**Note: Trip was taken in October 2018, written in July 2021**
After moving to Europe, my first chance to travel came very quickly.
As an English teacher in Stockholm, I am provided with lots of breaks throughout the school year (honestly they are more like recovery periods, but yeah you get the point). In the fall term we have a break called Höstlov, falling around end of October/ early November.
At the time, I was living with two other first year teachers, right out of university, 22 years old, and also new to Sweden and international travel in general. We all decided we would spend our week off in France.
Our trip was split into three sections: Paris, Nice, then back to Paris before flying back to cold, dark Sweden. We stayed in an adorable AirBnb in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower visible from the entrance. We spent our days shopping, exploring museums and art, finding the best coffee and creme brulee in the city, and finally realizing we were all actually in Europe and it wasn't all a dream- even if the public transportation didn't work as smoothly as Stockholm's!
We did the classics: The Louvre (and yes I played Lorde's song 'The Louvre' on repeat all day that day), Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Museum d'Orsay. One thing on my Paris list is the Catacombs which wasn't a priority this trip. Guess I'll just have to do that on my second visit!
Shakespeare and Company was a must see! An independent bookstore where famous authors past, present, and future write their incredible books. It was an honor to be there and maybe one day I'll find my way back there to write something of my own!
One of my favorite Paris nights was at the classic La La Land jazz bar Le Caveau de la Huchette. Being in a bar, drinking expensive cocktails that would hurt our wallets later, dancing like a fool to an incredible jazz band is as Paris as it gets.
Paris was somehow never on top of my travel list. But after visiting, I can't believe it wasn't.
Read my next post about travels in Nice!