went to bed. It had been a wonderful day.

Purchases of the day