My desire to get to Paris begun with the movie
Before Sunset, starred by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. I liked this movie so much that I thought to myself it is worth to get to see Paris at least once in this life time.
The vacation was planned by us from every point of view, in the sense that we didn't use a travel agency. This can be a risky approach, but on the other hand there are chances to come cheaper. In addition, we (my husband and I) have this huge ego telling us...
What? It's not a big deal to make some flight and hotel reservations! After all it's just another European country, and the Internet is an inexhaustible source of information. You just need to have desire for knowledge.
Before booking tickets I did a little research on some traveling blogs and I want to say that I'm very grateful to
Aliceee, a Romanian blogger, whose posts helped me understand what Paris actually means, before finding out on my own.
We booked airline tickets at the end of May, with TAROM company (we don't have a negative experience with low-cost companies, but I've never heard words of praise about them, therefore we chose as we felt better). Tickets cost us 510 euro, but later I found out that if I had booked the same flights through AIR FRANCE site, they would have cost about 100 euros less. C'est la vie!
We booked the accommodation via booking.com in a location called
Bridgestreet Suite Le Marais and the main thing we had in mind was to take an accommodation a bit more expensive, but in a central area, than a cheaper one, but in one of the marginal arrondissements of Paris ... it would have been more efficient in terms of time and money. We also focused upon booking a studio rather then a hotel room in order to be able to prepare some meals and the morning coffee, without depending on a particular schedule. I'm not saying it was the best choice, but I know we saved some money.
For those of you who don't know, Paris is divided into 40 arrondissements and the arrondissements 1 to 8 cover most of the tourist attractions. We stayed somewhere between the arrondissements 2 and 3, near the Pompidou Center.
Truth be told, we stayed in the heart of the city, but now that I look back, I must admit that we were somehow deceived.
At the time we made the reservation the location didn't have any reviews, but by looking at the photos on the site, we said it looks good and worth trying. However, at that time I didn't read we will not be accommodated in the exact same location where we made the reservation. When we reached the destination, we understood that we will stay in the same area, Le Marais, but at a different address, than the one mentioned on booking.com.
It cost us 85 euros per night (totally 425 euro), but the place didn't look like any of the pictures shown on booking.com. The studio was very small, the bed, which normally had to be a sofa, was actually a metal frame with a mattress (very comfortable, but impossible to gather), leaving room for movement in a lane 50 cm wide. The studio was in an old building (like most other buildings in Paris), with a rather dubious entrance, with wooden stairs, where one day we met a mouse.
The place was quite bohemian, perfect for understanding what life in Paris really means. Although we should have had a WiFi connection, it didn't work. After two days of living there, when reading more attentive the flyers from the room, we found out that the Internet didn't warrant for iPhone, iPad and professional computers (whatever that means, because I work in IT and I have never heard this bullshit). Cable television also was inoperative for the duration of our stay.
We didn't die without TV or Internet, but we paid a full price, so it would have been fair to have them. We didn't bother to make a complaint, but a "nice" review will be done, for sure.
I forgot to tell you that they took the money for the accommodation, from the declared account, about a week before our arrival in Paris (that was according to the plan), and three days before we arrived, they sent us some indication on how to pick up the keys to the apartment. Accommodation started at 16.00 o'clock, which was pretty bad because we got to the location at 14.00 o'clock and it was not an option to visit anything with all the luggage. We made a request to be accommodated earlier, but we didn't have any luck. They said we could bring the luggage to their main quarters and keep it there until our apartment would be available. We decided to wait and it seemed the luck was on our side after all, because while trying to get our apartment earlier, we found a lady who was cleaning these apartments and called the person who was supposed to bring us the keys for our apartment and gave us the good news that we will get them at 15.00 o'clock.
After getting the keys, we had to look for the new address, where we were going to stay. This was quite bad because we were given only a street name and a number.
We had a map, but it was almost like looking a needle in a hay stack. After searching the surroundings a little bit, we found a free WiFi connection and managed to look on Google Maps where was the place where we were supposed to stay for the next five nights. To be honest we would have liked to know this address before getting to Paris. It seems that after all we weren't able to enter our apartment before 16.00 o'clock.
The bathroom was very small and difficult to use for two tall people like me and my husband. You would risk bumping your head against the wall in front of you, while getting off the toilet seat, and while brushing the teeth it was impossible to sit at an angle of 90 degrees because there wasn't enough space.
I particulary liked about the studio the kitchen equipment: coffee maker, toaster, microwave, refrigerator, dishes, items that have been very useful for us (the place had also a induction hob, washing machine and iron board, but we didn't use them)... I also appreciated the fact it was clean.
Everything shown in the attached pictures happened on our first day in Paris, when we basically explored the sourroundings by foot.
For the record, if you are a good walker, all the major landmarks of the city can be seen without the help of means of transportation, because the distance between them isn't so big.
Me and my husband aren't good walkers, but we still crossed Paris by foot, the only drawback was that we ended up with leg pain and fever muscle.
While being in Paris, from 12 to 17 of August, the weather was quite cool. Without a jacket there was the risk to tremble a little.
...to be continued
