Birthday in Paris

 2 years later, I finally got to write about my most memorable birthday - very first solo trip in Paris. It was totally unexpected and wasn't easy. My assignment in UK was initially to be 3 months long which isn't enough time to get Schengen visa. However, it got extended and, on receiving 3rd salary slip, the first thing I did was to book the slot with French embassy in London which wasn't until 6 weeks later which was barely a week before my birthday. It seemed about impossible to get the visa in that duration unless I am a VIP, but I took a leap of faith and made the bookings. At first, I thought of going to different place like Nice or Monte Carlo. But it was strongly recommended to go to a familiar place when travelling alone for the first time and Paris is the only place in Europe I visited twice before. 

After noon of the day before my travel date, I got the message that my visa arrived. The commute from Crawley to collect my passport is full of hurdles. I almost gave up on the hope that I would be able to reach before embassy after closely missing on every connecting train I planned to take. I reached at 4:28 PM i.e., 2 mins before closing and, shaking like a leaf from running so fast, I got my passport from an annoyed lady at the counter. 

Next morning I got into the bus from Victoria station. Just before noon we had a rest stop but I didn't get any food expecting the ferry crossing across English Channel will give me access to better restaurants. To my dismay, the crossing was underwater and there was no ferry and no food and no other stop till we reached Paris. The hotel I booked is only 15 mins away from Eiffel Tower and I wanted to call my friends and family by midnight in India. That did not give me any time to stop in between and after checking into the hotel, I immediately started to Eiffel tower ignoring the only ATM on the way hoping to reach the second floor and have a nice dinner with view.

 

The huge line for the tickets made it clear that it will be impossible to get in less than 2 hours. Determined to at least talk to my family as planned, I made video calls which exhausted the data. With no food for 24 hours and no sleep for 36 hours and no Euros to take transport and no internet to get directions back to the hotel, I started panicking slightly. Thankfully I was able to call my sister, gave her some restaurant names around and got the way back to hotel. I later came to know that, unlike my previous trip few years ago, mobile bundles from UK were working in Europe - all I had to do to change the settings and I could use my unlimited internet bundle.

Just before our hotel is a restaurant which servers African cuisine - the only factor that mattered was that they accept cards. 

 

Dinner, though not what I planned, was quite good and I did get a view of Eiffel Tower.

Completely drained from the long day, I retired for the day. My birthday was lot better than day before. I had a breakfast from hotel buffet and spent the morning shopping in famous Citi Pharma in Saint-Germain-Des-Pres. Knowing that I would spend more than 175 Euros, I took my passport for getting tax return form (which I didn't get to use😅). After a quick lunch, I went on for the main event of my day - culinary session on macaroons. There are 7 other people, all from USA, and we formed 4 groups of 2 members - except for mine, other 3 are mother-daughter combos. 

After 3 hours vigorously making macaroons, we had coffee and remaining cookies were distributed equally among the participants😋. 

 

The session is priced at 90 euros and we got the soft copy of recipe along with recommendations of eateries and culinary stores in Paris. I went to one of the recommended restaurants, but the waiting queue crossed the entrance into the street. As it was getting late, I took the metro back to the hotel. Even metro stations in Paris are artistic 🥰.

 

I had my dinner in a small restaurant next to the metro and, from previous experience, got Crème Brule even though its not in the menu🍽.

 

In contrast to the day before, I had a pleasant day and totally worth the trouble. 

The day after, I went to visit the palace of Versailles which will be another post.