Paris on a Backpacker's Budget

Some advice for those who are going to be backpacking through Paris - don't. The ideal thing to do is either stay long enough to get immersed in the culture or book a bus tour, see everything in a day and then leave. The sights were great, but Paris in general is just expensive and dirty. People say the metro in Paris is the most sophisticated in Europe, but I found it just confusing compared to London and stuck to walking every where to save my money. This mode of transportation just made everything take longer. This didn't help in terms of the location of our hostel, St. Christopher's, which was quite far from central Paris. I believe it took us a 45 minute walk everyday to get into central Paris. This was probably the only problem with St. Christopher's though as it was basically a hotel complete with livily bar on its ground floor. Being one of the top rated hostels in Paris, it attracted people from all over. When I first arrived, my room had a kid from Asia, 4 Australians, a Slovenian, a Croatian, a Scot, others I didn't meet, and myself, the American. This made for a good time. Dispite this agonizing distance and active hostel-life, I did manage to make it out and see all the major sights I planned on seeing except Normandy. I'll just leave that for another trip. Anyways, the stop on our list was the famous Louvre Museum. I believe we clocked in at approx. 4 hours, but we deffinitley missed some things. There is just too much stuff. I had to hold back on the pictures as not to bore the people veiwing my album on facebook. So yeah, basically it was heaven. I could have spent the whole day there, but we had other stops to make. After the Louvre, I headed through the Louvre gardens to the famously expensive road heading up to the Arc de Triumph. Now, if I thought the chances of seeing Korey and XT in Bath were slim, how about running into Pheobe Peronto, Chelsea Allen, and Amy Flynn at the Christmas Market as Paul and I made our way towards the Arc. Think about it, first the size of Paris, then add in how I had no idea they were in Paris and they had no idea I was there as well. The chances of it ever happening again are so miniscule, its just mind blowing to think about! Anyways, after a hilarious walk up to the Arc as well as walking through Cartier (one of most expensive jewerley stores in the world), we properly said our good-byes as we hadn't when we left Oxford. It was after this that Paul and I set off for the most well-known attraction in France, the Iffel Tower. It was a harder journey than expected. As we crossed the river the tower was suddenly obscured by the many buildings lining the streets. This, in addition to being farther away from everything than it looks and getting dark and cold out, kept us walking for at least another 45mins. When we finally arrived, the tower lights were on and tour buses we unloading masses of eager tourists. Electing to save money and walk uhp the tower Paul led the way to the point where you have to use the elevator. When we finally ascended to our destination, the city of Paris was lit up to make for quite the breathtaking panorama. However, because it had taken us so long to get there, it was bitterly cold outside and wind wipping so hard, that we only took a couple pictures and left. I mean, I really don't know what else there is to do at that point. You could just walk around for awhile, but you just get in the way of others photos and no wants to be that guy. After reaching ground level and dodging the sworm of key-chain salesmen, we embarked on yet another long and cold walk back to the hostel. The next day was an ambitious one. Paul and I were to visit Notre-Dame and then attempt to travel to Versailles to see the Chateaux. Notre-Dame was an easy find being at the end of my long 1 road walk into central Paris. As I gazed in amazement at the gothic and romanesque atchitecture, I couldn't help but flashback to my many classes with Prof. Ford when he drilled us on the cathedrals many aspects. After walking through and deciding not to wait in line to go up into the towers, Paul and I left for the metro in the hopes of finding our way to Versailles. Long story short, we made it to the Chateaux de Versailles on no help from the French information desk and a blind guess of what train to take. Probably the luckiest moment we've had all trip. The significance of this luck? Only one of the longest walks all trip around the gardens which Prof. Ford had also described and peek into how Louis XIV lived during the summer. The Chateaux was impressive from outside because of its size and golden gate, however, it not until you walk throughout the decorated rooms and around the seemingly endless gardens, do you realize how stupidly rich these French Monarchs were back in the day. The only downfall of the Chateaux was the Japanese Art exibit that was being showcased throughout the rooms. No offence to the Artists, but why would one ever put contemporay art in the already ornately decorated rooms. All these objects did were get in the way of my pictures and take away from the overall grandeur of the mansion. After getting fairly angry with these pointless obstruction, it was nice to escape the tranquility of the gardens (even if it cold out). Prof. Ford always talked about how expansive these gardens were. Now I believe him. It took us 4 hours to complete the main circular path of the gardens. Needless to say, when we returned to the Chateaux, we didn't stick around much longer. I'm guessing it's because of this freezing walk, that I was sic the next day and only left my bed for a quick bite to eat. That's really I have to say about that day. For my last full day in Paris, I was to surprise the Croatian and Slovenian at the book store they opted to stay at and then spend the rest of the day exploring the French catacombs. Just a bit of advice for those traveling to Paris, the bookstore Shakespeare & Company is a place you must go to. The fact that the Croatian and Slovenian stayed there for 2 nights maed me jealous. This place was literally lined with books old and new. I even managed to find a corner of children books, for example, Where the Wild Things Are, which really brought back some old memories. After the Croatian decided to join us, we set off for the catacombs. Again, it was a longer walk than anticipated, but we found them. Sadly, on Mondays they're closed. Who closes on a Monday??? I just don't understand the French at all. So yeah, we didn't get to go into the catacombs and settled for Paris' Pantheon instead. It wasn't anything special except for its pendulum in the center which is rather cool. The Croatian then proceeded to tell me how she'd been in Paris for 3 days and hadn't gone to see the Arc de Triumph yet. Outraged by this poor tourism, I escorted her as far as the monument outside the Louvre which marks the beginning of the long and expensive road up to the Arc. It was here that we turned around because she had to be back for a book reading of sorts at the book store, but she was glad to see it in the distance knowing she would be returning to Paris sometime. Once at the Notre-Dame we went our separate ways and Paul and I got ready for our next country.