Paris and the Cork Folk Music Festival

I want to brag on my friends a little bit in this post and say I have the best ones out there. Before I even left Philly, three of my closest friends bought super cheap flights to Paris and told me they’d see me for fall break. I had been looking forward to this trip since before I even got on the plane to Ireland!

Unfortunately, their super cheap flights turned out to be super sketchy also, and after many snafus, we flew into different airports. I was stuck in a notoriously rude, French speaking country without a working phone, and it took me three different trains and much panic to reach our Air BnB.

After being given a chocolate croissant and some Takis (did I mention my friends are wonderful?) we made our way to Montmartre and the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. From the front steps we had a beautiful view of Paris in its early evening glow, and we got to catch up while we people-watched before enjoying an amazing dinner in an outdoor cafe. On a whim, we decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the weekend. For me, the symbol of traveling to Europe is the Eiffel Tower, and it was not smaller in person or weird looking or disappointing the way the biggest tourist attractions often turn out to be. It was gorgeous all lit up and not nearly as crowded as I’d feared. The only negative was that there were HUGE rats running around-I’m talking the biggest rats you’ve ever seen, which was quite freaky to say the least. Our night ended with cheese, baguettes, and wine back at the apartment: the perfect night.

The next morning we headed to Versailles, which was about a 45 minute train ride from where we were staying in Paris. I knew nothing about Versailles before, and to be honest, don’t know much more about Versailles after visiting since we didn’t do any sort of guided tour, but the palace was beautiful and every room was stuffed to the brim with artwork, all of it looking very impressive, old, and oddly familiar. I got in for free since I’m currently an EU resident, so that was a bonus. But the real highlight of that trip turned out to be the macaroons we at bought Laduree. We’re honestly still talking about them. From there we had Crepes at another outdoor cafe and walked around the town of Versailles a bit, which I liked because it was quieter, cleaner, and less crowded than the city.

Next we headed to the Notre Dame. It’s a beautiful building and served as a great photo op along the Seine River, but in all honestly I found this landmark slightly underwhelming. We weren’t willing to pay to go to the top, and after staring up at it for a few minutes, we felt we’d taken it in properly. One thing that surprised me about Paris in general was how dry it felt and how much sandy/gravely ground there was in the public spaces, and I ended up covered in dust after visiting the Notre Dame and setting my bag down to take pictures. We took our time exploring the surrounding area which was nice, if very touristy, and we popped into the famous Shakespeare and Company Bookstore for coffee, books, and more photos of course. Dinner took us back to Montmartre because we were craving Italian food and had seen a lot of Italian places there, which was another thing that surprised me about Paris. There was A TON of Italian food!

The next morning got off to an indecisive start, and we spent quite a while wandering and waiting in the Metro station. That honestly might be my most prominent memory of Paris: the Metro. We spent what felt like a huge percentage of our trip on the Metro, which was almost always completely packed. I really wasn’t prepared for how big Paris is; I’d always thought of it as old and narrow and almost quaint. But it’s actually a huge city and feels way more modern than I would have ever predicted.

Despite our slow start, this turned out to be our best day. We decided to start with the Arc de Triomphe, which is basically just a large arch-shaped monument at the end of a really classy street. We ate breakfast at a cafe on one of the less expensive side streets and absolutely stuffed ourselves with bread, crepes, and croissants like expert tourists. The Arc de Triomphe is on the Champs-Elysees, which is said to be the most famous street in Paris, and it was easy to see why. Expensive brand-name stores lined both sides, and the street itself was extremely wide and extremely grand. I think one of the reasons I thought this stop was so fun was because I had no expectations. I hadn’t heard of the Arc before, so getting there and seeing how big and pretty it was was just a bonus!

Unashamed of the fact that we looked like the biggest tourists in the world, we bought a baguette and a bottle of (real) champagne and decided to have a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower. I was again pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowd, and we were able to get a great spot to sit and soak up the weather. Between the champagne, lack of sleep, and a flying cork from our champagne bottle, we were all pretty giggly at this point and had a great time making up stupid ways to pronounce French words (Shampugena, anyone?).

After a long walk on the Siene we were at a bit of a loss for what to do next, so we decided to just pick a famous sounding neighborhood on the map and head there. We ended up walking around the Luxembourg Gardens and grabbing dinner, which was a very relaxing end to a jam packed weekend. Restaurant culture in France is everything its cracked up to be. The food is incredible, and they encourage you to linger at your table long after your meal is done, not bringing the check until you practically chase them down to ask for it.

I’m so happy I had my friends with me on this trip to Paris because I’d have to say my impression of the city wasn’t amazing. There certainly wasn’t anything wrong with it (it’s Paris, for goodness sake. How dare I even try to rate it), but the more I travel, the more I’m learning what I like. To me, all of the factors that I don’t like about big cities outweighed the historical aspects of Paris, making it feel more like I had taken a trip to New York for the weekend than to arguably the most famous city in Europe. However, I do think that your budget probably makes a huge difference in Paris, and if you want to shell out to stay in the best neighborhoods, eat in the nicest restaurants, and take all of the tours, you might have a completely different experience.

After emotional goodbyes and a short flight, I was unbelievably happy to land back in Cork. I could have not have made a better location decision, and I am already thinking about how horribly I’m going to miss Cork and Ireland in general after this semester.

Before leaving for my trip I had gotten tickets to the last concert of the Cork Folk Festival, so my housemate Alyssa and I headed there shortly after I got back. Kate Rusby is an English folk singer that I’ve loved for years, and she happened to be headlining the festival. It turned out to be the best concert I’ve ever been to! The openers were from the county over and played a whole mix of traditional Irish ballads, original songs, and even polka. And Kate herself had the best voice I’ve ever heard and took the time to tell stories about the meaning behind each song she played. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any photos or videos, but check below for a picture of the venue, along with a million touristy Paris pictures!

Cheers!

Summer

P.S. Please enjoy the last row where I fail at cliche tourist photos with national monuments.