Celebrating Bastille Day in Paris - France

Arriving at Bordeaux in the afternoon of the 12th July, we stayed at a young couples home through Airbnb. Not much happened here, we had plans to go see the Water Mirror, instead we stayed home, planing our next week of accommodation and drank wine, which is a must do. Bordeaux is a famous wine producing region, with over 250 thousands acres of vines. If we were staying for longer, we would have done a few wine tours through here, but we were up early the next day to travel the rest of the way to Paris.

When we arrived to Paris, the public transit was a little difficult to maneuver through. We were travelling with our Interrail tickets which required ticket inspectors and train station staff to look at and confirm their validity, but most of the stations we travelled to were unstaffed and had machines instead to touch tickets on, which our tickets were not compatible with. So we Mission Impossibled that shit and climbed the fences with our baggage.

Some more transport problems later and we got to our last stop. Again, we booked with Airbnb for 2 nights in the area of Velizy-Villacoublay, an hour away from the Eiffel Tower by public transport. It took probably an hour to find our accommodation. There were 3 apartment buildings in the area and the app did not list which building or where the entrance was, so we were looking and looking. We called and they finally answered the phone and came down to meet us.

The first night we just bought some groceries for our time here and decided on what to do for tomorrow since it was Bastille Day. We got up early and travelled to Avenue des Champs-Elysées for the Military Parade. The streets were packed with people and law enforcement. We did not get to see the parade but we saw lots of military planes and helicopters fly over head.

After funnelling out of the street, we walked to the Louvre Museum for the free entry deal they had on and of cause, to see Mona Lisa. We weren't the only ones making the most of the free entry deal. There was a waiting line but we got into the museum within 15 minutes. After that we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to get a spot on the grass before it got busier than it already was. Majority of the streets were blocked off for the day and we had to follow the detour signage to the Eiffel Tower. Before we went into Champ De Mars park, we grabbed some lunch and drinks to take in with us. We got to the security check and they weren't letting people in with their own drinks so we did the sneaky and threw them over the fence, went through bag search and picked them up again. That was a success but wearing black today was not. The sun was blazing and all we had was a jacket to protect us from the sun for the next 4 hours. We managed to score a decent spot on the grass but sitting and waiting really took it out of us. The sunset was gorgeous and it lasted for ages so I managed to get some great photos the tower with the sunset in the background.

They started the orchestra up and we had an hour and a half of French Opera sung to us. It started to get darker and they turned on the sparkly lights on the tower and wow, just wow. The orchestra stopped and then the lights and fireworks show happened and I gotta say, it was worth it. 4 hours of waiting for a 30 minute display of music and fireworks linked up on a timer. Not behd, gud toimz.

Once it finished, a tsunami of people took to the streets and people were chanting and being drunk. We grabbed a bite and were deciding on whether to find something else to do in the city or to go back home. After struggling to find a place that was serving food at this time, we found a Chinese shop, quickly smashed that down and were both ready for bed. So we jumped on a train home and went to sleep.

We slept in a little and packed our things to head to the station as we were bound for Strasbourg for 2 nights. Our train was leaving late in the afternoon so we put our baggage into a locker at the station and went out to get lunch. Made the mistake of needing something out of my bag after I had closed the door. Tickets weren't redeemable so I had to pay for the 20 Euro locker fee again. We hired those Lime Scooters which were a hellava lotta fun, just scooting around at 20km down the streets. Did our own little tour of Paris in style. Lunch time came and we found a British pub grub bar and stopped there. When it came time to leave, the scooters we parked out front were taken so we had to find new ones and there were none in the area. Our train was leaving in 30 minutes and it was a 15 minute ride there. We found 2 scooters but the battery was super low. We booked them anyway and starting legging it down the road back to the station. The battery started flashing half way through and as we pull up to the station it dies. So so lucky with that. We drop the scooters, sprint into the station to get out bags. 5 minutes till the train leaves. (Mission Impossible theme song starts playing) We grab our bags and run to the platform. Train is getting its last call.... but we make it! Sweating and out of breath, we drop our bags on the luggage stand and take a seat.

Remember the American girl in Berlin who told us to check out Strasbourg? Well, we were about to.

Arriving to Strasbourg station, transport was much easier here. We got a tram up to the street we were staying on and walked about 5-10 minutes to the Airbnb we booked. Found this one much easier than the last one thankfully. Our host Claire let us in and we were greeted by her cat, Scotch (little shit) and she showed us around her home. She spoke broken English but knew and understood enough. She had put together some maps and info for us about Strasbourg and what was in the area worth exploring. We didn't have anything planned for our time here so we were open to anything. Our room had a balcony with a pretty good view so we had dinner and breakfast out there each night. The next day we went into the heart of Strasbourg, Petite France. A little island surrounded by land.

The vibes here were incredible. Another great day with the weather, so we spent the whole day walking around and exploring. It was a little slice of heaven, the restaurants and cafes were set up outside under the shade of trees and umbrellas. The sound of water from the waterways flowing under the bridges connecting each place. And the architecture and design of the buildings! It was bliss, all the wooden panels on the outside, painted Chestnut brown, and the buildings themselves, Pearl white.

We stopped for lunch at La Corde a Linge, Perfect scenery to match the mood. Then made our way over to Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg which was amazing. I filmed quite a bit that day with my drone. The structure of it on the outside is definitely something to see if visiting Strasbourg.

We walked around a little more and then made our way to to our Airbnb. We needed to buy some sausage for our stroganoff but forgot the shops in the area close earlier than expected so we had no sausage. We were making our way back and there was a pizza place open. We tried our luck out and asked if they would give us a small container of cooked meat which we would pay for. They gave us some but for free which was super kind of them.

We cooked and ate and watched a few movies that night.

Well our time in France was done. We got to eat Baguettes and drink wine. Also had a bomb Creme Brulee in Paris. Strasbourg supplied the goods with its cute little village and cafes. In the morning we left just after lunch time on the train bound for Zurich, Switzerland for the next few days.

Will update you all in next weeks blog on our time spent in Switzerland.

Cheers, legends.