Hey! It's Lexi Green posting again today. It is July 14th, meaning that it is Bastille Day! Bastille Day is a holiday in France that celebrates the 'French National Day.' It is celebrated on July 14th because it was started in 1970, on the anniversary of the storming of Bastille, a fortress-prison.
After we got up this morning and had breakfast downstairs, we packed our things and checked out of the Plug-Inn Hostel. Our plans were to head out to another part of France for the last part of our trip, so the employees working in the office agreed to keep our belongings while we toured until we were ready to catch our train. The girls and I headed on out to walk through the busy streets of Paris, that were filled with people and celebrations. I don't think I have ever seen so much commotion in my life! We decided to tour around the now-familiar streets for a bit and see how the national holiday was celebrated by the locals. During our walk, we got lucky and stumbled upon a French tradition on Bastille Day! The largest and oldest section of the military was held in the morning for the President of the Republic, foreign guests, and French officials, but we managed to catch a glimpse!
Since we had already seen most of the main attractions in Paris, we decided to spend our day after that touring the local shops and businesses. We each bought a few things, such as berets, jewelry, postcards, and cute trinkets. We met so many people, and many of them spoke English very well! After spending a few hours just touring the local parts of Paris and helping to celebrate Bastille Day, we stopped to have a nice lunch, which would be our last meal of the trip in Paris! We had to stop and ask for directions, since our wandering had gotten us somewhat lost, and made our way back to Le Vrai Paris. Though it was a little pricey, the wonderful food and impressive service made up for it! Little did we know, we had been thinking of the wrong time for the train's departure and almost missed it! We all were running around the station like wild geese just trying to find where we were supposed to go because none of us could read fluent French! With a little help from the English-speaking employees, we barely made it onto the train that would take us to the French Riviera.
We could all finally relax for the first time all day as we rode the relaxing ride for a few hours. Lucky for us, the price of the train was included in our Paris Pass, so we didn't have to worry about finding a way to pay for the trip! I thought that Paris would be the craziest part of France on Bastille Day, but I was wrong! I soon discovered that people all over the country celebrated in many different ways, some gathering into groups and others socializing around. Either way, as soon as we all stepped off the train, we were sent back into the whirling madness of a summer holiday! It took forever for us to hail a cab, and once we did, it took even longer to get through traffic and to our hotel! We checked in as quickly as possible at the Hotel Royal Riviera and ran up to our room, which had so much more room than the hostel did, and began unpacking to get back out into the celebrations! After freshening up for the rest of our evening, we headed out. Since all of us had the rest of the trip to tour the French Riviera, we spent our Bastille Day walking through the streets and finding parties at the beaches! We all met so many new people, and I had no idea that so much of the population knew English that well. We stopped for a fun dinner at La Jardin de Sebastien. It was so good! But it started getting pretty dark outside, so we made our way down to the beaches to watch all of the fireworks over the water! They started from about an hour after it got dark, and the explosions of colors in the sky didn't stop until about midnight or 1 A.M.
We were all exhausted after such of an interesting and wonderful day of just touring little shops and looking through a new city. We have just gotten back from the beach and I am about to fall asleep while typing! I'll post again tomorrow-or later today, I guess- to share how the first full day at the beach goes! Au revoir!
LeVrai Paris= 60 euros
Checking out of Plug inn Hostel = 186.09 euros
Cab= 22.79 euros
Checking into Royal Riviera = 2324.17 euros
La Jardin de Sebastien = 75.95 euros
Bastille Day Souvenirs = 38.36 euros
Bastille Day Fireworks on the beach = Priceless
Total For Today= $ 3424.50
Grand Total= $13,137.90
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