#uhh france??

[butyoutellmeeverytime]

An Update

I’m mostly posting this because I’m bored AF at work and I know no one will read this but I’m mostly just recording it for myself OKAY here we go:

Since September, when I started my job from hell, I’ve been planning a solo trip to Paris. I’d already been thinking about going ever since I knew I’d be taking a gap year, but once I had started my job and knew how much money I was going to make, I decided I was going to make it happen, because I know I will never have an opportunity like this again.

The first thing I did was decide when to go and book an Airbnb. I knew I wanted to do Airbnb because 1) no way am I paying for a hotel in Paris and 2) I was hesitant to do a hostel if I was traveling alone. I know hostels are actually safer than they sound, but I just wanted peace of mind and to know that both I and my stuff were 100% safe. Plus, a single room in an Airbnb really isn’t bad. I decided I would travel in the summer, mostly because there’s no way I’d get enough vacation time to go while I was still in this job, so I would have to go after I quit. Since summer is the busiest tourist time, I wanted to get a good Airbnb booked before the good ones were gone or the prices had gone up. So, as soon as I got my first paycheck, I booked my room in an apartment in the famous Montmartre neighborhood. Nothing quite like seeing a “Congratulations, you’re going to Paris!” message on your screen.

Since then, I’ve been slowly planning out what I’d like to do while I’m there. The OG goal was to see as much art as possible, and in particular, see as much Gothic architecture as possible. The whole point of me going (aside from just having a fab time) was to physically expose myself to the art I wanted to study in graduate school. This meant having to narrow down how many day trips I was willing to take and pay for, as well as how much time in actual Paris I was willing to sacrifice. I will be in France for two weeks, and I finally landed on going to five towns outside of Paris that have Gothic cathedrals: Chartres (which I wrote a research paper on and is my #1 cathedral destination), Reims, Beauvais, Amiens, and Rouen. I will also of course be visiting the Gothic architecture in and around Paris, with Notre Dame, Saint-Denis (the OG Gothic cathedral), and the Sainte-Chapelle. 

With the Gothic art covered, I made a list of all the things in Paris itself I want to do/see. I won’t list everything I’m planning on, but the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (I’m giving myself 3 days here, because duh), the Musée d’Orsay, Versailles, the Sacre Couer, the Palais Garnier, and the Paris Catacombs give you a general idea. I’ll also be visiting several bookshops, because obviously. 

I’ve done a ton of research on the best way to pay for everything. I’ll be getting a Paris Museum Pass, which gets you into all the museums and several of the monuments (plus you get to bypass the lines, which is a huge plus in the summer). I’ll also get a metro pass, because it also covers some of the trains I’ll be taking (to/from the airport, Versailles, etc.) along with the metro itself. 

It turns out planning a big trip like this is p complicated. Initially I just made a huge jumbo list of everything I wanted to do. It took a long time for me to actually decide when I would do everything. I haven’t mapped out every hour of every day, because 1) that’s no fun and 2) I need to allow myself wiggle room. I’m trying very, very had not to pack too much in. I know I’m going to feel the need to see as many things as I possibly can, but that makes for a very hurried, stressful, and exhausting trip, and that just isn’t what I want this to be. I do want to make the most of my time there, but I also want to enjoy it and not be on the verge of falling asleep/collapsing the whole time. As a result I’ve intentionally scheduled downtime, time to just “explore”, because one of the big charms of Paris is how much there is to discover. It’s a gorgeous city, and I want time to just look around and go into the little shops, rather than having to rush through everything and skip those little things. I want time to sit in a park with a baguette and read a book and people watch for a few hours, you know?

Another thing I thought about early on was plane tickets. At first, I wanted to book my flights asap, assuming that the sooner I bought them the cheaper they’d be. But apparently, international flights are the cheapest about 50 days before the flight. So, as anxious as it’s making me to still not have my flights booked, I’m waiting until April to buy my tickets. I’m also signed up for cheap flight alerts, and the prices haven’t gone up from September to now, which is a good sign. The only worry now is that I won’t get a good seat, but I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I also, rather annoyingly, need to get a new passport. I got one when I was in high school because I was going to the Dominican Republic for a mission trip (lol tbt to my jesus days), but since I was under 16 it didn’t last the full 10 years. I’ve been waiting to get a new one because in November and December I was spending a lot of money on Anniversary/Christmas presents, along with all those goddamn grad school application fees. But, I filled out a new passport application this morning and will call tomorrow to schedule an in-person appointment (which I can do during my lunch break, hoorah). 

I’ve also just been doing a shit-ton of Pinterest research about traveling - traveling abroad, traveling alone, traveling alone as a woman, and traveling to Paris/France. Y’all, Pinterest is a little ridiculous, but it’s also informative AF depending on what you’re looking for. Bless all you 20-something female bloggers. 

One of the best things I discovered from said bloggers was the MyMaps feature from Google Maps. A major problem I was having was visualizing all the things I want to do, particularly in regards to location. I had tried a few times to print out a map of Paris and mark all the places, but there are simply too many things I want to do for them to all fit, unless I print out a giant map (if I include all the restaurants and shops I’m interested in). MyMaps allows you to create your own map, where you can mark all of your places on one map with a little marker, and when you click on it a description pops up. You can add pictures to the description, and I also added hours of operation, ticket/pricing info, and any other relevant tips I’ve found. For the outside-Paris locations, I also wrote down train directions. Plus, you can change the icon and color of each location, which makes it easy for me to quickly identify restaurants, bakeries, cafes, shops, monuments, etc. This will make it really easy for me to look at my map each night and think about where I want to eat/what shops I want to visit the next day. I was so happy when I discovered this, and I literally spent hours putting it together. 

Even if I don’t end up going to every single place I’ve mapped out, it will be helpful to have an organized list of options to choose from. 

I also decided to make a spreadsheet of all my expenses for the trip, since I’m literally paying for everything myself (hooray adulting). I originally had an estimate of about how much everything would cost, but after specifically noting all of it I have a much closer guess. I still can’t be 100% accurate - I still haven’t bought my plane tickets, and food/souvenirs will be different every day - but I’m much closer to an accurate guess. I’m also indicating whether or not each expense has been paid for or not. I am definitely saving money by using the museum pass and the metro pass, so go me. 

Finally, because I truly am an organization freak, I made a list of every single thing I’ll need to do before going - from big things like “book flights” to small things like “buy a power adaptor”. I realized there are a lot of things I’ll have to do that I can’t/shouldn’t do quite yet, so I just want to make sure I know exactly what needs to be done. I don’t want to be on the plane and realize I didn’t do something important. I’m also just really fucking excited about this trip, and I making lists and organizing everything having to do with it makes me happy. It’s taken all my willpower not to start making a packing list - chill dude, your trip is still 4 months away.

As I do more organizing/planning I may post about it here; mostly for myself - both to keep busy at work and to just record this process for myself. But if any of my like 3 followers finds this interesting then woohoo, two birds one stone.

Anyway, bless anyone who was interested enough to read this, kudos for you. I’m going in 118 days and I’m so bloody pumped.