At first glance, the hostel itself looked fine and the staff seemed nice enough. Outside however, we discovered as we searched for a supermarket, that men would hang around and make sleazy remarks like ‘ma cherie’ or ‘mon amour’ or the occasional ‘mon petit chou’ (no actually they didn’t say that. But if you were wondering, it translates to ‘my little cabbage’.), whilst trying to sell you cigarettes. But you get the point. We were situated in the red light district, or, one of them. But no worries, after we spent the afternoon in notre dame watching the organ being played, searched around, finally found a supermarket, got back to the hostel, ate pasta, met some wonderful people from all over including 2 people from Montreal, a girl from England, a guy from Yugoslavia (I think), 3 people from the USA and a guy from Mexico and overall had a quite dandy sort of night. Quite dandy that in fact, we were all planning to meet up at the hostel again the next night and go out as a group.
The next day Alice and I got up early as we were planning to hire bikes for the day (they were 1.70 Euros to hire for the day compared to 6.80 Euro day pass on the metro). There were no bikes at the station near to us, so we walked down the road until we found some. From there we rode past Notre Dame to St Michel Boulevard where we thought the Sandeman’s walking tour started from. After walking around block after block and eventually giving up finding the walking tour, we decided to ride out to the cemetery where Oscar Wilde was buried.
We were so amazed at the size of the cemetery and the amount of trees. It was actually quite pretty inside, although I wouldn’t ever want to be stuck in there at night! Especially near Oscar Wilde’s grave, that thing has a creepiness of it’s own, as it is covered in lipstick kiss marks. It is beautiful in one respect but extremely creepy in another.
We had lunch after visiting Oscar Wilde’s grave and then decided to ride once again back into town, but this time, to the Perfume museum. For anyone who types ‘free things to do in Paris’ into Google and gets the ‘perfume museum’, take my advice and skip it. Feeling disappointed with the museum we left and road to a small park before riding further to Sacre Coeur. The view up from the top was unbelievable. It is really a mistake of tourist maps not to mention it in greater detail. Check it out (obviously a lot better in person):
After bumping into Nick (one of the guys from the hostel, from the USA), we lay on the grassy hill and simply cloud-watched. Further up the hill we went after looking at the sheep clouds, further, until we reached the top and looked in the actual Sacre Coeur Cathedral (after seeing so many cathedrals, mosques and churches, we tend to limit our time spent in them).
We ventured just around the corner afterwards, where all the artists and musicians were. It was a great atmosphere to be surrounded by, as many people from all different places, races, nationalities and interests seemed to come and enjoy the beauty of the area. We were no different and took lots of photos of the views that stretched around us.
We were so amazed at the size of the cemetery and the amount of trees. It was actually quite pretty inside, although I wouldn’t ever want to be stuck in there at night! Especially near Oscar Wilde’s grave, that thing has a creepiness of it’s own, as it is covered in lipstick kiss marks. It is beautiful in one respect but extremely creepy in another.
After our tummies seemed to gurgle a tad, we made the decision to head back to the hostel. There, we ate pasta again (it’s cheap!). Slowly more and more people came to the hostel ‘meeting area’ where we said our goodbyes to Anna (the English girl) and all grouped to go out together into the Paris night. When everyone had arrived back to the hostel we all sat chatting for a while and met some new-comers from the USA (2 guys) and another guy from Australia named James. All of us left who wanted to go out (the USA couple, James the Aussie, Yugo guy, Mexican guy, nick the Californian, the French girls staying in our dorm and the Montreal guy and girl) bought some cheap wine (it’s great meeting other people who are similar to you, or, as we say, have similar budgets) and headed up to Sacre Coeur. It was so amazing up there, as there were heaps and heaps of people sitting together, having a dandy old time. We were no exception as we too sat on the hill, sang lots of songs (from Bob Marley to Queen), enjoyed watching a happy drunkard dancing to Michael Jackson and sang some more. After, we headed to the very top of the hill where we met a Parisian playing guitar. There, in front of the picturesque panoramic view of Paris we all sang and danced until the early hours of the morning.
(from here I have seemed to misplace some of the photos, so, when I find them I will add them to the blog. Sorry for the inconvenience!)
The next day was a Tuesday (for all those wondering) and we had to check out of the hostel by 9am. We had decided the previous day to go to the Odilon Redon exhibition at the Grand Palais but unfortunately, it was not open to the public on Tuesdays so we decided just to take a walk along the Seine before attending our walking tour at 11am. The walk was really lovely and gave Alice and I a chance to reflect on our journey together. As we see magnificent places and things most days we sometimes get lost and don’t really give our travels the credit they deserve. It’s nice sometimes just to say ‘wow, we’re in Paris!’
After our great moment of ‘wow’, we headed to the walking tour and fortunately made it this time.
The first destination on the walking tour was the fountain of St Michel (insert information here). I know that’s pretty terrible of me, but I have completely forgotten who St Michel was and why there is a fountain in the centre of Paris dedicated to him. This is where I’ll say to you one of my favourite quotes-‘when life poses you questions, Google has answers’ (that quote came from Google). We then headed to the old palace that the French resistance fired bullets at. Now, you’re probably thinking ‘um Sarah, you haven’t exactly explained why the French resistance fired bullets at this old palace’ and so I will answer you thus; I think it had something to do with the Germans occupying the building and I can’t remember everything about every place we see and for that, I would like to add that I apologise for being human! Haha
We were then ushered down some stairs and stood next to the Seine whilst the tour man told us the story behind a bridge. Now, if you were just a tourist in Pairs or perhaps even a Parisian without knowledge of the history of Paris you would probably just walk past this bridge and say ‘oh yeah, just a bridge with some weird looking faces on it’. Now, (without trying to sound like a promo for NEW EUROPE SANDEMAN’s TOURS) this is what I love about Sandeman’s tours, you find out some quirky information about a city’s history that you would never know otherwise. Did I mention that I love Sandeman’s tours? Sorry, back to the cool bridge…So, King Henry IV built this bridge and called it the new bridge (Parisians are very creative at naming things). This bridge was special at the time because it was made out of stone whereas bridges at the time were made out of wood. After many people laughing at the idea of a stone bridge (they thought it would just fall down, which, it did many times) and years after years of building, the bridge was built and remains one of the oldest bridges in Paris. However, this is not the end of the story. King Henry IV was so happy that the bridge was a success that he held a party for 200 of his closest friends to celebrate whereby he let everyone drink all his excellent quality wine. However, they got through the wine and therefore King Henry IV got out his champagne stash. King Henry IV was so pleased (and drunk) that he ordered everyone at the party to have their portraits done so that they could remember this great night. So, you can imagine 200 drunken portraits of the king’s closest friends or, if you cannot imagine it have a look at this bridge which has all the faces of the king’s drunken friends on it. You see, the king was so happy with the night and the bridge that he got a sculptor to sculpt all the faces from the portraits and put them on the bridge.
We soldiered on to the statue of King someone (once again I have forgotten his name. I think it was either Louis). This king was constantly under threat from being assassinated but was assured that he was invincible (as he had not yet died after so many assassination attempts). Yet, this was his downfall one night in a carriage when he was stabbed by an assassination attempt. He did not die from the first stab wound, but when provoking the assassinator with the words ‘you’ll have to do better than that to kill me’ he saw the assassinator stab a second time and this killed him. It is this statue of the king that the tour guide informed us about the horse he was riding. Because the horse was standing with one front leg up and one back leg up, it meant the king died unnaturally. He continued by filling us in that it applies for 90% of horse and rider statues. If the horse has two front legs up and standing on its back legs, then it means the rider died heroically. If the horse has all feet down then the rider died naturally. So, next time you see a statue you can like us, know how to tell how the rider died. Isn’t that cool!?
Unfortunately for the assassinator, his end was not so great. The king who he had stabbed had generated a sort of ‘liking’ from his people, thus they were quite annoyed by the fact of his death. Therefore, the King’s assassinator was tortured but not just tortured; the people believed that they needed a new harsher method of torture to kill the assassinator who killed their beloved king. So, they created a list and on the top of it was the idea of dipping the man in acid. However, this did not kill him. Next, they dipped him in lead. Yet, once again, this did not kill him. For a couple of days they then took out his organs one by one to see how long he could live for but, he still did not die. The people were very surprised by the assassinator and were get a bit sick of him still being alive and a bit worried that he was invincible. So after all this business of torture they reverted to the old style method whereby they would apply the hung, drawn and quartered technique. This finally killed the man.
After that gruesome story we then headed to a bridge where we would hear a different story, this one, of love. The bridge was covered in locks and the theory behind it is that men buy their ‘love’ a lock to lock onto the bridge. Then, they would give them the key to throw into the river and say ‘now, you have the key to my heart!’ But when you walk along the bridge you sometimes see a combination lock. This is for the guys who have several ‘loves’. They can use another corny line that goes like this; ‘now only you have the combination to my heart’ (the combination locks were handy, for if that attempt didn’t work, the man can simply go back undo the lock and try his corny line on another so-called ‘love’). Funnily enough the lock bridge was generated from an episode of sex and the city!
Out tour continued with the following places (see if you can recognise and name any of them):
Did you know that the Eiffel tower makes 48 million a year and only makes 8 million profit due to the light show and repairs!?
Our tour terminated on a green patch of grass where the tour guide told us a story of the 2nd world war when Hitler and the Nazi’s occupied Paris. Hitler was visiting Paris and went to see the tomb of Napoleon. Now, Napoleon had built his tomb down low in the ground so that whenever anyone came to visit him they would have to bend down to look at his tomb and thus, make a bowing action. Hitler, believing himself greater than any other human in any lifetime refused to bend over and bow to Napoleon and thus ordered a mirror to be brought so that he could position it to see the tomb of Napoleon. Unfortunately for Hitler, after trying very hard to position the mirror to see Napoleon, he bent backwards and his hat fell off. Embarrassed at his hat falling off, he quickly turned around and picked it up. Think of that action in your head. The action of Hitler turning around, picking up his hat and standing up created the most formal, noble and respectful curtsey type bow. The second story that the guide told us about lay near the end of the war. Hitler had been worried that the French resistance would re-capture Paris and thus went with the notion ‘well if I can’t have it, then nobody can!’ Here therefore made the order for it to be blown up. The French guy (insert name from Wikipedia) in charge of the whole operation didn’t really want to do it. If he did it, he would be in trouble with the French Resistance. If he didn’t do it, Hitler would kill him and his family. So he was in a bit of a tricky situation. Luckily enough, after receiving the order from Hitler and informing the French Resistance of Hitler’s plans, he decided to make the Grand Palais the first place that he would blow up. This particular building blew up in such a way that created a big black cloud of smoke over Paris that could be seen for miles and miles. Thus, Hitler really believed Paris was burning which gave the French Resistance enough time to re-capture Paris.
The next day was a Tuesday (for all those wondering) and we had to check out of the hostel by 9am. We had decided the previous day to go to the Odilon Redon exhibition at the Grand Palais but unfortunately, it was not open to the public on Tuesdays so we decided just to take a walk along the Seine before attending our walking tour at 11am. The walk was really lovely and gave Alice and I a chance to reflect on our journey together. As we see magnificent places and things most days we sometimes get lost and don’t really give our travels the credit they deserve. It’s nice sometimes just to say ‘wow, we’re in Paris!’
After our great moment of ‘wow’, we headed to the walking tour and fortunately made it this time.
The first destination on the walking tour was the fountain of St Michel (insert information here). I know that’s pretty terrible of me, but I have completely forgotten who St Michel was and why there is a fountain in the centre of Paris dedicated to him. This is where I’ll say to you one of my favourite quotes-‘when life poses you questions, Google has answers’ (that quote came from Google). We then headed to the old palace that the French resistance fired bullets at. Now, you’re probably thinking ‘um Sarah, you haven’t exactly explained why the French resistance fired bullets at this old palace’ and so I will answer you thus; I think it had something to do with the Germans occupying the building and I can’t remember everything about every place we see and for that, I would like to add that I apologise for being human! Haha
We were then ushered down some stairs and stood next to the Seine whilst the tour man told us the story behind a bridge. Now, if you were just a tourist in Pairs or perhaps even a Parisian without knowledge of the history of Paris you would probably just walk past this bridge and say ‘oh yeah, just a bridge with some weird looking faces on it’. Now, (without trying to sound like a promo for NEW EUROPE SANDEMAN’s TOURS) this is what I love about Sandeman’s tours, you find out some quirky information about a city’s history that you would never know otherwise. Did I mention that I love Sandeman’s tours? Sorry, back to the cool bridge…So, King Henry IV built this bridge and called it the new bridge (Parisians are very creative at naming things). This bridge was special at the time because it was made out of stone whereas bridges at the time were made out of wood. After many people laughing at the idea of a stone bridge (they thought it would just fall down, which, it did many times) and years after years of building, the bridge was built and remains one of the oldest bridges in Paris. However, this is not the end of the story. King Henry IV was so happy that the bridge was a success that he held a party for 200 of his closest friends to celebrate whereby he let everyone drink all his excellent quality wine. However, they got through the wine and therefore King Henry IV got out his champagne stash. King Henry IV was so pleased (and drunk) that he ordered everyone at the party to have their portraits done so that they could remember this great night. So, you can imagine 200 drunken portraits of the king’s closest friends or, if you cannot imagine it have a look at this bridge which has all the faces of the king’s drunken friends on it. You see, the king was so happy with the night and the bridge that he got a sculptor to sculpt all the faces from the portraits and put them on the bridge.
We soldiered on to the statue of King someone (once again I have forgotten his name. I think it was either Louis). This king was constantly under threat from being assassinated but was assured that he was invincible (as he had not yet died after so many assassination attempts). Yet, this was his downfall one night in a carriage when he was stabbed by an assassination attempt. He did not die from the first stab wound, but when provoking the assassinator with the words ‘you’ll have to do better than that to kill me’ he saw the assassinator stab a second time and this killed him. It is this statue of the king that the tour guide informed us about the horse he was riding. Because the horse was standing with one front leg up and one back leg up, it meant the king died unnaturally. He continued by filling us in that it applies for 90% of horse and rider statues. If the horse has two front legs up and standing on its back legs, then it means the rider died heroically. If the horse has all feet down then the rider died naturally. So, next time you see a statue you can like us, know how to tell how the rider died. Isn’t that cool!?
Unfortunately for the assassinator, his end was not so great. The king who he had stabbed had generated a sort of ‘liking’ from his people, thus they were quite annoyed by the fact of his death. Therefore, the King’s assassinator was tortured but not just tortured; the people believed that they needed a new harsher method of torture to kill the assassinator who killed their beloved king. So, they created a list and on the top of it was the idea of dipping the man in acid. However, this did not kill him. Next, they dipped him in lead. Yet, once again, this did not kill him. For a couple of days they then took out his organs one by one to see how long he could live for but, he still did not die. The people were very surprised by the assassinator and were get a bit sick of him still being alive and a bit worried that he was invincible. So after all this business of torture they reverted to the old style method whereby they would apply the hung, drawn and quartered technique. This finally killed the man.
After that gruesome story we then headed to a bridge where we would hear a different story, this one, of love. The bridge was covered in locks and the theory behind it is that men buy their ‘love’ a lock to lock onto the bridge. Then, they would give them the key to throw into the river and say ‘now, you have the key to my heart!’ But when you walk along the bridge you sometimes see a combination lock. This is for the guys who have several ‘loves’. They can use another corny line that goes like this; ‘now only you have the combination to my heart’ (the combination locks were handy, for if that attempt didn’t work, the man can simply go back undo the lock and try his corny line on another so-called ‘love’). Funnily enough the lock bridge was generated from an episode of sex and the city!
Out tour continued with the following places (see if you can recognise and name any of them):
Did you know that the Eiffel tower makes 48 million a year and only makes 8 million profit due to the light show and repairs!?
Our tour terminated on a green patch of grass where the tour guide told us a story of the 2nd world war when Hitler and the Nazi’s occupied Paris. Hitler was visiting Paris and went to see the tomb of Napoleon. Now, Napoleon had built his tomb down low in the ground so that whenever anyone came to visit him they would have to bend down to look at his tomb and thus, make a bowing action. Hitler, believing himself greater than any other human in any lifetime refused to bend over and bow to Napoleon and thus ordered a mirror to be brought so that he could position it to see the tomb of Napoleon. Unfortunately for Hitler, after trying very hard to position the mirror to see Napoleon, he bent backwards and his hat fell off. Embarrassed at his hat falling off, he quickly turned around and picked it up. Think of that action in your head. The action of Hitler turning around, picking up his hat and standing up created the most formal, noble and respectful curtsey type bow. The second story that the guide told us about lay near the end of the war. Hitler had been worried that the French resistance would re-capture Paris and thus went with the notion ‘well if I can’t have it, then nobody can!’ Here therefore made the order for it to be blown up. The French guy (insert name from Wikipedia) in charge of the whole operation didn’t really want to do it. If he did it, he would be in trouble with the French Resistance. If he didn’t do it, Hitler would kill him and his family. So he was in a bit of a tricky situation. Luckily enough, after receiving the order from Hitler and informing the French Resistance of Hitler’s plans, he decided to make the Grand Palais the first place that he would blow up. This particular building blew up in such a way that created a big black cloud of smoke over Paris that could be seen for miles and miles. Thus, Hitler really believed Paris was burning which gave the French Resistance enough time to re-capture Paris.
After the walking tour, we made our way back to the hostel. However, as we were on the metro we saw that the stop of the ‘Moulin Rouge’ was on the way so hopped off and took some photos before heading back to our hostel. That night, we headed to a station to meet Remi, whose couch we would be staying on that night (this was to be our first couch surfing experience). It was quite a lovely first experience as we spent the evening having a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower (we even stayed long enough to see the Eiffel tower light up!). However, we were soon reminded that with good comes bad and as we were in a tourist pickpocket hot zone, the bad came in the form of Alice’s purse getting stolen. Luckily though, her passport was not in there.
The next morning brought a new day and a new hope. We were off to Bruges in Belgium! Here we come chocolate, beer and waffles!
Please note. Firstly, for anyone hoping to travel to Paris and experience a romantic, clean and cockroach-free experience, do yourself a favour and do not stay at Friend’s hostel.
Secondly, anyone wanting the worst hostel ever to be able to compare other hostels to, then ‘Friend’s hostel’ is the best! The following is an example of such backpacker chats- this hostel is horrible, but it’s no friend’s hostel’. True story.
I would like to end this blog on a good note and I always like to dedicate a seperate section to the art that we tend to stumble upon whilst traveling. This is a little of what we found in Paris:
Please note. Firstly, for anyone hoping to travel to Paris and experience a romantic, clean and cockroach-free experience, do yourself a favour and do not stay at Friend’s hostel.
Secondly, anyone wanting the worst hostel ever to be able to compare other hostels to, then ‘Friend’s hostel’ is the best! The following is an example of such backpacker chats- this hostel is horrible, but it’s no friend’s hostel’. True story.
I would like to end this blog on a good note and I always like to dedicate a seperate section to the art that we tend to stumble upon whilst traveling. This is a little of what we found in Paris:
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