Paris! Part 1

So, i'm just back from my first ever solo travelling adventure! Ok, it was only Paris so not too far away but what a great 'weekend' (it was mid-end week but a weekend length of time).

It wasn't just for a jolly but for very 'serious' architecture reasons. I HAD to go. No motives need questioning here. 

The Weather was better than this!
Thank god!

The aim of the trip was for a bit of dissertation research. 'Boring' I hear you say, 'yes' I reply 'but not so much when you can sneak a trip to Paris in!'. My dissertation is about Paris balcony culture and the facades of Edouard Francois. A nice little topic I chose after stumbling on a couple of blogs about balcony planting, and seeing Rachel Khoo's veg box on her show 'Little Paris Kitchen' in the window of her Paris apartment. I knew about this guy Edouard Francois' Flower Tower and then also came across his 2007 Hotel Fouquet's Barrier. A quirky addition to the 5 star hotels block in the 7th Arrondissement. 

And so, it was my mission to go and visit these places! 

The budget was tight for this trip so I decided to take the coach. Forty quid return is an absolute bargain (with even cheaper prices if you book well in advance with Megabus) but there is a reason people don't travel by coach! It's certainly not glamorous sitting on a hot, uncomfortable bus for 9 hours overnight. However, it did allow me to have two full days in Paris with only one nights accommodation. I will do it again, but next time use the money saved to have an extra night! 

I packed my first day in France's capital with architecture. Stomping around the streets to find the buildings I needed to see as well as soaking up the atmosphere of the city and finding a few hidden gems. A very productive day with pages and pages of notes for my dissertation! And I was so impressed by the Hotel Fouquet's Barrier. It plays with texture and scale to create something really quite exciting. Using a cast of vernacular Paris architecture Francois adjusts scale so the window and door frames no longer correlate and the material creates something new completely.

My initial plan was to study one vernacular facade and it's balconies in each of Paris' 20 arrondissements. I think I managed about 5 on the first day. I may have over estimated how much I could do in two days? I enjoyed taking in swathes of the city though, rather than being rooted in the regular tourist trap areas. There is a certain beautiful freedom to being on your own. 

As well as architecture I found plenty of time for coffees and pastries. The French really do this stuff well, and I couldn't help myself frequently stopping for hot strong coffee and some cheesy pastry. 

Hotel Fouquet's Barrier

Flower Tower

Into the courtyard from my little slice of
Paris for the night.

For the one night I stayed in Paris, with Frenchys input, I opted for The Loft Hostel (you can see my review on here!). This was the right choice! Definitely not the cheapest of hostels, but super clean, friendly staff and atmosphere, very cool and brand new. All of the rooms face onto an internal courtyard that plays music. I can't recommend this place enough! 

As a lonely traveller I thought the best thing to do after checking in (and having a long, hot, well pressured shower) would be to go down to the bar. I trotted down with my little writing book and ordered a beer. I had a lovely chat with the guy that worked there (his name was Egor, he had the weirdest sense of humour but I liked it). Post this little chat I took a seat, and in about 30 seconds had made a couple of friends. 3 hours (and several drinks) later and I was merrily chatting with a crowd of people, of whom with I went for a late dinner with. Chinese. This place is in China town after all!

This was a lovely night, and it was great me meet new people and relax a bit. Following dinner I headed straight to my cosy bunk where I drifted off to sleep instantly. 

Bonne Nuit ^^