Hey guys! Welcome back to my blog where I just forget to post and my brain reminds me 3 days later in the middle of the night. But better late than never right? So today's blog post has anything and everything to do with Paris, France. The destination everyone dreams of going to.
If your a movie/book nerd like myself, I highly suggest the movie "Midnight in Paris". Yes Owen Wilson is in it, and no it is not really a comedy. This is by far my favorite movie, and it was the movie that kind of set my mood for Paris.
I met my aunt, uncle, and their two daughters in Paris for a weekend while I was studying aboard in Ireland. Now this family are French experts. My uncle and one cousin (who is 8 years old) are fluent in French, and they actually own a house in Burgundy, France.
They have been to Paris multiple times and acted as my guide.
We of course had to see all the sights while reenacting The Da Vinci Code.
Now I want to point out one thing before talking about my real opinion of Paris, and that's how Paris effects multimedia like social media or blogs like mine.
See Paris, France is probably the most sought out vacation spot (I don't have any real statistics to back this up, it's an assumption), and multimedia is kind of the blame for this. I also can't deny that when I stood "underneath" the Eiffel Tower, I was thinking of the perfect picture to take for my Instagram.
Okay, the reason I put underneath in quotations, is because you can't actually stand underneath the Eiffel Tower anymore. You can't even walk below it or rush up to the queue for the lift to the top. You need to buy a ticket and go through intense security to even be under it. I did not do this.
My family and I just went to the park a couple blocks away and looked up. Now, my uncle was in Paris only four months before this trip and guess what, you could walk underneath it! That just shows how times have changed in this world.
Now back to multimedia, social media is amazing at masking things. This trip to Paris kind of showed me how someone can make a location on a platform of media look so amazing. Since I have been to Paris and experienced it, I honestly can say I don't know if I'll ever go back.
Now Paris is amazing, the architecture is breathing taking and this makes walking around whimsical. I literally mean I felt like I was walking on air instead of cobblestone streets with La Vie En Rose playing in the background. But this whimsical feeling kind of gets ruined by the smell of urine along the Seine River, I don't know how Owen Wilson walked along the Seine without gagging. And the prices of an average meal cost an arm and a leg.
Nothing is free. You can't even walk below the Eiffel Tower without paying. Free museums don't exist. I think it actually cost a couple Euro to even step foot into a church, and I'm talking about a normal church, not even Notre Dome which costs more.
A child can't even play on a play ground without you having to pay something, and if you want to go in to make sure they don't get hurt, you're paying as well.
Now I'm not saying Paris is the absolute worst destination on the planet, but if you're not prepared to lose a couple grand, I do not recommend it. I also do not recommend Paris if you don't speak French or go with someone who speaks French.
Now the only way you can even think of saving some money (and it's still going to be expensive) is to go away from the tourist attractions.
The closer you are to the Eiffel Tower, the more people speak English, but it is also super expensive for everything.
Now if you want to save a couple bucks, you want to go away from these areas, but this means that you also find yourself in an area where you no body speaks English. This could be really difficult if you do not know any French.
If you are not fluent you can not go to these areas.
Now my family stayed in these area because we had people who spoke the language fluently, but this is honestly the only way you're going to save some money. So in conclusion, I do not know if I'll ever go back to Paris, but if I do, I would only be going if I made six figures a year and am going to be fluent in French.
So do not be jealous of that girl that went to Paris on your Instagram, she probably only ate a pretzel from a street cart that day.