The following day I woke up bright and early to breakfast by Claire before I kept exploring Paris! Her apartment was in the 11th arr...

Paris (Part 2)

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The following day I woke up bright and early to breakfast by Claire before I kept exploring Paris! Her apartment was in the 11th arrondissement and the sunrise view was spectacular! Right from her breakfast table we could see the sun come out and the sky change to different shades of pink, violet and blue!

The start of the sun rising




 From her apartment I took the metro to Blanche and got out by the Moulin Rouge to go check out Montmartre and Sacre Coeur.


 I loved walking up and down the streets and looking at all the bakeries, shops, and cafes full of people having coffee and croissants.


All the stores on my way looked very "chic", even the grocery store had all the fruits and vegetables perfectly arranged and colour coded. My favourite store was the fromagerie, the cheese shop!

Seafood shop!

So pleasing to the eye!
So many cheeses!!!!

"Wake Up and Be Awesome!"
My first stop on my way to Sacre Coeur was at the Wall of Love, a huge wall with "I love you" written 311 times in 250 languages!



 From there I walked up, up, and up until I reached Sacre Coeur and the beautiful view of Paris!


Me, myself, and the sacre coeur!

From there I walked to the bohemian neighbourhood who used to be home to many of the most wonderful artists of all time such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Dali, etc.
One walks there and starts to wonder how that placed looked like in the 1900's but then hit with reality of amateur artists going after tourists to draw their faces for a couple of Euros. I couldn't help but wonder what Toulouse- Lautrec would think of what Montmartre has become; would he be ashamed that once a place of socialising and inspiration has become a tourist trap? Would he think that Montmartre has lost its charm of a neighbourhood full of cafes and cabarets where intellects could gather to a neighbourhood full of expensive souvenir shops and sketchers? 




 Even the main plaza looked a little different than I remembered it! Before all the artists drawing people were sitting in the plaza so one could walk around and see if the person looked anything like what was being drawn on paper. Now they are all scattered around the streets so can't actually see what they are drawing. Maybe I was also too early in the morning to get the real vibe of Montmartre.


Artist on his way to work!
How cute?
From there I hopped back into the metro and headed to Le Marais to meet up with my friend Tristan who I met during my week long camping trip in the outbacks of Australia. 
We first started by eating a falafel at L'As du falafel, which I recommended because I remembered it being the best falafel on earth when I had like 10 years ago! 
Sadly (like many things in Paris) it wasn't the same; it was no longer a one guy stand with a small window and a long line. It had grown to a sit down restaurant selling 10euro falafels. The taste? still good but nothing extremely exciting.

 After lunch he took me for a walk around Le Marais and we stopped at the Uniqlo (very unique) store.  The clothing company is inside a refurbished factory, giving it a really cool touch!

 From there we kept walking along the Seine and chit chatting (made sure to take a selfie):


 And we said our goodbyes by the mosque.



 I kept walking and taking all of Paris in! I think no one can ever get bored of walking around Paris!

Then I surprisingly made it back to Notre Dame...



In love with the quiet and charming streets!


 I was then back in the Marais...

Paris is ready for christmas!


 If there is a place that reminds me the most of Paris in my trip in 1995 I would say it's Pompidou. One day they took us on a field trip to the kids museum and I remember running around like crazy, touching everything, there wasn't a museum like that back home, I think we were all in heaven. 
The one thing that is ingrained in my memory is one huge room with a projector, the projector would show a picture and then we would get hit by the smell. The two pictures that I remember where a farm, followed by the smell of cow poo, and then a big gum bubble, followed by the smell of very sweet bubble gum... I loved every second of it!

Centre Pompidou from the outside
I kept walking until I got to a pedestrian street and a Christmas market!
I couldn't believe that even McDonald's sold macarons! (Didn't try them though)
I did try nutella crepes.. like a couple of times!

 The interesting thing about this christmas market was that most of the things were edible, mostly in the form of cold meats, I found it to be super weird! I couldn't imagine walking to a friend and saying: "Merry christmas, here's a sausage for you!" (or a piece of dehydrated tofu! haha)




 My last stop was the same as my first, I made it back to the louvre to see the pyramids with the night light (in reality I was hoping for a nice sunset but all I got was a wintery grey sky!) 



 My quick stop in Paris was perfect... now off to London!



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com