Paris is somewhere I have wanted to go since I was a child. For as long as I can remember, Paris had been the wallpaper for every screen I owned. The theme for every bedroom, and the aesthetic of every impromptu gift. So, one night, while pricing my nightly tickets around the world out of sheer boredom, I saw the unbelievable round ticket to the City of Lights for only $500. I didn’t think twice about pulling out my credit card and booking the ticket.
It Was A Steal
Based on the thousand other times I priced the tickets, I’d known I’d gotten a steal. Most round-trip tickets to Paris are well over $1200. But January is a cold month and pre-pandemic few people wanted to travel. The combination of these two factors gave me an opportunity that I couldn’t possibly pass up. I purchased the ticket on credit in October, which gave me a little under three months to get everything else figured out.
Within a few days, I found a decent hotel for about $700 for the seven days I would be staying. Another steal in my book considering it’s in between the 15th and 7th arrondissement and only a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. I booked this only a couple of days after the plane ticket, also on credit. I remember paying off a decent amount upfront and then using those few months to pay off the rest before my departure, whilst also attempting to plan out my 7-day trip to the City of Love as a solo female traveler.
The trip for me has always been one of my favorite and least favorite trips. The sheer amount of obstacles I dealt with throughout the trip made my head spin, but I cannot discount the magical experience of going to a city I dreamt about my entire life. Upon arriving at the airport, my suitcase was overweight, and I took out the heaviest jacket I’d brought and wore it around with me to avoid the fee that came with the offense. This was of no consequence, however; I made my way through security and to my gate without any more issues.
Cancelled Flights Left & Right
Until twenty minutes later when my flight gets cancelled. I quickly secure a spot on another flight, but not ten minutes later, that one gets canceled as well. I return to the check-in desk, sort out a different flight, and go through security again. Sure, I found another flight, but it meant waiting at the airport for six more hours and taking another connecting flight. Once I got on the flight, it was late to leave the gate, which meant I caught my connecting flight in the nick of time and sacrificed a trip to the bathroom to make it there. Lucky for me, the connecting flight had one of the most comfortable bathrooms I had ever experienced on a plane, and it was smooth sailing to Germany from there.
Baggage Claim in Paris
Once I got to Germany and made it through customs, I took some time to explore the airport and make my way to my gate without much rush. I boarded a rather quick flight from Germany to Paris and made it to CDG airport before I knew it. In Paris, at baggage claim, I encountered my next major issue. Lost luggage. They gave me a slip and told me they would deliver it to me by the morning. Leaving me no choice but to head to my hotel with my carry-on backpack filled with nothing but toiletries and the clothes on my back.
Unlocked Phones and SIM cards
On the cab ride to my hotel, I realized my next problem. No service. No roaming data, no anything. I made it to the hotel and connected to their wifi where 20 minutes of Google research told me I needed a French sim card and an unlocked phone. So, of course, I reached out to my phone company and they told me it would take two days. Slightly annoyed but still pushing on I went down to the front desk to inquire about SIM cards and the very helpful front desk lady gave me swift directions to an electronics store to purchase one. I tuck it away and two days later, I message them again. Only to find out the man had unlocked it that first night and I could have inserted it at any time. I was annoyed. I had spent two days getting lost in the city, buying clothes, and avoiding following through on any of my major plans until I could get everything figured out.
My clothes came on that same day, after I had settled on buying a few new pieces of course, and despite all the irritation, I couldn’t help but be excited to get everything started. For the next two days, that’s exactly what I did. I went to the Eiffel Tower every morning and got hot chocolate at a café across the street. Took pictures, got lost in the city, walked along the Seine, went to the Louvre, and got on tourist buses. I even decided to get a tattoo at the last minute, and I loved every moment of it all.
COVID-19 in Paris?
Then day number five rolls around and I wake up with the most nauseating headache of my life. I was congested, hoarse in the throat, and lightheaded. Abandoning my plans for the day, I stayed in bed until the afternoon. It was then that I managed to pull myself up to head to a pharmacy. I bought a COVID test, paracetamol (European acetaminophen), water, and some kind of food. Fortunately, I didn’t have COVID, which I feared. I took the recommended dosage of paracetamol and allowed myself the day to wither in my hotel room, enjoying the many different options European Netflix had.
On the sixth day, I emerged again. I went on a dinner boat ride across the Seine; went to bookstores and got lost somewhere near the Louvre. I listened to Parisian music down the streets. Marveled at the architecture so different from what I was used to. Mostly I felt so incredibly proud of myself and grateful for having pulled it off. I went back to my hotel that night and packed everything up for my flight in the morning. Sometimes this entire trip feels like a fever dream for me. I can’t believe I went to Paris, and did it alone, nonetheless.
Make sure to check out my post about my very first solo trip to New York City