My first time in Paris
Paris, the Capital of France! My first time visiting the beautiful city I’ve heard so much about. I’ve never been into main Paris before, they say ‘Disneyland’ is Paris, but it’s not. It’s essentially saying that Essex is London, but because it’s a country I’m not from, I just assume it’s Paris. We’ll get back to Paris, but first, let’s take it back to Tuesday 13th December. A cold, wet and rainy morning. 4:00AM alarm goes off, you know that horrible default alarm noise we all have on our iPhones, I can’t explain the noise, but you know the one I mean. It takes about an hour to get up and sorted, 5:00AM, I’m out of the door, heading to my car, wait about five minutes for the screen to defrost, and then, I’m off. Ebsfleet Station is about an hour away. I should get there for 6:00AM, train is at 7:00AM, it’s a good plan, and the traffic was all good. Now, I pre booked the Car Park, I went for Park D, which was obviously the cheapest, and yes, the most furtherest away from the station, it’s all good though, Paris is on the horizon. I walk into the station, go through security, then to grab a Cheese and Mozzarella panini from Cafe Nero.
My train is then called, everybody is always in such a hurry to get down there. It’s allocated seats and everything, so I didn’t see the rush. I’m taking it easy, the trains not even down there yet. The train arrives about five minutes later. Bless my eyes, there’s a plug socket next to my seat. This is crucial for me, having so many things that constantly need charging.
The first leg of the Journey takes me to Lille, this took just over an hour. I have to now change trains with a one hour transfer time. It’s a proper nice train station, it’s very Christmassy. Lights everywhere, music playing and just a nice vibe. The other train arrives, it’s a double decker train, never been on one before, but it’s so much better than the trains we have here ( UK ).
I’m now in Paris, and the first thing to see is Arc de Triomphe. It’s beautiful, like crazy. It’s so cool seeing all these building on google images and movies, but seeing them in real life is mad. As a photographer, it’s just so nice to shoot. The sun is rising and I can tell it’s going to be a great day of exploring.
The next on the list to see, is Norte Dame. Now I don’t know about you, but when I think about Norte Dame, I automatically think of that Rugrats Movies In Paris. Where Chuckies Dad gets married. It’s a pretty cool site, it seems like a very holy place. I walk in for the free tour, which is very good. It’s nice to be able to head into buildings without having to pay. It’s mad, you pay to use the loo, but to into a famous and well known around the world building it’s free. It’s beautiful inside, and I’m blown away by all the star glass windows and architecture.
Once we’ve left Norte Dame, I get an email through on my phone. I booked tickets for the Eiffel Tower online, and it’s the company, telling me that it’s closed due to a ‘ Social Movement ‘. I mean it’s not the best news of the news of the day, but I won’t let it ruin it.
Now, I’ve wanted to see the Mona Lisa for ages now, so I head to The Louvre. Now this must be new, buts it’s a shopping centre attached to the museum. I head to the desk to get some tickets, but it turns out, it’s free for 16-25. So that’s better news!
So there she is, The Mona Lisa ! After pushing past loads of tourists, I managed to get quite a symmetrical snap of the painting. I proper enjoy taking pictures of symmetrical things, they’re just nice for the eyes to look at.
It’s 3PM now, which means in a couple of hours it’s gonna be dark. With this in mind, I head over to the Eiffel Tower. The Metro Line is so clean it’s unreal, the trains are easy to travel and work out and just overall a much nicer system.
I’ve reached The Eiffel Tower, it’s about half 3 so there’s about an hour left of sun. As I’m walking there, the sunset is catching is it beautifully, I can tell I won’t ever forget these hours in Paris.
The Eiffel Tower is mad, it was so gutting that it was closed, but I guess something must of been wrong if a social movement was going down. There’s always a next time, and there will definitely be a next time. Paris you were beautiful and I hope to see you soon.
Josh Dade
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Twitter @Joshdadenew
