Travel

How I spent my festive winter holiday with Paris mon amour

How shall I start my New Year this year?, I thought to myself as I was sat watching television back in December. The amount of times the adverts for Disneyland Paris popping up on my screen is countless. The more I saw them the more tempted I was. Because I have a lot of family in Paris, and it’s been two years since my last visit I picked up the phone and rang my uncle to tell him I was coming over for Christmas and new year.

Time flew by and Christmas day came around and I was due to fly out to Paris. On the arrival to the airport in the UK there was basically no one, it was great as there was no queuing to do at check in and going through security was fast. Maybe I should travel more often on Christmas I was thinking as I sat in the crowd free lounge, makes a contrast to travelling in summer.

When I arrived to Paris Charles de Gaulle, the airport wasn’t as busy as usual but certainly still lively. I left the roads in the UK traffic free, but guess what not in Paris, me and my family were stuck in traffic for 3 hours, on what should have been an hour journey. But you know what there was no time for complaints as the beautiful scenery certainly was a good consolation prize, that somehow made three houses feel like half an hour. I mean who would mind sitting in a car eating French patesserie and looking out the window to see the famous shops of Les Champs Elysées lined up and facing you is the Arc De Triomphe, certainly not me.

The next day I woke up and I could smell the freshly made French coffee and croissants coming from the kitchen, that were waiting to be eaten by me. After that I was off to discover the little hidden gems of Paris, which were the little streets and corner restaurants and cafe’s. Its wonderful to go and visit the main monuments and streets of Paris were all the tourists are. But to get the real taste of Paris you really need to mingle with the locals, who know all the ins and outs there is to know about the best places to be at, eat and stay for less, which is a big bonus especially if your on a student budget.

I spent the next few days walking around the city and ofcourse taking a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and Sacre Coeur. The thing is I love exercise but I am not a big fan of long walks , but somehow Paris has converted me or at least changed my attitude towards it. Obviously you can’t visit the city without taking le métro at least once, to be honest even though a car was available to drive around, I preferred to always take the métro as it was quicker and dropped you off at the exact location without having to wait in traffic for life.

My New Year’s eve was spent with family, everyone came together and my uncle who is a chef made us a typical and traditional French feast, this included Les escargots which are snails. I am usually up for trying out anything, but somehow snails didn’t appeal to my taste buds. After that we headed to Trocadéro where the the Eiffel Tower is to watch a fire work display, however this year there was none, but to be honest that didn’t bother me, because the Eiffel Tower and Paris in general will always amaze me by it’s beauty.

 

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