Sunset on the Seine

On Saturday evening, as the final activity of the welcome programme we did a Bateau Mouche along the Seine at sunset. It was a boat full of Sciences Po exchange students and lots of other tourists and it is about as touristy an attraction as it gets in Paris but you can't deny how unbelievably beautiful Paris is in that golden hour and for a sunset-lover like me it was great.



It's been so hot in Paris over the weekend and though I would rather be on a yacht on the ocean when it's this hot the Bateau Mouche was the next best thing. It was a bit annoying when you were trying to take a photo of the Eiffel Tower though and someones selfie stick pops up in the middle of your photo but that's tourist attractions for you. I know that I have been saying I want to live like a true Parisian and not a tourist but sometimes you just have to indulge yourself and join the masses because its not like I can afford to hire my own boat to sail down the Seine at sunset drinking rosé.



How stunning is the scenery though? Pretty sure if you go down the Thames on a boat it's not this beautiful but that's probably because it's always raining in London. You can imagine the delight when at 21:00 the Eiffel Tower begins glittering and Paris looks even more romantic and magical before.

I just want to instagram these and #sunset the whole time. As you may have noticed, I have magically managed to link my instagram so that now when I post on there it also posts to here so you can always be in the loop. I warn you, though, it will be mainly sunsets, scenery and food (and the odd selfie).  

Cravings #foodporn #dessert #paris

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On fleek ✨ #paris #sunset #toureiffel

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Breakfast 😍 #carbs #bacon #foodporn #france

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#Paris #France #selfie

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Exploring Paris

Firstly, I found somewhere to live! After the longest week of desperately searching and seeing some of the weirdest/worst options in Paris we have finally found the perfect apartment. I am going to be living on my own, which was never the plan, and so i'm going to have to force myself to make a real effort to be social in order to speak as much french as possible, but the apartment is great. It's in the 14éme arondissment, just a bit down from Montparnasse, and on a direct metro line to university. It's in a traditionally parisian old building and it has a separate bedroom and living room which means there's lots of room for family and friends to come and visit. Once I have moved in tomorrow I will take some photos to show you all, but mainly I am just relived that i'm not going to be homeless tomorrow!

Whilst we have been on this crazy rollercoaster of finding a place to live, we have actually got to see quite a few different places in Paris so I thought I would share some of these with you. I have only been as far north as Notre Dame so far but I have plenty of time to explore the rest of Paris. 

This is Montparnasse, slightly north of where I'm living now. It's not an area that I know well, or think I had ever been to before, but there was a nice food market when we were there and there's some cool little shops, lots of places to eat so definitely going to be an area I explore some more. 

We also found ourselves in Les Jardins des Luxembourg where we stopped for a bit of lunch on one of the days. All the days this week have kind of blurred into one because of the stress and being so busy. The gardens are beautiful though and I think I'm actually going back there tomorrow with my welcome programme group. 

   

We squeezed in a quick tourist visit to Notre Dame, said a quick hi to Quasi Modo, marvelled at the cathedral. I have never been inside so that is on my list of things to do this year but when it is less touristy and busy. 

I also bought my first macaroons in Paris. Not from Ladurée but still delicious. We tried chocolate, salted caramel, passion fruit, lemon, pistachio and raspberry. These will be the reason I come home 3 dress sizes larger.


Mum and I have been doing a lot of biking in Paris, partly because it is often the most direct way to get somewhere, and also because it's fun. We even biked home from our amazing dinner the other day, and nearly got lost. It's so easy to hire a Velib' from anywhere in the city and then just put it back somewhere else and its so much nicer than the hot and dirty metro.

 

So there is just a few of our little excursions and adventures that we have squeezed into what has been a really busy week. Its a shame we have been so stressed about accomodation but I'm so grateful for having had Mum here to help with everything and there will be lots of time coming up when we can do proper Paris things for an entire weekend.

This evening we're going to sign the contract on the apartment and then I'm going to celebrate at a boat party. Life living on my own in Paris begins tomorrow...

Never try to find an apartment in Paris, but do eat steak.

I am in Paris with only 2 days until mum leaves and at this rate I am going to be homeless.

I want to love Paris because just look at this stunning sunset from a few days ago....



... but finding an apartment in Paris is near impossible and is ridiculously stressful. Do I want to rent someone's living room for 700+ euros a month? NO. Do I want to share their bedroom for 500+ euros a month? NO. Do I want to live upstairs of a creepy old man who likes to have dinner and conversation with his female students? NO. I just want somewhere to live, either alone, or with people of my own age. I don't want a random room in some random middle aged persons house so that I have to feel like a guest all year. I don't want to live opposite a prison (yes, there is one of these in the 13ème). Why is this so difficult to find?

I had always wanted to share an apartment with french people to improve and practise my french but apparently even french people are hard to find in France. At this stage, I think we have realised that we left this too late and that we should have tried to sort something further in advance. We also didn't appreciate that a) Paris shuts down in August and barely anywhere is open, and b) the whole of France shuts down on weekends meaning two days this week were lost to the french way of life (a.k.a. laziness).

I haven't even had the chance to encounter the problems about not being french or having a french bank account yet because very few people even bother to ring you back about their apartment. This is probably because within minutes of being posted online a listing will have been viewed and contacted many times by other desperate and near-homeless people. It's kind of a nightmare. I am even contemplating renting a different Airbnb studio every month for the year and trying out all the different arrondissements in Paris, but at £1000+ a month i'm not sure how viable this is as an option.

In other news, yesterday we went to an amazing restaurant called Le Relais De l'Entrecôte. I had heard about it on Instagram and we looked in to it and saw it got great reviews so decided to try it. There are a few in Paris and we went to the one just off Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but here's the best/weirdest part: there is only one thing on the menu, steak and chips. We had to queue to go in and then once sat down they ask you how you like your steak cooked (à point) and what you what to drink et voilà!

You get salad to start (no choice obviously):

Then they bring you the steak smothered in their amazing famous secret sauce: 

Followed by a second helping! You actually get bought steak twice here, and if that is not a reason to love it (aside from the fact it is absolutely delicious) then I don't know what is. I have ever been to another restaurant that only serves one thing so it was such an interesting concept that they have clearly perfected and the food was amazing. 

So I might not have anywhere to live but I know where I can get a really good steak.