Start of trip not exactly great cuz I'm recovering from a cold, so I basically drugged myself to sleep for about half the flight (relatively effective, I was pleased)

I'm staying with my friend who lives in Paris proper and we got a whole ass itinerary of things to do, but for now: foods

Some pics of the streets we went through, thankfully it was merely sprinkling when we were walking around

ALSO! WHY? DOES FRANCE HAVE BLACK FRIDAY? They don't celebrate Thanksgiving!!! But whatever, capitalism is everywhere

Anyway it is 2:30 am here so I should prob sleep!

everywhere has a black friday now smh

enjoy your holiday!!

timmtams: s i g h
will do~

have a good time!!!!

that's awesome, have a fun time!

flamesonthesideofmyface: elasmata: ty, will do!

we went to sleep at like... 3 and then passed out until about 1:30, I am so hungry

University of Sorbonne main (and oldest) building

ENJOY!!! wild that everywhere is black friday cry

what is that in the bread photo gravy??

tanigal: mushroom soup lol, it was our late dinner and we didn't wanna go shopping

More Black Friday sale things (I can't escape) and random KFC that isn't very popular but I'm only taking a pic cuz I am JJK brain rotted and giant red chikin

Sans and Space Invaders, what are you doing there

crimmas

I took psychological damage when I read this and understood what it was and then had to try to explain it to my friend without googling it at first (apparently good Japanese food though)

Notre Dame (gonna try to go inside when it opens, fingers crossed)

Ahhh glad you arrived safely, looks like fun already!!!

Sing something from Hunchback!

Sani_Caranza: yissss

gaisce: I will hum it at best

In honor of my username, I went to go get sweet crepes at one of the MANY creperies downstairs lol

First pic is cuz the man gave us the squeezed lemon and kept motioning us to eat it and we were like "SURELY he's not telling us to eat the lemon????" (spoilers he was and it was delicious cuz we forgot that he used the lemon to scrape the sugar around)

Orite Thanksgiving dinner was charcuterie board we made with stuff from fancy cheese place, fancy charcuterie place, and then the grocery store lol

Look at this cute little Ghibli displ-- Rengoku what are you doing there

i had about 1-2 hours of sleep cuz my brain decided to be a jerk and keep running like a hamster on a wheel all night

we are going to the Louvre today
pray for me

i have forgotten everything i had learned about how to navigate the paris transportation system and accidentally got the wrong ticket

sigh

Okay, random assortment of pics I took at the Louvre, with a comment or two

/Starts humming Lonely Island's "Mona Lisa"

i was today years old when i found out that last dude didn't die from his martyrdom

shiny af

i need you to see this pic to understand just how stupidly massive some of this paintings are

lupin stole all of the paintings here (more seriously, these are showing off the frames only, we just didn't read the captions and were confused for a good while)

Nearly six hours of walking around and we are now both dead

finished most of the rest of our charcuterie stuff, will take pic of that and our desserts later (i am so sleepy)

randomly and unrelatedly, found out the hard way that my hands will break out in large, itchy hives if I use the dish soap without gloves :|

Charcuterie leftovers, lemon tart, apricot + pistachio tart, and madeleine, last 3 from Eric Kayser store

I'm so jealous of this food!!!

Sani_Caranza: food +_+

foooood

I need to. actually start setting alarms for my "don't hafta wake up in the morning" days. cuz I can't trust my body to wake up normally, I woke up at 2:45 pm today orz

I was gonna go have a nice lunch, dammit

nin's first foray into paris by herself, wish me luck

i am already so stressed when talking to strangers, let alone talking to them in a language i'm not familiar with

i keep trying to talk in spanish or japanese

my brain does this too, forgets anything i know in the language i want and just cycles through all the other ones

elasmata: sob

i hope you get your nice parisian lunch!!

:U

Had a nice Parisian dinner instead! Duck confit, french onion soup, and a virgin mojito at Le Petit Cafe

It was really good

And now i'm waiting for the tour guide for this tour Julia reffed, so if it's bad, I know whom I can throw under the bus

recced* holy crap i hate iphones

gonna live blog tour

henri 2nd died (along with 130+ prisoners) from eye surgery, cuz he got one after jousting drunk

henri 4th was popular (unusual) and had 59 mistresses

faces on bridge was from ministers (and also rando beggars)

decided i think when henri the 4th had a party at his favorite park at pont neuf so yay drunk decisions

bridge (started with henri 3rd ended with henri 4th, also called eiffel tower of 16th century) most popular area... to murder and suicide :')

face of cpr doll is from a lady who committed suicide at the bridge and remained unclaimed when her body was put in front of the window display of a morgue

Forgot to say, this is a dark heart and ghost tour of Paris, so morbid shit is coming this way

"Inside of the Kitchen" painted with mummy brown, which was made with the hearts of royals for this painting (later made with mummies)

need to google what red wedding was based on cuz uh wow, the real thing was holy shit insane (over 30,000 people killed in about a month's worth of killing in the church and the streets)

beds of royals were short cuz they slept upright

Church that the "red wedding" happened at

book writer "beauty of decay" was known killer and cannibal in france who got convicted 1997 and is back out in the streets now

Remember that picture of sans? apparently that mosaic and a bunch of other pixelated ones were made by one dude who actually has an app where you can kind of collect all of his art from the different places. like a scavenger hunt!

5th century cemetery got turned into a food market at 12th century

mass graves got popular at around that time that could hold 1500 bodies and was "more liquid than solid"

actually less turned into and more took over

16th century moved all the bodies to catacombs

restaurant came from the term "restoration soup"

henri 4th stabbed through heart right outside a butcher shop

riiiight here

this tour guide is so fun

found the rat poison store in ratatouille!

first public clock of paris, previously only churches told time

first king of france (reason why there are so many louis) lived in this palace

henri 4th murderer came to get tortured at this palace turned prison, marie antoinette also came to the second tower for 60 days

Now a museum, the guide said she doesn't suggest it because it's very boring lol

iron smith apparently sold his soul to make the doors to notre dame and died before the opening of the church

go to saint coeur church for good view of paris

I FORGOT THEY USED ASSASSIN'S CREED TO HELP REBUILD NOTRE DAME hahahaha

During the French revolution, the people believed that the statues at the first floor of the Notre Dame were of French kings, so they beheaded those statues (new ones are on original bodies while original heads are in a museum)

OK yeah, that tour was THOROUGHLY enjoyable, and now I need to get another one from the same lady, thank you for the rec Sani_caranza!

now i am back and having sweet crepes #2 (I got cinnamon and sugar and my friend got pesto with other stuff)

orite another factoid from tour: after the french revolution, when people sacked all the royal's tombs including henri the 4th's and made off with his head, the skull made it all around the world and was only found + reunited with his body in 2010

to paraphrase the tour guide: maybe his spirit is at rest, but there are some who say they still see his ghost wandering about. if you see him, you can ask him about his trip around the world.

now if you're a normal person like me, you'd run away screaming.

i love this tour guide

tomorrow! a cemetery!

OH YOU DID THE TOUR

wasn't it great???

it was possibly my favorite thing that I did

we paired it with our catacombs days and made it a whole spooky affair

I'm so glad you liked it!

my friend (who is parisian and actually did not know a good number of the stuff said during the tour!) and i freaking loved it

tragically did not get the sand tour guide for the famous people cemetery tour but that's fine, let's see how it goes!

i am, however, freaking freezing

same tour guide *

okay finished the Pere Lachaise cemetery tour and it was very pretty and very informative, have some pics in no particular order

some graves i took pics of cuz pretty, some i took cuz i recognized the name, and some cuz lol

For the statue laid out, I get why the mouth and shoes have the well-worn bronze effect, but why the crotch area

So! Turns out the dude wasn't anyone special or important in life, but after he died young (I think via duel) and that statue was made, a legend went around which basically went: Wanna get pregnant? Touch this guy's bulge! Or touch his feet or make out with him or put flowers in his hat or coins in his hand, whatever

lol was brain dead apparently after cemetery (and also i was an idiot and forgot to bring my cable to charge my phone which was at <1% when i got back to where i was staying) so didn't update yesterday after

anyway, went to go see the eiffel tower for stupid video reasons and found a french-chinese food festival going on! tragically, i had eaten before and was VERY full or i would have tried the food

also, the eiffel tower? damn she pretty

went to the rodin museum after this which really needs no words, have some pics

fucking gorgeous and also the reason why i was very much panicking near the end cuz i had 4% battery to help me get through two train systems and a walk back to the apartment :')

was gonna try to go to arc de triomphe after but was too tired and sun was already setting soon, so we stayed in and i (badly) grilled some cheese sandwiches to eat for dinner hahaha

i'm currently getting rained on while waiting to get into the saint chapelle cuz the one day i'm like "oh the weather looks semi-sunny,i think i'll wear my non-hooded coat and no hat!" it freaking starts raining and there's absolutely no overhang while waiting in this line that's not moving

ok! so i found out reason why line was moving so slow and it's cuz they have a whole airport thing going on, meaning taking off coats/jackets and bags and getting yourself scanned in the hands over head formation. so that explains that.

anyway after i got in and got my ticket scanned and walked up the spiral staircase, my genuine first reaction was "oh wow"

it's seriously so beautiful in here

dang that's gorgeous

elasmata: right??? +_+

waaah all this is so lovely damn

going to museum orangerie rn and the tuileries garden is having a fair rn, which means overpriced food and rides (i only partook in one of those)

is that just pasta in a BIG OL CHEESE WHEEL

clenches fist

yet another queue

rileyboi: YUP

i'm on a train for the next 30+ minutes so update time

Went to Orangerie museum, home of the large wall Monet paintings and guys
Guys
I could live in the Monet rooms

/Insert crying "it's so beautiful" gif

none of these pics do the paintings justice cuz
1) the light, albeit soft, bounces off the paint a bit, giving it a glare in the pics
2) doesn't show off the texture
3) can't quite communicate the SIZE of these paintings

i could be perfectly in a room painted like this, cuz i do so love colors

there were other temporary exhibits at the museum and my favorite artist was someone named Amélie Bertrand, who makes what looks like digital art in oil paint

the other exhibits were focused on the art collection of an art dealer and cubism and i didn't care overly much for ones and have uh some kinda negative thoughts about picasso so not as many pics in here

random face pic of myself from yesterday and also a street name cuz it was based on the story of a number of catholic martyrs being marched up a hill to be killed back in roman times

and now i am off to disneyland paris, i am going to be absolutely dead by the end of today (i'm already so tired lol, this trip has been little sleep and much walk)

your pictures bring me joy

i is here! and doing walt disney studios first cuz i haves lunch reservation here

first ride is crush's coaster cuz paris is the only one that has this ride, but it's basically like a stop and start version of space mountain, but finding nemo themed. i did really enjoy the beginning bit that had jellyfish and going into the rush of that one "tube" which lets you out into jump scare shark lol (it's a coaster so no pics on the ride!)

going from that and wandering just a little to go into the ratatouille ride? a mistake. it's not a coaster ride but it IS kinda like the harry potter 3D ride that makes me nauseous, which is why i'm here typing this out instead of walking to tower of terror (another bad decision, but what can one do)

oop nvm, at hero training center to see if i can get a signature for drea, depending on who it is

prob not deadpool but it's raining so sweeping characters outside will be prob fairly low

hrm. i have a lunch reservation at 11:30 and it is currently 11:12 and i am in line for character encounter that is not moving. what. do.

It's Black Panther #2! On one hand, awwww there are a bunch of lil kids who get to get her. On the other hand, damn, Drea already has her signature on the Marvel tote. Ah well, I tried!

WAIT. MAYBE WE'LL SEE IRON MAN???? i don't know enough french for this!!!

ok not iron man but ah well, she was lovely and now i run

i might not be able to get into the restaurant lol we'll see

if i lose the reservation it's not too awful, better for my wallet tbh, but lemme try to save this

thank you, nice lady who fixed my reservation. now i need to break my wallet for this meal :')

new things learned about myself: when i'm stressed and talking to a stranger helping me, i say "thank you" like a thousand times

THOR CAN SPEAK ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND SPANISH

ok sorry had to yell that real quick, will be back later, i'm hunting for characters

waiting for another show so quick review of the restaurant

overall, cute design and pretty good food. worth the price? prob not, but it was an experience i wanted to try so i enjoyed it!

/squints at map and then Avenger's Campus, where tf are you assholes

anyway thor and loki had a cute shot, essentially choosing two champions to pick up thor's hammer. their banter was, of course, hilarious and the kid thor chose was from spain, so thor was doing triple language duty. very impressed

show i was waiting for was doctor strange, whom i don't hold much care for, so just snagged a pic and then went hunting again

get down here so i can get your signature, dammit

orite i was panicking about getting to restaurant in time, so i forgot to ask them about taking a pic on my phone for shuri, and pics are 17 euro a pop, so this is all you get

marcel campus is a bust, unfortunately, so gonna watch a mickey show, see if there are any stragglers i can catch, and then head to disneyland paris

expect many pics from that park

i'm avoiding the parade cuz wow there is literally zero crowd control and i had to squeeze my way into the castle and that's a no

so first off, here are the pics i took of walt disney studios, which a good chunk is going through renovations until 2026. this bit is specifically ratatouille and pixar

mcu bit

which is dead to me cuz i couldn't find anyone new to sign the tote :E

two more pics: peter pan + wendy then woody and me

oh i went to the magician and mickey show and it was cute! like a smash cut of the different musical versions of cinderella, beauty & the beast, aladdin, lion king, and frozen.

and now disneyland paris! which i just realized i missed the alice in wonderland maze so now i'm a lil mad at myself!

commentary on the rides i've been in so far
pirates: mixed around order of what disneyland does and has some added cool animatronics/effects. also nice not having to see jack everywhere (he still there)
phantom manor: muuuch creepier and macabre version of our haunted mansion! quite like it, would like to know the lore now

tried taking pics of phantom manor, didn't even try after that cuz this phone takes bad moving/night pics

jafar judging me (for good reason)

GUYS
DRAGON

on small world ride and lol

loooool

more pics

and now i only have maybe 3 more rides and a place i wanna go to before the fireworks show, so i'm gonna chill in this area and wait for the parade cuz i think i have time

hell yeah you went to Pere Lachaise and the Rodin Museum!!

LivesInYesterday: yee!!!

God freaking dammit, i lost my glove somewhere on the Indiana Jones ride and now it's on my shit list >(

parade pics i stew in anger

while I*

and now i wait for big thunder mountain to reopen cuz that's the last ride i really wanna go on (tower of terror closed by the time i remembered i needed to go back to the other park, oops)

(indiana jones at paris is not very interesting btw, it's a generic roller coaster and i'm even more mad that it wasn't worth the loss of my glove)

dammit, indie has cursed my day cuz the big thunder mountain ride is still down and i don't think it'll be back by the time i gotta go find a place for the fireworks show (which is like now)

yeah drat it's definitely closed and also it's foggy at all of a sudden, So there's a high chance that the firework show is going to be canceled too

still foggy as heck but sounds like they're gonna go through with the light show at least \o_O/

lol so the light show was flashing lights at the castle while playing music, which, cuz fog, meant shit like this

Also, I'm pretty sure the fireworks are going to get canceled but they seem to live in hope and just saying it's gonna be delayed

I'm gonna see if I can hightail out of here, not going to look at any of the stores because I don't think I need anything

oh they're doing an ~adapted~ format okay, let's see how this'll go from all the way back here

oh interesting, unlike disneyland in cali, they don't do projections on anything except the castle, so yep I'm heading out

Also, definitely should not have been typing while walking because I took a spill in front of somebody when I missed a step that I didn't see orz damn ankles

... i lied and went into world of disney and bought some small things, will take pics of my impulse purchases when not in view of possible pickpockets (a very probable concern in france)

i should have brought some salonpas, my lower back is killing me and i have another museum to go to tomorrow ;_;

ok last bit I'm gonna complain about before moving on, but I got lost at a Metro stop and did at least 3 times more walking up and down stairs than I needed to, the curse lives on

impulse purchases time!

I was good and didn't buy the tea container with that Stitch on it, it was very cute but my mom is like one tea purchase away from chucking out all the tea I own cuz I thought the packaging pretty >>

here are the things i was good about and DIDN'T buy (also a really cute stitch headband that i was real tempted to buy but it had disneyland paris branding pretty obviously on it)

omg the aristocats pin!!!

Happy Thursday, I'm in the middle of France in the midst of what the French people love doing best: being on strike

I'm on my regular phone so pics from yesterday at the Orsay museum (and there are a lot of pics) will come when I get back home. Today is going to my friend's hometown of Montmartre and figuring shit out like "is Versailles Castle striking and will that impact our plans for tomorrow?" or " wtf do we do if our outside plans are cancelled due to RAIN?"

I was so tired that I couldn't update, but lemme do Thursday first cuz I have pics of that on this phone

Thursday was decided for going to Montmartre, which is my friend's hometown!

I'm just gonna put pics with commentary now

Montmartre is on top of a big hill with lots of stairs. This is why I was dead yesterday, because I was still very much in pain after Disneyland and this wasn't helping

Went to a restaurant that had 5,000+ positive reviews on Google maps.

While the portions were big and impressive looking, unfortunately the food was not as tasty as I wanted it. ;_; Also, this is the second time I've had beef and it was still pretty tough. Ah well. Fire!!

Sacre Coeur Church

View from the church. Notice: No Eiffel Tower unless you go to the very side and look through the trees, lol

you know that millennial problem where if we walk into a restaurant and sit down and realize it wasn't quite what we want for food, we still can't get up and out of the restaurant? just me? well anyway, that's how I got okay Italian food in France.

Wednesday Orsay pics will come later!

rushing our asses to Versailles palace rn, will give deets on why when we are seated and not liable to get our stuff pickpocketed

so Versailles palace! that place has been a real pain in the ass to book! i didn't want to book it myself at first, cuz i'd have to make an account and i just Did Not Want That, so my friend tried for it!

so she first tried to book it even before i got to france and it. wasn't working. we had no idea why, but it just wasn't letting her pay for the damn tickets. at first we thought it was just on her end, but then her parents couldn't get in either! so we kept waiting to see what was up.

then comes thursday, the day before the day we were going to versailles.

hey remember how i said on thursday that the french people were doing what they love best that day? yeah, so the palace was very much impacted by the strike and was straight up closed yesterday, with the message that they might also be closed tomorrow! fun! (genuinely, it was a little stressful but it was also kinda hilarious and was making for a good story)

tickets were still not going through for my friend and her parents, so we decided that the best way was to call the palace again friday morning and get any updates and possibly tickets.

(sorry got distracted by friend nerding out about shakespeare, it was great)

ANYWAY, Friday morning! 9:00 rolls around, which was the time we set our alarms to go off the first time. I wake up-ish, she very much does not.

9:30! Second alarm and when we are supposed to call the palace! i wake up again but don't wanna open my eyes cuz pain and friend continues to be asleep. I don't wake her cuz she's been tired for a while and also i wanna rest my eyes.

Time continues to pass and I continue to put off doing anything until it hits 10:30, at which point I'm like maybe I should go buy tickets

The ticket buying works for me, so probably will be OK! I put the time for 1230 because it takes about an hour to get there and we should be fine right?

lol

it was 11:27 by the time i was like "sara get up we gotta go" :') we got our asses in gear and made our way out and thankfully we are now here and on somewhat time! unfortunately, orsay pics continue to be delayed

and i just realized that orsay is on my other phone so lol uh live blogging versailles palace it is |D;

GOLD

more unnecessary gold (+food)

Louis XIV who "renovated" this place

All the paintings and stuff

stairs are quickly becoming my nemeses in this city

The garden of the palace isn't full of flowers but it's hecking big

pretty

Ahhhhhh so pretty

Sani_Caranza: <3

ok orsay pics before I forget or conk out again lol

I freaking love the details in marble statues, you have no idea +_+

THIS IS A PAINTING HOW THE HECK

two good dogs and then /waves hand, whatever the heck that is

I love this painting cuz it's basically an old school version of that one judging you at the party meme

I have Some Thoughts on some of the art pieces, but overall it was definitely a riveting experience. Sad that one of Van Gogh's pieces was not there that day, but I got my fill of Monet and everything else <3

And then we went to get afternoon tea at Smith & Sons, which was an excellent freaking choice

And that was Wednesday!

Back to today, we just had sushi for dinner cuz lol why not

Things to note! Their miso soup was eh, usual fare you'd get at like Benihana or something, but their salad? Surprisingly good. So you know how the usual one is just shredded cabbage or lettuce with a light sauce? This salad has their cabbage pickled and it was Really Good.

Also their skewers are the usual except for the one that's just cheese with beef wrapped around it. Unsurprising to find in France but also why still XD

today has been a "we're staying mostly in bed and going out to do laundry and get food and that's about it" day lol. was vaguely thinking about going to Rue de Cler but eh. not as fun without someone to go with!

anyway look at the huge crepes/galettes my friend and I got

we will be going back another day to get my sweet crepe, as is mandatory for my username

if i had known yesterday was gonna be an inside day,i would have changed my friend hang out to that say OH WELL, I CAN HAS FRAND

IT'S A STEF

IT IS

today was basically a wandering and eating around day lol, here are the pics

met up with stef at a soufflé pancake place for brunch. fun fact,stef had just come back from japan when we decided on this place |D

the pancakes were very big and very good, nom

next we wandered around to the tuileries garden charismas market and had oysters there haha

after that we had some time to walk to a ghibli pop up store but didn't get anything cuz everything was either too expensive or sold out of what we would have wanted

we had to hustle cuz we made reservations to this one restaurant that WOULD have had a beautiful sunset view of the eiffel tower... if it weren't freaking foggy and cloudy at sunset :| but we still got some pics of it sparkling, at least

i went for more of the... let's say french food options and opted for escargot (which they had written as "6 big wild snails" cuz i'm guessing they didn't want foreigners wussing out after ordering it) and raw beef tartare. escargot wasn't bad, but i would have liked a more garlic sauce then pesto, and i quite liked the beef tartare, which i never had before

last food of the day was... japanese crepes. shush. we did it for the pics!

and then we spent literally more than an hour on a call with Sani_Caranza talking about what makes series worth watching for us, good and bad adaptations of stuff, along with how much i need to watch these two boys being gay in a chinese drama hahahaha

overall excellent time spent with stef, would absolutely have hung out with her more often if i had known that she lived in the same city as me for FIVE YEARS before

LOOK LMFAO

But also it was super fun catching up with both of you together!

Also holy crap your Japanese food is so pretty???

And Georges!!!

Sani_Caranza: hahahaha

waaah all the food looks so yummy

also all the art is breathttaking gosh

that fuckin city/landscape painting. withcraft

rileyboi: RIGHT???? LIKE, THE FUCK!!!

ok I gotta start heading out to the airport (weh) in like ten minutes and apparently my flight won't have WiFi, so lemme update on what I did yesterday real quick

essentially: FOOD and going to overly fancy places cuz my mom wanted me to get a specific kind of brand name sunglasses (my friend and I basically got hives while wandering around this area)

orite, camera reminded me that we made food for ourselves one day and I made some balsamic glaze out of balsamic vinegar and honey. twas yummy. :9

beginning bit was going to Angelina to get macarons and hot chocolate for my friends and a lil treat for ourselves

and then we went to Galerie Lafayette (yes I started humming the Hamilton song) to browse
It's so fucking fancy, y'all

You are the best, I owe you my life

pics will continue once I get on the plane, holy fuck I am so tired, this airport is the worst

CDG?

Gross, good luck and safe travels!

CDG airport is the actual worst and I will bitch about it after I get these other pics off my phone :E

dammit,i took the pics on the phone that has bad internet and this flight doesn't have wi-fi. this whole airport and plane is out to get me

sdjfncd

you'll be home soon at least!

I'm home but I'm so tired and so done with Air France that I'll hafta update you on all the shit I went through when I'm less dead inside. Until then, I'd just like you to know that they managed to leave my luggage in France.

Sjcchcffhb

Oh my god

OKAY I'M LESS DEAD AND HYPED UP FROM WORKING WITH KIDS, let's do the rest of the photos!

window displays low-key terrifying

And yes they moved (these kid ones were much cuter)

I was there was to try to find sunglasses for my mom, which I ended up never finding but I got some cute scarves and macarons just cuz the tin was pretty (stfu) but also they had some wild flavors

also look at how big these croissants are wtf (I did not buy these)

rounded out the exhausting day with fondue and a cocktail (which is when I found out my alcohol tolerance lower than expected)

a crepe place opened under my friend's place (they were still setting up everything), so I had to buy one more sweet crepe (honey + almond + lemon) for my name

The Last Day (weh) started with my finishing reading the book my friend had written and making her sign it, so I wasn't able to go get lunch like I had wanted. But no matter! Last minute pastries!!

And that was the last of the pics I had, cuz everything after that was scrambling to get to and through the damn airport. I have written out the list of complaints, but that'll come later haha

Gotta get home and make sure no one damaged the luggage they delivered a day after I got home!

okay dokey, I can now move onto complaining cuz I got my luggage and spoilers: my shit is still in there, so worst case scenario has been avoided! anyway, I listed this out on my notepad while on the plane with no Wi-Fi, so just gonna copy-paste this stuff and add on what happened at the end

things going against CDG airport and air France the airline (my experience)
- one way train fare to get from Central Paris to the airport is about 12 euros and an hour trip
- it's stupidly large. like. you will get lost and possibly miss your flight kinda large. and if you don't speak French, you're just fucked

- your carry on baggage and personal item for air France have to weigh less than 12 kg or else they will force you to go back and check in your carry on (which was 70 euros and I swear to God if they break my luggage or the stuff inside it, I'm going to cause a Goddamn commotion) (present me: lol. loooooool.)

- don't have a credit card or forgot the pin (if it even exists) for said card? well shit! now you have to tell what seems like your whole damn life story to at least five different people in French to get your luggage checked in on time and paid in cash!!

- side note: I love my friend who helped me navigate me to where I needed to go and talked to said five people to get my luggage checked in literally at the last minute it was allowed. I have soothed my guilt a little by giving her lots of thank you messages and also the fact that I got her plenty of cute gifts beforehand

- again, CDG airport is stupidly big and goddamn annoying to figure out, so I had to wander a tiny bit to figure out I needed to get on a train to get to the section of the airport that had my plane
- TSA pre-check doesn't exempt you from having to take out your liquids and put it into a baggie in a separate box

- personal gripe: they took my backpack to get checked twice for whatever substance they swatch
- apparently the airport is a really nice place to go shopping, which would have been nice if, ya know, everything else didn't take SO LONG TO GET THROUGH but whatever
- they ran out of one of their meals lol, good thing I'm not lactose intolerant to cheese

not a complaint: cheese pasta was pretty good and I got myself a free cup of champagne. still don't care for it, but it's free so eh!

- THEY SOMEHOW LOST MY LUGGAGE

how did I find out? by my turning off airplane mode and checking my email, which had one saying "hello we have located your luggage"

LOCATED? WHEN WAS IT LOST?? WHAT???

so my theory is that since I checked in my luggage at the last minute (but before the drop off deadline time), my bag just. didn't get on. and got lost.

went to baggage service to confirm, (after waiting at the carousel for no damn reason, I could have just LEFT, I had GLOBAL ENTRY AND BREEZED THROUGH I am so mad) and turns out that yup, luggage still in France and wouldn't be delivered until the day after.

this wouldn't be a big deal if uh. I didn't have something in there that would be VERY EXPENSIVE to replace and I stupidly didn't take it out and put it into my backpack. cuz again. it was supposed to be carry on. BUT WHATEVER, I GOT MY LUGGAGE BACK YESTERDAY AND EVERYTHING IN IT IS FINE. they scraped up the sides of the luggage though so I'm still pissed

ALL IN ALL A FAIRLY SUCCESSFUL TRIP \o/!!!!!

my body was not meant to walk that much though haha, but would go again as long as I'm not going through CDG airport and getting on Air France!

what is even the point of TSA pre

if you still have to take out your stupid liquids

literally the entire reason i am applying for global entry with TSA pre LMFAO

it's so good for lax, you have no idea +_+

but means shit all in other place I guess lol

when I'm feeling up to it, I'll make a much more condensed Plurk about Paris