France
My vacation in France is over. Getting here wasn't too bad. I took an afternoon flight connected in DC and then DC to Paris. The flights were smooth, layover was easy, no issues whatsoever. Once I landed in France, my friend Caroline and I got breakfast at a spot called Madame Pampa. I'm not even a food person, but as soon as I ate breakfast here, I knew the food in France was going to be different. After breakfast, we hopped on a train and headed to Bordeaux, France.
Bordeaux was such a vibe, and I really enjoyed the city. One thing I noticed quickly is that host/hostesses at restaurants don't really exist. If you see an open seat, you can just sit down there and you'll get served. There were a couple of times that people looked at me like I was an idiot because I was just standing in the doorway, but I was just trying to be polite. Another thing I learned was al fresco dining. When I first heard it, my sister said, 'I can't wait for al fresco dining,' and for whatever reason, I thought she was talking about Del Frisco's Grill. Smh I know I know, how right? Nonetheless, she was right; al fresco dining is amazing.
The nightlife in Bordeaux was a good time too! Our Airbnb was right next door to a club called Calle Ocho, and it was so loud that they had a decibel meter at the bar to show people how much noise the club was making. Outside of this club, there was another bar that had Red Bull as its centerpiece for its table and allowed the patrons to spray bubble guns all over the bar. Even after the bars closed one night, a group of people grabbed a couple of bottles of alcohol, a guitar, and went to the park to continue the party. We even played this game called 'Karate' in the middle of the street and got cursed out by this woman from her balcony. I had a TIME in Bordeaux; if you could, I highly recommend visiting the city.
After a couple of days in Bordeaux, we took the train back to Paris for a couple of days. Overall, I would say that Paris was okay. Not something I'd write home about, but I have a job to do, so y'all have to hear about it lol. I feel like the overall vibe of the city is pretty uppity, and people really wanted to just sit at cafes, smoke cigarettes, drink wine, and talk about why life is bad. It felt like the overall city was down. It felt like you had to try really hard to have a good time. Now, to be fair, we were in Paris during a pretty hectic time. There were a lot of crazy riots happening right before we got there, BUT I did some asking and was told that even though things were a little heavier at the moment, I was catching the overall vibe of the city. My recommendation for Paris isn't as high as it is for Bordeaux, but I still think it's a city that's worth checking out. On our second-to-last night, we were on a mission to find the party and finally did, so in the end, no harm no foul lol.
Something I've noticed overall (so far) is that people don't hate Americans like I was told. For the most part, people have been pretty kind and decent. I even had a few people say that visiting America is a dream, and they wish they could visit. People did have the typical 'American' questions like: do people just walk around with guns all the time? Do you own a cow? Things of that nature. As for the fashion in France, it felt like people chose their clothes as individual items and not as a cohesive outfit. Just 'this is my favorite shirt,' 'these are my favorite pants,' and I don't want my feet to hurt, so I'm wearing sneakers. It doesn't matter at all if they match in color or style. The last thing that really jumped out to me is how much people spoke about the environment overall and how much more seriously people took the subject of climate change.
Overall, France was a good time. The language didn't get in the way as much as I thought it would, and every day that goes by, I get a little more confident that I made the right decision taking the chance of living in Europe until November.
