Tag: Bagnolet

Day 10: My Bagnolet, Point & Shoot

Posted on | by Christopher Law | Leave a Comment on Day 10: My Bagnolet, Point & Shoot

My last day here in Paris.  Tomorrow, I’ll wake up early and go to the train station to catch my train headed towards Cologne, Germany!  Before I leave, I wanted to take a few photos of my neighbourhood.  But, I didn’t want to walk around my neighbourhood with my dSLR, so I took my point & shoot Sony T90.  Obviously they won’t look as good as my dSLR, but with a little magic I can make it look a tiny bit better! CHALLENGE accepted. So, besides my neighbourhood took a few others of central Paris as well when I was out getting my lunch.

Besides my point & shoot challenge, I had another challenge today.  Where can you find a convenient store that’s open on a Sunday?! Seriously, when it comes to Sunday, the French are the laziest people alive.  This happens in Quebec too!  I did end up finding a store that was open though! And what do you know, it’s a Chinese person who’s open on a Sunday. It wasn’t all that serious but I thought I’d say it here.  Saturday and Sunday are probably the worst days to go to museums, especially Louvre and Versailles.  They’re way too packed to even enjoy them.  Markets Actually, even the local area here in Bagnolet gets pretty packed on weekends.  On weekends a bunch of street vendors come out to sell really random stuff.

For now, I’ll leave you all with these pictures and I’ll make another post tomorrow while on the train.  I’ll make posts of tips and things to look out for while in Paris.  It’ll be my overview of my 10 days here and what I’ve learned from this little part of my 3 month voyage! Until tomorrow!

My little neighbourhood: Bagnolet!

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Other Photos with Point & Shoot:

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Day 3: Paris, Explore Rue de Rivoli

Posted on | by Christopher Law | Leave a Comment on Day 3: Paris, Explore Rue de Rivoli

Today was the first day I walked into the city centre. It’s still Sunday so I had to make my way there with regular tickets. I did buy my Navigo Week Card. It’s basically the same as a Metro Pass, unlimited travel for a set amount of time. The weather today was pretty miserable. Overcast all day long, so the photos didn’t really come out the way I wanted, but they’ll have to do.

Walking towards my bus I saw the funniest thing.  I saw a father smoking weed in front of his, probably, 3 year old.  Let’s not forget, smoking weed in France is a pretty serious crime.  Not like its neighbours.  I actually read an article in Le Monde, a French newspaper, that was talking about how the government takes it too seriously.  Then on the bus I saw this lady who dressed her son in a suit matching her blazer and dress.  I wish I could’ve taken a photo of this but it’d be too weird.

SWAT Gear

My original plan was to go to Le Louvre but for some reason my bus 76, decided to change its last stop to Bastille mid way through the ride; close to Rue de Rivoli. So, that was a ticket wasted.  But, whatever, I decided to walk around the area.  The area is actually one of the tourist areas.  There’s even signs that say, “End of Tourist Zone”.  I thought to myself, “Heck, I can walk to Le Louvre from here.” I tried, but then got distracted by like every building in the area.  Then there was this area that was filled with police in full SWAT gear.  They were guarding some protest that was going on.

After wandering for a while I decided to grab a bite to eat.Crèpe Avec Poulet & Fromage I was so tempted to eat McDonalds lol They have this McWrap, that has chicken and bacon, and they’re huge! Not like the tiny ones in Toronto.  But, I ended up eating at this, I think, Egyptian restaurant.  They made this thing that looks like a crèpe but inside it has chicken, cheese, and egg.Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Tasted pretty amazing.  They even give you different dips, so every bite is a bit different.  It’s pretty similar to a quesadilla.  Oh, for a drink, of course I got Starbucks! But, so bad.  The Starbucks ran out of the white plastic tops, so they gave me a frap top instead.

After eating I decided to get some cash from HSBC.  But, crap! It won’t let me withdraw that much cash.  The most I could get was 60€. Something is definitely wrong.  I was told $400 CAD was the max.  I’ll have to go into a branch tomorrow morning and see if I can get some extra cash.  Definitely can’t be walking around with only 60€ in my pocket.  I’d be screwed.

WC Sign Public WCThere was the one other cool thing I wanted to mention! Look for WC signs while in Paris. Of course, most of you know WC stands for “Water Closet” aka the washroom.  I swear, their public outhouses here are so cool. It’s like going into a Star Trek elevator!  If I find it again, maybe I’ll film a bit.  Actually when I took the photo of it, there was this family filming it, and people were giving them looks.

Here are some other photos I took today.  Mostly photos of buildings I thought were pretty interesting.

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Day 2: Bagnolet Wake Up & House Tour

Posted on | by Christopher Law | 1 Comment on Day 2: Bagnolet Wake Up & House Tour

Brunch:


I ended up waking up pretty late today.  Although, it was a loud wake up.  Wasn’t my alarm clock.  It was the early parade out on the streets.  This weekend is the “Festival de Bagnolet”.  So the entire area is littered in confetti!  They had drums, horns, everything going to wake up anyone trying to sleep-in.  The weather outside has been pretty crummy all day too.  I wanted to head out today with my camera but it was raining hard.  To make matters worst, just when you think its sunny, 5 minutes later there’s an overcast above you and it starts raining again.  I managed to get a couple pictures before I packed away my gear.

The plan today was to head out and prepare for my self-tour around the city on Monday.  I wanted to head to the bank, HSBC, to grab some cash.  But, what do you know, it’s closed.  And there isn’t an out door ATM for the one I went to.  A 15 minute walk for nothing.  I did find this cute little theatre.  It’s closed down for renovation, so won’t be watching any movies there.  On the way back to my place, that’s when I bought some more groceries at another store on the way, and picked up my Chicken Burger. That’s chicken burger with a French accent.

Now that I’m home,  I decided that since I’m not going out I’d do some laundry and vlog a bit.  I’ll have to head out tomorrow and head to the other HSBC that does have an ATM outside.  Hopefully if I wake up early enough I’ll head to Le Musée du Louvre.  According to the site, it isn’t as expensive as everyone makes it out to be.  For 15€ you can get a year pass if you’re under 26 or 30€ for those under 30.  The regular one time ticket to see everything is 14€, so only one euro more (at least for me when I wrote this; that’s right future me).

Some later in the week I’ll go see this show called Comment Devenir Parisien en une Heure or How to Become Parisian in one Hour.  It’s showing at the theatre called Théâtre de la Main d’Or.  The cheapest ticket goes for 15€ online.  Was told by a friend its one of those “must see” events.

And here’s the house tour I promised:

Forgot to say, the Chicken Burger was pretty damn good.