Paris

Paris, Paris…

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.

 – Friedrich Nietzsche

Well…to some point he is right. Artists reign this city. To whatever point we are talking about. If it’s the fashion artists, paiting artists, life artists…you can find them all there. Paris is manifold and colorful. Up on the picture you can see the Eiffel Tower (Le Tour d’Eiffel) which is the landmark of Paris. You will see more picture below.

Paris consists in 14 underground lines. A special effect of the stations: all the seats differ in their design from station to station. Usually it is pretty easy to get around by underground. It might seem to be a bit confusing at the beginning, but it’s easy to grab.

The Eiffel Tower is the must-visit in Paris. If you are early in the morning there, around 30min before it officially opens, you will wait for around 90min in order to go up. Doing so is nothing for people being afraid of height. Nevertheless, it is an amazing view (if you catch a good weather) and an incredible feeling.

If you don’t want to go up that high, I recommend the Arc de Triumphe. It is located at one end of the Champs Elysée and the underground station Charles de Gaulle – Etoile. Definitely, those buildings are probably even more beautiful when you check them out during the night.

During one of your walks through Paris, you will also pass by the Seine where I heard of suggestions of doing a boat ride during the evening which should be a really nice experience.

If you walk down the Champs Elysée (pic above), you will get to Place de la Concorde where you can find an obelisque. If you head the street further on through a nice park…

you get to Le Louvre…

where you find the famous glass pyramid. You can enter easily where you find Starbucks, an Apple Store, and many other shops besides the museum.

Regarding food, as in most touristic cities, go away from the touristic spots in order to find the good an affordable places.

Yet, as I stayed with Ghanian friends, and later Nigerian friends joined us, we cooked African food mostly.

Another attraction one has to visit, no matter which age, is the Disneyland Paris which lies around 45min outside of Paris, but conveniently reachable by the RER B train from Charles de Gaulle – Etoile. We had so much fun going there and there is something for everybody.

I saw Micky Mouse, Tigger and so many other childhood characters I dreamt of.

Current entry prices for adults for 1 day & 2 parks: €74. If you have a student ID, you will pay €48.

Back to the city of Paris. Even if you just walk through the city, it is very relaxing and a nice scenery. The artist district Mont Martre invites to take a longer walk and enjoy the artistic side of Paris. If it’s letting someone paint a cartoon of you, getting a nice drawing or some extravagent clothes – it is worth spending your time there.

When you passed by Mont Martre, you will automatically see Le Basilique de Sacré-Coeur.

Here you can again get a nice view over the city…

One last point. Nightlife. Just try it. If you are not dressed very very very well, you won’t get in anywhere. And don’t try to enter as a group, they will not let you or ask to pay a bottle of whatever. So, always enter as a maximum of 3 people. The best is 2.

Paris will see me again!

My personal opinion about the people: They actually talk English but don’t really love it. I got way farer by using French, even if it’s not very well, but I just practiced. And you anyway can just learn a language by speaking it. Another point which really surprised me in Paris was, that there are a lot of Africans…I would say nearly 50%. And, in my personal point of view, they were the friendliest.