23/09/13 - Sightseeing in Paris (Picture Heavy)

Hey guys!

Today I'm going to blog about my final day in Paris when I went to work for Liz Lisa in September ~

When Liz Lisa asked me to choose my flights, I deliberately chose one that left late that night so I could have the whole day to myself to sightsee. I've always wanted to go to Paris and to travel so I thought it was a great opportunity to! Of course I would've preferred to have a couple more days in Paris, however I was alone and well, I tend to get a bit lonely and homesick when I travel alone so one day was enough for now.

I didn't really have time to plan out my day so I woke up at 7am to send off all the other staff from Japan off since they were all going to the airport early on in the morning.


My look of the day~



I decided to stay in my room until the check out time so I could research on where to go for the day. To be honest before going to France, I didn't know anything about the country at all. I studied French for 2 years in highschool but I completely forgot everything :P

My outfit~


I wanted to visit the main tourist attractions and also do a little bit of shopping~

Went to Bercy station~


A map of the main tourist places


Even though the subways have less lines than in Japan, I still find it really confusing T_T Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it haha. I was so lost at the train station, but a really nice man asked the station worker for a mini train map for me so it helped me out a lot ~

The first stop was to go to do a bit of shopping~ Can't remember where this was but it was recommended for shopping around here~








They had a lot of shops in there but I didn't end up buying anything.

I then started wandering around trying to find a place to eat. There are so many outdoor cafes in France so I really wanted to go to one of them.



Restaurant I went to~ Didn't really have my eye set on this place but the waiter just kinda asked me to come inside so I just thought why not, I was getting hungry and couldn't be bothered walking anymore lol.




It was a really sunny day which was nice since the previous days had been quite cold. It was a really nice atmosphere but it was a bit too sunny on the day for my liking.



Had beef~

Can't go to Paris and not eat dessert!




The food was really good overall! A bit pricey but it's what you'd be paying if you were in Australia anyway so it's not too bad at all.

After lunch I decided to walk around the area a bit more for some more shopping~


Didn't end up buying anything again, unfortunately European fashion isn't really my thing :(

Next stop was Notre Dame... so I thought..
I had it planned out on a map on places to go, unfortunately I didn't really plan properly and I actually had no idea where I was going half the time lol.


I got to "Notre Dame" station (I think) and was so confused on where to go. I didn't realize that there were multiple stations that had the name "Notre Dame" in it lol.




I was walking up and down and was just so confused T_T I had an offline map downloaded so I tried using that but it wasn't much help. In the end it directed me to this church so I thought it was Notre Dame but it wasn't lol.





Wrong church but it was still really nice. I realized it wasn't Notre Dame but I had a schedule I wanted to keep so I could go to all the places I wanted to go.

Absolutely love the buildings in France, everything is so romantic!



I then went to Opera~ A few of my subscribers recommended I visit that place when I asked them for recommendations, it's really beautiful there!


Some other tourists were there so they asked me to take a photo for them, and I got one as well~

I walked around the area but there wasn't much to do around there.





Caught the train again to Galeries Lafayette, people told me to go shopping here~





I walked in and was so amazed at the architecture! I spent quite a bit of time here to go shopping for souveniers for people back in Australia~




After that it was time for the Eiffel Tower! While I was on the train to the Eiffel Tower this French woman noticed I was trying to study a map so I obviously wasn't from the area lol, so she helped me out a bit. She told me which station to go for Notre Dame cos I told her I got lost and went to the wrong place before. She also told me how to go to the Eiffel Tower and all. Super nice lady and kept warning me of pick pockets at the Eiffel Tower.

On the train we can see the Eiffel Tower!


Once I got off the train there was a guy who had his store set up inside the train station where he sold a lot of souveniers. Heaps of cute earrings and accessories! There are tonnes of these places near the Eiffel Tower but this guy has everything has everything at the cheapest prices.

Walked along this path to get to the Eiffel Tower. I was actually super tired already because I had been walking around all day so I had a bit of time to sit down and relax here





Sucks travelling alone because you don't have anyone to take photos for you, lol. I just had to stop random people to ask for photos

Walked to the Eiffel Tower but I didn't go up because the line was too long, and I didn't pre-book tickets beforehand





Eiffel Tower was freaking pretty!!

After walking back to the train station to go to Notre Dame, the last stop I noticed there were heaps of guys playing this "find the ball" game where they hide a ball under 3 cups and if you find the ball, you get double the money you bet at the start. I just watched carefully and noticed that the same people would "win" (cost like 50 euros to play), and realized it was all a scam lol. Luckily I didn't play but yes, if you see that on the streets in Paris, it's all a scam.





Got to Notre Dame, had to cross over a river










There wasn't really much to do there but the scenary is freaking nice!!

After that I had to go back to my hotel to get my bags and go to the airport. Got a bit lost because I thought I was able to transfer at a stop except I had to go and find the train station which was a bit of a walk =_= Luckily I was able to get some help from strangers. I made it back to the hotel and then got a taxi to my hotel, ended up buying some Laudree macarons!



Was so good!



Waiting for my departure~ Oh and I have to complain a bit about Air France. So when I was flying from Perth to Paris, I had to make a stop over in Singapore. I was flying Singapore Airlines to Perth to Singapore, and the Singapore Airlines staff checked my baggage all the way to Paris for me, even though I was taking a different Airline. Should be doable in Paris too right? Nope. The guy refused to check my bag all the way down to Perth for me. He told me I had to go out of immigration in Singapore and then get my bag, then check it back in. I was so pissed off I almost got into an argument with him. Anyway I gave up, and got on the Air France flight which left an hour later than scheduled, and when I actually got on the flight it was like a freaking sauna! I don't know why it was so hot in there but it took them ages to try to cool the plane down. Oh and also the food they gave me was just stone cold, I ate nothing on that flight because nothing was edible =__=

Thankfully when I got to Singapore I went straight to Singapore Airlines and told them Air France were just being assholes and refused to check my bag all the way down to Perth and they said they can do it all for me. I didn't want to go out of immigration because that would just be wasting my time =_= Lesson learnt, not taking Air France ever again lol.

Anyway, this is my last post about France ~ Really love the country and hope to be back soon (and not travelling alone haha). The country is absolutely beautiful and everything just looks so romantic! The people there were also lovely and it was great meeting my subscribers there!