Paris – the city of love. Paris has become synonymous with art, fashion, extraordinary food, beautiful architecture, and much more. My sister and I had dreamed of going to Paris for years. This summer, our dream came true. We decided to go on a sister bonding trip since we had not seen each other much since I went off to college.
We booked our flights and we were off. I was expecting Paris to not live up to my expectations. Every person I met that had gone to Paris always claimed that it is the most beautiful city. Truth be told, Paris is every bit as beautiful as people say. The first day there, we decided to just walk around and explore. We had breakfast at this little café where I had the best croissant I have ever had.
We then saw the Champs-Élysée and the mobs of people going in and out of the multitude of stores. We then decided to head to the world-famous Louvre and check out the Mona Lisa.
We decided to walk from our Airbnb which was near the Champs-Élysée to the Louvre. We felt that walking would really help us to appreciate and get to know the city. As we were walking along the Seine River, two men approached us to ask for donations for deaf children. We gave them a couple of euros and they asked us to write down our names, ages, zip codes, and other information. The fact that they asked us for so much information rubbed us the wrong way. Not to mention that they only had a piece of paper that said for deaf children. They did not have anything that looked like it was from an official organization. We just gave them the euros but no information and went on our way.
As we continued on our walk, we then saw a group of four women approaching us. We did not pay any attention until they blocked our path. They told us that they were collecting money for deaf children. We told them that we had just given money to two men for the same cause. The women then said that we needed to donate again. When we refused, they surrounded us and started to shove us. We started panicking and tried to move away from them but they became more aggressive and started yelling at us in a language that was not French.
I was able to break away from the group. After a moment, my sister came running up next to me and yelled, “They tried to open my purse!” I looked at her bewildered and asked what exactly happened. She told me that as I was trying to break away from the lady that was holding me, the other three surrounded her. One grabbed her arm while another was talking really fast to get her attention and then the third was trying to open her purse and get her money out. She then noticed what they were doing and pushed them off and ran after me. It was a very intense experience. We realized that we had to be more careful and that when we notice something is off, we need to leave immediately.
The rest of the day was better. We made it to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. The line to see it was very long but did you even go to Paris if you did not see the Mona Lisa? My reaction to seeing it was that it is a lot smaller than I had imagined.
Overall, even with a few bumps in the road, Paris truly has my heart. Just the sight of seeing the Eiffel Tower light up at night made everything worth it.
Walking along the streets and spending time with my sister truly made it one of the best trips of my life. It made me appreciate everything I have and gave me the energy to start the new school year.
Want to keep up with HCBU? Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, check out our Pinterest board, and read our latest Tweets!