Heyya nomads!
Hope you’ve been keeping well and 2018 is treating y’all well so far. After a long hiatus, I am finally back & since it’s the love month, I threw it back to my experience in France since it was one of the countries that I fell in love with. I definitely could not help but reminisce about my last visit there…
With a Schengen visa, most tourists would make a trip to almost every country in the European Union. I was not to be left behind. For the longest time, I’d spoken to my cousin Esther about visiting the ever beautiful and glorious Paris. After Germany, it was pretty obvious that our next stop would be France.
We set the trip for the last weekend before I returned home and we decided we’d travel by bus. This would give us a chance to see the country as we journeyed to Paris.
We arrived at the bus station and took off at 10 pm, taking us about 8 hrs to get to Paris. We got to the city about 6 am and had a quick breakfast before heading to our hotel. We got to our hotel in Clichy and got some rest for about two hours, freshened up and headed out.
Our travel guide issued with train tickets to the city, I was beyond ecstatic. My dreams were finally coming true. Our first stop was at the Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s quite breathtaking and dwarfing at the same time. There were plenty of tourists and this made it quite challenging to get photographs without someone accidentally walking in to the shot, bummer!
We headed out and checked out less famous sites but what caught my eye is that most of the structures are quite old and historic, with many built in the 1400s and are well maintained. The River Seine is located smack in the middle of the city, and is quite eye-catching and had tourists enjoying boat rides in the afternoon.
Our next stop was the Notre Dame Museum, and there must have a million people there 😊. Everyone was hovering around the Louvre waiting to get a picture. We had lunch shortly after and got a chance to recharge. Exploring cities is no easy fete, and you need to prepare yourself for hours of walking. Having the right shoes counts too, you don’t want to have aching feet at the end day. In your backpack, carry some water and sunscreen, the heat can be unforgiving.
After our brief break, we headed out to the Eiffel Tower (*stifles scream*) which was a half hour’s walk away. I couldn’t help but gawk at the beauty around me, Paris is really, really beautiful. I also got to meet a bunch of guys going to a gay pride festival, yaay me. I digress!
My excitement had my stomach knotted up as we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, I was ecstatic. It was such a marvelous sight and quite bigger than I expected. And as expected, there were tons of people there queuing to go up the tower. We opted out of queuing as it would take us forever to get up. We instead took an hour’s boat ride exploring the city some, and had some cocktails as well. Boy, it was everything I would have wished for and more.
We settled into the restaurant at the base of the tower after our boat ride. As we waited for our dinner to come, we went over to some traders who were nearby selling some souvenirs. I picked a few items and we headed back to the restaurant to have our dinner. That’s when we realized that we’d been pick pocketed and we lost everything. My cousin’s wallet was gone and it had 400 Euros (KES 40,000), our train tickets, her ATM cards, everything! We tried tracking down the traders but this was to no avail. We spoke to the police but that too bore no fruit. We thank God for our Travel Guide though, he paid for our dinner and found a way for us to get back to our hotel and even gave us some pocket money. Shout out to all the humane people out there!
After all that drama, we got back to our hotel ordered some wine and settled in for some R&R as we prepared to leave for Germany in the morning.
We woke up to some mean breakfast at the hotel then took a walk around the city of Clichy. We later headed to the bus station and were off to Germany by midday. The ride was awesome, the views were A-mazing.
At around midday, we set out back to Germany which was quite the ride because the views were break taking.
PS: Paris is a must visit! Highly recommendable.
However, you need to be cautious as you tour the city. France is a host to many refugees who are out to take advantage of vulnerable people, including tourists. It was unfortunate that we fell victim to the pick pockets, but the experience was unforgettable.
All in all…Happy viewing!
Love & love,
Haziz
Haziz the Nomad 
Great article. I need to add Paris to my Bucket List. After living in Nairobbery how did you get thugged in Paris of all places. And i am still stuck on the Gay pride …yaay me? Good stuff.
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You definitely should! Loved the gay pride vibe going on, it was an experience by itself. About the robbery, in my defense my cousin (who has lived in Europe for 15 years) was the one with the bag the whole time so her guard was down the whole time… I don’t think that would have happened to me if I was the one carrying that bag because #thuglife lol
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