Birthday in Paris - Day 1

Last weekend I turned 18 - I know, terrifying that I'm an adult now! I spent it in Paris with an amazing friend of mine; Apryl. We've known each other since we were two weeks old, although we were born within minutes of each other in the same hospital, so it's likely we met before then! 

I got the train the whole way from my school apart from the end where I caught a taxi - Parisian taxi drivers go so fast, it was terrifying. We stayed at this lovely little apartment in the Vincennes area, which was brilliant. Out of all the really touristy areas but less than a 15 minute walk from a metro station straight into the centre. On the first morning we headed towards the Bastille, which used to be used as a state prison by the kings of France. We walked around the area and had a super scummy lunch in this little French restaurant - I had steak with green beans and sauté potatoes. I hadn't realised the area had flooded until we walked past this wall with plaques showing how high the water had reached. 

I'm 6' tall so you can imagine how high the water must have been!

In the afternoon we took this boat down the canals in the city - if you ever go to Paris and can spare 2.5 hours I'd definitely recommend it (you catch the boat near the bastille). We went through loads of locks, I think it was a total of 24 in the end. It was really funny because all the people at the front of the boat got wet every time the locks opened! On the boat you go under the bastille, which creates this really eery atmosphere as the sunlight shines down through light wells from the street above. 

The underground canals

The boat was so cool because I got to see so many of the parts that I didn't even know existed. We went through this area that was really arty and everyone was sat eating and chatting on the sides of the canal, in the sun. After, we went up towards Notre Dame and the latin quarters of the city. There's this little bookshop just across the river from the cathedral which is probably the most beautiful shop I've ever been in. It's called Shakespeare & Company. It's absolutely jam packed with books even though it's so tiny. I think they're all books in English but you can get pretty much anything there. There are quotes all over the walls and little nooks and crannies to explore.

Inside the amazing little bookshop

The evening was spent in this little independent restaurant in the latin quarters of the city. I can't quite remember what I had for my main course, I know the meal started with french onion soup and I had veal; whatever it was, it was extremely tasty. Paris is so beautiful at night. The eiffel tower has a little light display every hour for five minutes where it looks like millions of diamonds are glistening all over it.

Our birthday was on the Sunday so we stayed up to celebrate turning 18. We had a little party in our room to celebrate as all the older adults had gone to sleep - boring! It did mean we were quite tired for Disneyland the next day, but it was completely worth it.

Lizzie

 xxx