Paris - Toute Seule

My sporadic blogging has become far more sporadic in the last few months; read - I was too busy/ too lazy/ too uninspired to write anything. However, I am now back from my annual holiday and the blogger in me has woken up :)

I have a tick on my checklist of something new, somewhere new for 2017- Solo Tripping in Paris. Yes, solo tripping - what people are nowadays doing at the age of 21 and 22 and don't consider a big deal; I did it at 31 and it was a very big deal for me. Why Paris, you ask - Amsterdam topped the list of recommendations I received from very many when I started planning my trip. Paris, however was non negotiable for me. The connection is special and the trip was long overdue.

Let me take you back to 1998 and 13 year old me in a corner classroom in school in my first ever French class. It was not my subject of choice - who wanted to study one more subject pfft! I was bullied into it by a family friend who is a teacher herself - French is a far better subject to score marks in, she said and I was sold! New words, more rules of grammar, trying pronunciations came flowing into my world and before I knew it, it was my subject of choice in college and then I landed at Alliance Francaise to study the language some more. It was there that my love for France and the French language grew. We studied not just the language but the culture, the history, the monuments - I remember a time I started making spelling mistakes in my English paper because I would spell the word in French. So Paris it had to be - because in a way, I had already visited it.

So I took a trip to the US to attend my cousin's wedding and was to stop in Paris for 3 days towards the end of April. I landed into a freezing Paris (spring, they called it), super excited about all the fun to be had on this trip and to show off my French - well one of two happened! I got my bags and made my way to the train platform to head to my hostel. Diversity at its very best, we had Chinese, Americans, South Africans, Indians and so many more all looking around clueless, asking each other for help and then passing on information to fellow lost souls. Traveling in any new city especially outside of your own country is a task - it takes a while to get used their system and your senses are on hyper alert mode for a while. An hour of dragging my heavy stroller through Gare du Nord to change trains, getting lost and having walked to the wrong platform twice, I arrived in Montmartre; the artsy district of Paris which is also a hill - Yay for me and my heavy stroller which I, huffed and puffed and dragged uphill. Montmartre, oh Montmartre; you are so pretty. From the many many cafes, bars & restaurants that lace the small streets to the  Moulin Rouge standing very "in your face" and grabbing everyone's attention to the gorgeous Sacre Coeur; Montmartre is a city in a city with its own personality.  Every itinerary for every day was pretty much set even before I landed in Paris - I am not a spontaneous traveler, I tried to be but I failed.

Street Art in Montmartre  *PC - Priya Pillai

*PC - Priya Pillai

Sacre Coeur *PC - Priya Pillai

One of the original windmills in Montmartre *PC - Priya Pillai

I was in a country whose native language I have studied so I didn't anticipate any problems through my trip and I didn't have any issue through most of my travel except one. I got a SIM card with data for my phone so I would have Google maps and enough data to post on Instagram :P But within 2 hours of purchasing this, the internet stopped working. So I dragged myself back to the shop only to find the staff had changed and now I had to explain my perils to the very stern looking French gentleman. The "Bonjour Monsieur" came quite easily and it stopped there. As I begun explaining my peril of internet data not working, I could see the man slowly step away from the counter - It was possibly fear or irritation; I couldn't really tell - I was concentrating hard on translating English to French and then conjugating verbs and putting them in the correct tenses in my head and then spitting them out. By the time I was done, the gentleman didn't take half a minute to try and make sense of my conversation and replied "Je ne comprends pas" (I do not understand). So I gave it a go one more time, this time with gestures; pointing at my phone and the Safari icon and then waving my hand in the air saying "Not working"; he was clearly disinterested this time; paying more attention to the poster on the wall behind me. When I finished my sentence a minute later, the man had a blank look on his face and he didn't even need to say that he didn't understand. I admitted defeat and vowed to come back much stronger (in French)the next time around. The argument was not worth the little money I had paid for the data or worth wasting a gorgeous Parisian evening.

My agenda in Paris was very simple - sleep, eat, walk and repeat. The 'sleep' bit I got just enough of but no complaints about that. The 'walk' bit I did enough and more - I would clock an average of 11/ 12 km a day. Now the 'eat' bit, oh I tried so much and still didn't try it all. I realized I ate every time my eyes came across something tempting which was almost every hour - croissants, baguettes, fresh charcuterie, cheese (oh the cheese!), fresh fruit tarts, macaroons and crepes (o la la) and happily, the calorie calculator was left back in India. I also realized then that the concept of the Knight in Shining Armour does exist. My Knight was the man with the crepes cart who appeared out of I don't know where at Place de la Concorde - It was windy and drizzling and I was freezing my ass off. Just as I started looking for a coffee shop to tuck into, I saw him; the steam from the stove on his cart drawing me closer and closer. The chocolate banana crepe he made was a life saver and for those few moments, I forgot about the cold and rain.

*PC - Priya Pillai

Nutella & banana crepes *PC - Priya Pillai

Fresh Fruit Tart *PC - Priya Pillai

The highlight of the 'eat' bit of my trip was the Wine and Cheese lunch I had at O Chateau, a wine bar in Paris which offers wine tasting packages. The package I had was to sample 5 wines from different regions of France combined with cheese, charcuterie and bread. I have been to Sula in Nashik and done a wine tasting there. We typically get a little bit of every wine that just about allows you to taste it. This was a totally different scene. As the group of 10 strangers sat down at the table, we were poured a glass of champagne - yes not a sample, a glass and I was thinking it's possibly because it is the first drink; it won't continue. I was proven wrong and how! As I just about finished my first glass of champagne, the sommelier came around and topped off my glass - that's right people; 2nd glass of champagne. This trend continue for every wine we had after that; because (and I quote my sommelier) "why waste an open bottle!". So there we were; 2 hours of the lunch - 8.5 glasses of wine and tons of bread, charcuterie and cheese later, we finished our happy conversation, wondering how we would carry on with our day.

Wine & Cheese Lunch at O Chateau *PC - Priya Pillai

*PC - Priya Pillai

*PC - Priya Pillai

*PC - Priya Pillai

My travel log for the three days included checking out the Louvre, walking the 2 km stretch of Champs Elysees, checking out the Eiffel Tower during the day as well as at night and climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe among other things. Touristy things in Paris, check.

This was a super start to my solo tripping journey and I am gonna ignore the few small things that went wrong. Paris was everything I had read about and more. Three days wasn't enough, France has a whole lot more :)

At the Louvre *PC - Priya Pillai

Climbing up the Arc de Triomphe *PC - Priya Pillai

Arc de Triomphe *PC - Priya Pillai

Notre Dame *PC - Priya Pillai

Eiffel Tower *PC - Priya Pillai

The Thirsty Travelers Part 2 : A bite of the Big Apple

After a halt at Zurich and a total of 17 hours, the sisters landed into JFK. Emotions were overflowing. The relief of finally getting out of the flight, the excitement to be in our favorite city in the world, a wee bit of anxiety to clear immigration smoothly and most of all, super happiness to see our friends Sue and Pete who were providers of our lodging and boarding in NYC.

Immigration took an hour and half to clear; well couldn't complain we were at one of the world's largest airports in passenger volumes. Once out, and in one of NY's famous yellow cabs, we started savoring all the sights that passed by us. NYC never looked better. The city invites you in to hear, observe and be part of its enchanting spirit. My friends' place was perfectly located in the heart of the city and everything was a walk away. Yes, one walks a lot in NYC. Its the best way to see all that the city has to offer with its street markets, the massive stores, super eateries etc. 

Sue was a doll who had a list of where we HAVE to eat and what we MUST see. The amount of food consumed in 5 days there was next to incredible. From Shake Shack burgers, to Magnolia Bakery, to Turkish food at Baba Ghanoush, classic American food at Big Nicks, Chipotle ( the one i miss the most), Gray's Papaya, Phebe's, Sbarro's and i forget the rest :D We had decided we did not want to do any major touristy things so Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller center were not on our list. Instead we went off to Coney island. So after a super lunch at Nathan's ( yes food again); it was time to explore the amusement park. Now when compared to the Disney theme parks, Coney Island may seem severely outdated. However there is a charm in visiting America's oldest amusement parks. The boardwalk, the beach and then the rides it was an awesome afternoon. One can get lost in the melange of people all there to spend a beautiful summery afternoon. 

NYC also meant shopping and one day was dedicated to that. We landed in the holy land of all shoe lovers - DSW. I think I could live there and be very content. We never realize how time flies (and money of course) in a shoe shop. So about an hour or so and 3 pairs of shoes later we emerged to do some more shopping. Nordstrom, Victoria's secret, Old Navy and many stores later we started formulating ideas of how we were going to fit it all in our suitcase. 

The 3 girls decided to do a girls' night out and what a night it was. A couple of shots and many drinks down and stories were pouring away. We can pretty much figure how our night went with all the pics we took too; starting with us sober to what am i doing here :D. We encountered some of our fellow drunken brothers and sisters; all of us at one pizza place to satisfy our hunger pangs. We were entertained by one's singing, and were invited to join another in an after party sorts. The night is always young in NYC they said, but we went home !!! Another fun place we visited was a speakeasy club called Milk and Honey. It is supposed one of those secret, non advertised, non fancy looking places where one enjoys exotic drinks. We loved the concept of the secrecy but it did take us a while to find. Somehow for all the ype we heard, it didn't quite live up to the expectation; an experience none the less. 

NYC was most about all the conversation we had; the chatting never ended. We reminisced college days, friends circle, how we have all changed over time, ex-bfs, what kind of losers we used to be, and those innumerable hilarious stories.The wine kept flowing and so did the stories. We have a million photographs capturing each place we visited - central park, hi line park, times square, chelsea market, Grand Central and so many more - each one with its own story to tell. 

5 superbly spent days later, it was time to move on to Boston !!! See you there ...