After finally getting some sleep, my Paris adventure was upon me! I only planned one full day here and what a mistake. Unfortunately it was a little chilly and rained the entire day and I had to go into like 4 shops before I found a damn umbrella. Eventually I did end up finding an adorable scarf in a boutique on a tiny side street as I was headed to the Pantheon after the Catacombs and it definitely made a difference.
So the catacombs were cool af, literally and figuratively, definitely smart to have a jacket even if it's a nice day. Very grateful I bought a ticket ahead of time with a time slot, the line was stupid long and I just walked right in. Basically the Catacombs exist for two key reasons, the cemeteries had gotten full, but then there were epidemics forcing mass graves but the rotting bodies on the surface were continuing to make the living sick. The limestone quarries had already been abandoned and the architect charged with dealing with the situation decided to make an Empire of the Dead. It's something wild to walk through that's for sure and totally worth it.
"God did not make death".
"Oh horrid ruins: Say, what now remains of those proud ranks and honors, in which those you so much gloried? Say, where are now those transient distinctions? Where, are those names so great with all their splendid pageantry? Who henceforth can discern between the ashes of the poor shepherd and of that proud king, to whose behest submissive nation's bend?"
If you're tall this tour would probably be annoying af. I'm 5'4" there were moments where I only had like two inches of clearance.
This is what the ceiling looked like.
This is the little side street with a bunch of shops where I ended up buying my scarf.
I just thought this bakery looked perfect. Had to snag a shot.
Saint Etienne du mont
First view of the Pantheon. Not sure if this helps give scale, but I've never felt smaller.
From the Pantheon I made my way toward Notre Dame and happened upon a place called the Square Rene Viviani.
Notre Dame is in the background!
You really couldn't get that close, it was all roped off and they were working.
From here I continued on to the Atelier Art Exhibit, which currently has a Van Gogh experience. This was something out of this world, I've never been to anything like it, but it's a completely immersive exhibit with music paired to the display of his works being projected on various surfaces throughout the room in such a way it often felt like you were in the world of the painting, especially since they added some visual affects to convey motion.
This was just randomly off to the side on a very wide street. The Batman face cracked me up.
The show was only a half hour and was less than 15€ so IMO very much worth it. There were other immerisive exhibits but I had a time stamp ticket for the Louvre at 6:30. Again, super glad I did this, I walked right in. Other fun fact, it's typically not open that late but it is on Wednesdays and Fridays in the summer 😊. I had a bit of a walk but I was mostly able to walk along the Seine and I really enjoyed that. There were some Palm trees that didn't look too hot and surprised me.
This was a little playground for kids and if it had not been wet and slippery I would have totally disregarded the age 9 maximum.
There was so much random sculpture work, these faces were funny.
The Collenade are the next few.
There was like 40 of these statues all around.
I decided not to take any photos once inside the Louvre, I really enjoyed that decision at the Tate and I still feel good about the choice. I think if you get stuck in the mindset of taking photos you don't really look at the art. You only get a few moments with the Mona Lisa before they have you move along. People were quite frenzied and taking selfies and being anxious about their turn and can they see it and taking all these awful photos above the heads of everyone even though they knew they'd get a chance to take a better one in about ten minutes. I might have been the only one who just stood there trying to really look at it, but they unfortunately don't even let you that close, not enough to see the strokes, to maybe see where da Vinci took more time and attention and where he didn't care as much. A woman behind me commented that she didn't understand the craziness that more than half the people there probably don't even like art. I couldn't help myself and said I think it's name recognition and something easy to say that you saw, cuz in the end people's motives are often all about the story they will tell. Again I'm glad I was there on a rainy day in the evening. I could tell it's typically WAY more crowded and I would have hated that. I saw maybe a quarter of the museum? But the Egyptian and Islam exhibits might have been my favorite. There was this weird interaction between the Romans and the Egyptians that resulted in the creation of these sarcophagi with full length sculptural portraits on the lids. Like as you looked at these the "heads" were basically sitting up looking at you and some even had marble eyes that were super creepy.
I hung out at the Louvre for just over an hour before I needed to start my walk to the Eiffel tower. I thought about taking a car or transit to stay longer, but I had already walked everywhere else and it became a competition with my tired feet to see if I could manage it. This was my first sighting of it and I proceeded to play peek a boo with it throughout my walk.
Arc de triomphe du carrousel
Tuileries garden. I ended up picking a pink with orange accents flower from here.
Palais Bourbon
My next peek!
I treated myself to a fancy six course meal in the Eiffel Tower. It was an amazingly delicious meal and I wore a dress over leggings this rainy day so that I would look presentable for this meal. I even decided to where my rings and bracelets. Growing up attending a strict Catholic school we wore a uniform and there were a lot of rules about makeup and jewelry, so when I went to public high school I had a lot of fun experimenting with clothes and makeup and jewelry. I have an extensive collection, but then after I met my ex-husband and he started to give me jewelry, even though it often times wasn't even my sense of style it was important because it was from him, so at one point I only ever wore what he'd given me and would rarely change it out. When I first left him I revamped my jewelry and started wearing it a lot. Now mostly because of sports and comfort, aside from my standard necklace with my compass/tree of life, my heart key, my mother's initials, and my lotus, I only wear it for the special occasions. It really felt like the day was an extended date with myself.
I requested a window seat when booking and I'm glad I did. I had hoped to see the sunset, but it was far too cloudy.
Vegetable tartlets, truffled ricotta and French cavier
Semi-cooked duck fois gras
Squid-ink Risoni
French Saddle of Lamb
Hazelnut Cream and Petit Fours. The ones with the whipped cream on top were soaked in rum and absolutely delicious.
Honestly this meal got me lit, started with Champagne, then white wine they kept refilling which I don't think they were supposed to do, I think they just felt bad for me, and then red with the lamb. I am really glad that I booked this, but it was definitely a harder meal to eat alone than most. With six courses there's a lot of down time, a lot of time to notice you're alone and there's only so much you can take in from a view. I think typically I'd end up chatting with those around me, but the Spanish couple next to me was definitely celebrating an anniversary and it felt wrong to try and engage. Just as I was thinking that Paris is beautiful but that I wish I was sharing this with another this song Ritual Union started playing. The background music had been a mix of English, French and Spanish, but I definitely was picking up on the English songs. It's a fun song by Little Dragon, and extremely fitting for the thoughts running through my mind and it's a song I wouldn't know without someone important to me, someone I had been thinking of and wish I hadn't been... I used to think moments like that meant the universe was laughing at me, but now I think they're more affirmation that it's ok to value memories even when people are no longer a part of your life, they're still important and that's ok.
They took my picture like everyone else, I could tell solo diners is not a thing... But I think it came out nice!
After the meal I walked out and looked for a taxi, but the guy was trying to charge 50 euros (that was how much a ride from the airport is...) He saw me balk and then offered 35€ but a young guy on one of the motorized bike carts that lights up asked if I'd been to the golden bridge and that he'd take me there for free and then home. In retrospect maybe I should have immediately ordered a car with their Lyft equivalent but I didn't get a bad vibe from him and I was curious.
I got some pretty stellar photos of the Eiffel Tower out of this adventure though.
He asked to be in a photo with me and then said he'd take mine.
So one glaringly obvious fact about my time in France is that I did not give enough fucks when planning it and inadvertently put myself in less than ideal situations. To be fair France made sense, Paris was an obvious choice and Marseille was a good half way point with easy transit options to get into Italy. While planning it was just this necessary part of the trip but not something I was particularly looking forward to initially until I started researching things to do after I had already booked my transit and then lodging. I book flights and trains first, then lodging based on those details and then things to do based on where I'm staying. I prefer to be able to walk everywhere, you see more that way. I booked my flights in December all for under $600 and then across February and March during wine fueled Friday nights with the cat did I slowly work through researching and booking lodging. Oftentimes I end up with multiple tabs open and apparently when it came to my lodgings in Marseille I booked a place without any reviews! I never do this, it's a terrible idea. The place I booked was a custom wetsuit shop, and there was no one there either when I got into town slightly later than anticipated after missing my initial train due to stopping to help a girl from the Bahamas get a handle on the local area and onto the wifi at the hostel, morning rush hour traffic, and then the entrance way being under construction so the stairs were closed so had to wait for the lift and help some older Italians figure out how to work it... Needless to say it had already been a morning and rebooking my train cost twice as much as my first ticket 🙄. Sooo there was a sign that said they'd return at 2 and no one in the immediate area spoke any English...This was probably the first time I realized just how crazy it was to be alone in a country you don't speak the language of...so I putz around for an hour looking up any airbnbs and cheap hotels. All the airbnbs require multiple night stays, but I find the hotel I actually remember deciding was the best deal and location but didn't actually book apparently, and it was around the corner. Two comes and no one comes so at this point I decided it was worth the $30 loss to find something more reputable. Walk to the other hotel and they're all booked for the night but they tell me there's an Ibis hotel near the metro stop. So I find it on hotels.com/venture which gets me 10x points, aka I can usually pay off the purchase with my points, which I was able to do for all my flights and more than half my hotels. Truly most of the expense of the trip has occurred while being abroad. Reward travel cards are so very worth it, I highly recommend.
While the beginning of the day had some hiccups, it's really hard to even be upset when you're in the South of France. Once I checked in, I quickly changed into my bathing suit, grabbed a towel, and caught the bus down to Anse de la Vieille Chapelle, the area I was initially planning to stay in. Definitely more for the locals and was a perfect spot.
So I did not end up swimming here, I waded in to about mid thigh, but it was very windy and low 69 degrees, and the water was brisk. I think if it'd been earlier in the day and I was getting over heated I would have. I'm annoyed at myself... I forgot to grab some sand from here, I thought about it when I first got there but was like eh you have time. Then I got up to find restrooms but the public ones were closed after the lifeguards left... So I decided it was time to search for dinner. When I told my cab driver in the morning that I was headed to Marseille he told me I had to get Bouillabaisse, he said it was amazing. Well damn if he wasn't right. It's basically seafood stew. The idea is that you have all these pieces of bread that put this yellow sauce (rouille) and cheese let it soak in the stew and eat it. If you're the type to dip your bread in the mussel juice, basically this meal is that as the main idea haha but just a much richer sauce. So you scoop the stew from this giant crock, and then when you've had your fill of the soup you eat the fish. There was so many random things in there.
LOL that giant ass thing and this was the meat.
This little crab surprised me SO much. I wasn't sure what to do with him, I let him watch for a bit haha but then out if curiosity opened him up to discover no meat lol.
They had an extensive bakery selection here and the waiter didn't speak very good English and brought me over to see and could see I was overwhelmed and so he made a suggestion with an "ok" sign and then brought this out.
Stop looking at me swan!
This meal was certainly for two, but good thing I can pack it in. The chocolate cake was WAY too rich for me, otherwise it'd be gone as well.
As I headed towards the bus stop after my meal I was greeted with a lovely sunset.
Overall I truly enjoyed my time in France and once I finally have a person, since everything here would definitely be enhanced by having someone to make out with lol, I already have in mind a week long trip to further explore Paris, see Versailles and then finish with a few days on the beach here in Marseille.
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