TRAVEL DIARY - Paris

Dear all, here is a big photobomb of my time in Paris two weeks ago! As I may have mentioned before, my mum and I go to Paris almost every year because of several reasons. First of all, it is our favorite city in the world, we just love Paris. Second, my mum teaches French at high school so she likes to keep up with the developments in Paris and of course to speak French. Lastly, Paris is relatively close to the Netherlands. By train, you are able to reach Paris in less than four hours from my home town! Paris can be expensive, but if you go to the right area's and stay at for example an AirBNB place which my mum and I tried out this time, you can really keep costs low. Paris will never be a low-budget city, but it doesn't necessarily have to be super expensive. Because of our frequent visits to Paris, my mum and I have already seen all the tourist highlights and since a couple of years we mostly explore non-tourist neighborhoods. Of course, I cannot leave Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower! (21,22,23) But for the rest, we try to do things that local Parisians do. This time, we went to a lot of museums. We visited the new Islamic art collection at the Louvre (more on that in my next and probably last Paris post), the Haute Couture exposition at the Hotel de Ville and the incredible Chanel Perfume Number 5 exposition (15,16,17,18,19,20). This exposition really blew my mind. First of all, the location, Palais de Tokyo, was amazing! It had a really cool and alternative vibe, as if you were walking around in this huge, deserted palace. The walls were stripped and everything was white-greyish with grafitti everywhere. It is hard to explain, but this is an upcoming, trendy place for sure. You should see it yourself. The exposition was set up by the brand Chanel itself and there were lots of archive pieces to see; photos of Coco Chanel, art that inspired her, advertisement campaigns of the perfume throughout the 20th century; extremely amazing to see and all the pieces were displayed so beautifully! And to top things off: the exposition was for free! My mum and I got really lucky because the exposition was on for only one month. I think it has already ended by now. 

My mum and I also rented bikes for one day, which was something we had never done before, but I loved it! It was cheap, only 1,70 euro's for a day, and exploring Paris by bike makes you see different sides of the city! I really recommend it! We visited two parks: La Villette (7,8,9,10,11) where we spotted this huge and incredible mirror globe, and the beautiful park Buttechaumont (12,13,14). I never knew there were parks this big in Paris! (Besides Jardin de Tuileries). I always thought Paris had a lack of nature and trees, but I was wrong! 

All in all, my mum and I once again had a wonderful time in Paris. Paris never disappoints us :) Sorry for this long post, I hope you enjoyed it though! Have a lovely evening and Sunday!