Bienvenue a Paris…dit donc!

It has always been my dream to visit the city of love, art, and the french cuisine. Throughout the years in school, I have studied Mona Lisa’s smile and the history of the Eiffel Tower, and I was jumping with excitement when I actually got to visit Paris with my school in May. France was among the 5 other countries apart from Czechia and Georgia, that I consider my home countries, that I have visitited so far this year. It is said that the French are masters of stereotypes, focusing on being chic,  eating frogs and their pride of being french towards visitors.  Has this short visit confirmed that? Alors….

We took a direct flight from Tbilisi to Paris that lasted about 5 hours. Having landed, we headed directly to check-in to our hotel, and even on the way from the airport to our little hotel I was already amazed by this beautiful city, comparing all the details to my every day journey to school in Tbilisi. The place named HOSHO located at the south centre of Paris was the coziest hotel I have even seen. The whole hotel painted in bright colors was welcoming us just in time for breakfast with some warm croissants. After a quick breakfast, we visited the Louvre Museum straight away, admiring the Mona Lisa (from a distance through the enormous crowds), re-acting sculptures and famous paintings, and of course, like any other tourist, taking billions of pictures. With the Mona Lisa I had to make a stop to admire of course. Her smile always triggered some sense of sadness inside me, having heard all the rumours and historical assumptions of this beautiful lady in the painting. Like to many others, it raised so many questions about her in me. Was it a real person? Why was she so sad? Some say she was pregnant and lost her child, can that be true?… Of all these questions however, what always intrigued me the most, were her eyes that followed my every step, and I had to walk back and forth a couple of times, making sure it wasn’t just my imagination. Leonardo Da Vinci had really made a mystery to the whole world.

The next week we spent taking boat-trips on La Seine, visiting Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, strolling down Champs Elysees, doing treasure hunts aroung the Louvre Museum, and most importantly of course, the Eiffel Tower, which we sadly  didn’t get to go up, however we saw its light show at night. At any time it was amazing to watch how the french people go on with their daily lives, having a french conversation when buying a soda, and even having a competition of pronouncing the metro stations as we wooshed through Paris. I also loved the free time our teachers gave us, bringing us to a site and then letting us run off and explore it, asking french guards questions to test their willingness to talk to foreigners, and even spinning on the Carousel like five year olds, almost vomiting.

Every single evening, we visited a different restaurant and tried out all the varieties of the french cuisine, to chocolate mousses until we were stuffed. We were also promised to try the French Snails, but sadly we didn’t find a restaurant that would cook us 30 portions of snails. At least we thought of snails studying the map of inner parisien districts / on the map it really looks like snail.  Neither we tried frogs….Shame, was looking forward to tasting them again, it had been a while since we had tried for the first time in Bosnia, in Hutovo Blato not far from Mostar, where it was very traditional dish. Something between chicken wings and rabit…To understand more the Frog eaters…

And of course, like any other tourist travelling to France would do, we filled our suitcases up with souvenirs to bring home, proudly walking down the street with red burees on, wearing “I ❤️ Paris” shirts and the French flags painted on our cheeks, and singing “Oh Champs-Elysees”. We also had many competitions based on taking photos and insights, one of them being the most “french” photo, which I had won by taking a picture with a red buree on, a baquet in hand, scarf around neck, “riding a bike”, (I just sat on a random bike on the street), topping it off by drawing a mustache on with a marker that didn’t come off for couple of days…

I must add though, that travelling with the school and travelling with your family are two VERY different things, both with their own benefits. For example, I knew that if I was sharing a room with my family, I wouldn’t be doing cartweels at 3 in the morning while secretely snacking waffles, and fake snoring. But overall, I enjoyed this trip so much, and I couldn’t believe how fast it had gone by, so when we got back to Tbilisi, we all made a deal to recreate this amazing trip in 10 years, saving all our memories, although I must say it was nice hugging my family again, showering them with all my experiences from this beautiful trip. It seems there is trip to Athens planned for this academic year, already applied, can`t wait to explore Acropolis, diving to the history, but meanwhile…… Au revoir mademoiselle Paris. A bientot j`espere!