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Paris…Paris…Paris…I came, I wandered, I was sassed by a French waiter, and then I left wanting to do it all over again. Per usual, the travel was slightly shambolic, but practice makes perfect and struggle makes adventure.

The recap:

Many Moons Ago: One of my best friends and former roommates reached out to me and mentioned she would be going to Paris with a few friends, a trip I promptly invited myself along to.

Mere Days Before the Trip: I decided to actually purchase a train ticket and make the trip a reality.

Friday Afternoon (The Arrival): I leave work early and arrive at the train station with a hastily grabbed Doner kebap for lunch  and a  good twenty minutes left  before my train is set to depart. I encounter the usual travel struggles—where is my train car? Where is my seat? Why is there a person already in my seat?….you know how it goes. But without too much difficulty I arrive in Paris, bags (plural despite my 2016 travel resolutions #progressisaprocess)  in hand, and ready for an adventure.

It wasn’t too long after arrival that I realized I forget to confirm the communication protocol.

Travel 101: ALWAYS ESTABLISH A COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL, especially when going on an international group trip with two or more parties coming from different points of origin. It was a rookie mistake.

Originally the plan was for me to meet the crew at our Airbnb about thirty minutes after my arrival time. Unfortunately I was about an hour and a half earlier than I originally planned, the opportunity for free wifi was lacking, and my German phone was roaming and racking up untold amounts of  charges (and yes, from country to country within Europe it is still considered roaming…even if you are only a few hours away from home.) With a combination of random café wifi, expensive data fueled g-chat and  Snapchat, I was able to find my way to our apartment in the Saint Paul neighborhood and begin a wine fueled night of fun with my friends.

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Making my way to our Airbnb through the adorable St. Johns neighborhood.

Friday 8 pm (ish) : The night begins. After a few glasses of wine and rounds of 20 questions, we head over to Market, an Asian-French fusion restaurant. I should be ashamed to admit this, but I’m not, I definitely ordered a burger. I was hungry. I wanted all of the food. I got a burger. It was a perfectly cooked burger, but a burger nonetheless. Overall, the atmosphere as nice and the food was good, but not sure if it was as good as the price we paid for it.

Saturday 1 am: At this point we’ve wandered Paris at night, headed to the club, returned to our apartment for a forgotten id and additional pregaming, and now we’re back at the club and ready to turn up. We start at a relaxed club/bar combo with an $11 cover and great music. I couldn’t tell you what it was called or where exactly it was, but it was a great way to start the night (I’m usually more helpful, but this weekend I was just going with the flow!)

After a few songs, a few shots, and some French rap and American hip hop mixes, we head to Faust , a club under the Pont Alexander III Rive Gauch. To be honest, it doesn’t have amazing yelp reviews, but I found it to be a fun club. Nothing spectacular, but the crowd was fun, the music was solid, and a bottle wasn’t too expensive and was available for purchase at the door.

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Saturday Day:

The group is up and out by the oh so early time of 1 pm. We start with lunch at an adorable café just down the street. It’s cute and I’m absolutely in love until the menu comes and I understand absolutely nothing on it. After a few minutes of mindless staring and loads of sass from our French waiter, I tell my friend to order something for me, anything.

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I’m still not exactly sure what I ordered but it was pork and it was good.

 

The next few hours are spent touring the Louvre, walking across town to the Arc de Triomphe and catching the view of Paris from the top.

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I know I should have been impressed by the Arc de Triomphe, but I just saw the different, but very similar looking Porta Sempione in Milan a month ago. Objetively it was very beautiful and you could go to the top!

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Look at those arches though! #CloseUpViews

 

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The journey of 1000 steps to get to the top. I definitely had to take a mini break or two on the way up.

 

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Views from the top.

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A hastily grabbed dinner after tramping all over the city.

Sunday: We do a glancing stop by the Eifel Tower, but unfortunately the top was closed for construction.  One short photo shoot in front of the tower, including but not limited to an epic fail of a piggy back selfie attempt, we head over to the Musée d’Orsay.

 

The building itself was gorgeous and it’s exhibition “Who’s Afraid of Women Photographers” was one of my favorite moments of the weekend.

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Who doesn’t want to start the day with a 5 course brunch menu?

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Sunday Afternoon: I have a party glass of wine with the Paris Squad and post a “Sunday in Paris” photo for the gram before heading for the train station. I briefly get on the wrong train but then I’m headed back to Germany while remixing “Drunk on A Plane” for SnapChat .

Oh Paris. Until next time.