The Da Vinci Code Taken During Midnight in Paris but Before Sunset

This past weekend, I took part in my first trip away from Belgium, traveling with a group of friends to one of the few places in Europe I've been fortunate enough to visit before: Paris, France. My first trip to Paris was a class trip senior of high school almost exactly 3 years prior. Although fun, I think it's easy to understand how different my experience in the city would be this time around.

I took the Megabus from Brussels for about 32 euros roundtrip. It took about 4 1/2 hours to get to Paris and only 3 hours to get back. We arrived around 7:30 Friday night, and by the time we checked into our hostel and had dinner it was almost Midnight in Paris so i took a stroll around the city so I could go meet up with Owen Wilson and F.Scott. Ugh, that reference was forced, I'm sorry. Anyways, that night we went to a club on the Champs Elysee called Queen (which will become important in a second). Although we avoided a cover charge by signing up online, I finally learned just how ridiculously expensive Paris is by paying 3 euros for a coat check and looking at a menu where soda was 10 euros and anything alcoholic was at least 15 euros. Me being somewhat responsible, decided not to blow all my money on booze that night (looking at you Hank), but still 15 euros for a drink is absolutely ridiculous. Paris, why you gotta be so rude?



Alright so after an hour or two at the club, I get to the point in the story when I find out it was a gay club. Now, in hindsight this fact may seems pretty obvious given that:

• The club itself is called Queen
• The night's theme was Banana Room, with inflatable bananas hanging from the ceiling.
• The deejay played good music
• There were a lot of girls dancing on girls and boys dancing on boys

But for whatever reason, I didn't make the connection (props to me for not seeing sexuality). Anyways I found the realization hilarious, laughed, and then continued to have a good time dancing with the group I came with. Also the club had these dancers perform

So that is the story of how I ended up at a gay club in Paris. 

After very little sleep, the next day consisted of being a typical Parisian tourist and a whole lot of selfies. We started our day at the Louvre, seeing of course the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and Hammurabi's Code amongst countless others works.

 

I had some fun browsing some of the more unknown works in the Museum, which you can see below with my various comments added:

Dat Ass 

Woah, We got a badass who can fly over here

Sassy Christ

Michael Cera? 

Pray for me. There's a machete in my head 

Triceragoose: Hated in Ancient Times as Well

Yup

So after that little bit of fun, and a couple of selfies with my second favorite Mona (shoutout to Mona!), our group split up with my half getting lunch at a surprisingly friendly French cafe, before walking to the Eiffel Tower. One of my biggest surprises during the trip was just how friendly the service we received in restaurants was. Believe it or not, not all French people are rude. Anyways, after walking through the busy shopping section of Saint Germain, and stumbling past random beautiful buildings that are significant for reasons I don't know,

Like this. What is this?

we ended up at the Eiffel Tower, and so the selfie photo shoot began. Ill give the excuse that I took so many because I didn't get a picture with the Eiffel Tower during my first trip to Paris, but you dont have to believe that.

 

 

 

I posed a bit too

And even got a group photo

On another note, It was not just me taking selfies. I saw a thousand times more selfies sticks on this trip than my Dad was going to receive for Christmas (I believe that total is 3, maybe 4). And that doesn't include the many unfortunate souls like myself who have to take our selfies, pressing the button on our phones like the peasants we are.

Afterwards, we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, where we arrived just before Sunset, managed to get some stunning photos, and of course took more selfies. We paid to access the top, something I had not done during my previous visit, and took a close look at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and displays inside the Arc.

Looking towards Downtown & La Defense

Les Champs Elysees

I am aware how dumb I look in these

Or am I?

Got a group one in there too

While the rest of my group went off to purchase some macaroons at Laduree, I decided to explore the city briefly by myself before meeting back at the hostel for dinner. I took the tram to Trocadero, home of the Palais de Chaillot, situated across the Seine overlooking the Eiffel Tower. You may recognize the area from this photograph of Adolf Hitler taken in Paris:

Although half the area was being blocked off for refurbishments, I was still able to explore the area a bit. Right after I arrived, the Eiffel Tower lights began to turn on, which gave me the opportunity to take a classy non selfie photo:

Sexy

After my brief solo excursion, I met back up with the rest of my group, got dinner at another lovely French Brasserie, and went out for some drinks. During my previous visit to Paris, I stayed near a section of Paris known as the Latin Quarter. This is the same area we went for drinks that night, and I was able to stumble upon some of the places I had recognized from 3 years earlier.

Mainly: this pasta shop

The area was a hotbed for bar activity, a fact that I was completely unaware of during my first visit (oh to be young and not understand nightlife). We stopped in at a few places that were significantly more reasonable than the club from Friday night, but still featured pricey menus by my standards. 

We turned in much earlier that night, hoping to be out early Sunday and get some more sights in before our 3:300 bus, (which i thought was at 3 but I'll get to that). We started out Sunday with a visit to Saint-Chapel, home of the world's most renowned stained glass windows. My ability to speak French came in handy at Saint- Chapel as by talking with the ticket clerk, I was able to get my ticket for free, whereas the rest of my group only got the reduced rate. She said this was because my Belgium visa lasted for longer, but seeing how all our visa are for the same length of time, and I was the only one who spoke French, I think the real reason is clear. The chapel itself is amazingly beautiful, with many of the original pieces still intact.

Check out that panorama

After a brief stop there, some of my group decided to attend the universal mass at Notre Dame right down the street on Ile de la Cite. I decided to wait in line and climb the steps of Notre Dame as it had been one of favorite moments from my previous trip. I also wanted to see if the "Bo" carved on top of the cathedral, which I do not take responsibility for, was still there. As the line took forever and I had a limited amount of time before meeting up with the rest of my group, I ditched at the last second and decided to explore the Archaeological crypt under Notre Dame. It was a cool little exhibit, showcasing the past foundations of Ile de la Cite still in place from well before the building of the cathedral. 

Former Harbor Wall

Roman baths

Building Foundations

After a final lunch, we rushed back to the hostel to grab our bags and headed to the bus stop, making one last stop at the place de la Concorde.

We stopped for a quick 10 minutes, as i was under the impression our bus was 3:00, and it was 2:40 already. Turns out our bus was at 3:30, and we had plenty more time. Oops. Which was ironically the name of our Hostel:

And that about does it for my trip to Paris. I'm in the process of planning some more trips outside Belgium this semester (London?, Amsterdam?, Berlin?), but we'll see what happens. One last thing: Coming back to Brussels after the weekend abroad actually seemed like I was coming home, Which is a pretty crazy thing to say after only a month living here. But I really do appreciate my new home city and am enjoying every bit of it as much as I can for my limited time here. Till next time, Cheers.