The whole trip was amazing, the best I’ve ever taken; and that’s saying something considering I’ve been all over Canada and to Mexico as well as the Dominican Republic. But for this story I am going to mainly focus on the Paris leg of the trip considering it was the most, let's say, exciting part of the trip. But that’s not to say the rest of the trip was boring, it was quite the opposite actually. 

We took off from Winnipeg at 6 o’clock pm and landed in Toronto at 9 for our connection, but when my Dad took his phone off of airplane mode, he got a notification that our flight had been delayed until the next morning. So our trip was off to a great start. But once the plane pulled up to its gate a flight attendant came on the speaker saying that if everyone who didn’t have a connection to Edinburgh to please remain seated, as those who do have a really tight connection. So my family and two other people got off of the plane and met an airline worker who handed us our new tickets, told us the new gate, and instructed us to run. So that’s how I ended up running from one end of Pearson airport to the other with my backpack falling off my shoulder and maneuvering around infuriatingly slow walkers.

Luckily when we got to our gate we discovered that they haven’t even started boarding yet! Other than that, and me only getting 1 hour of non-consecutive sleep the flight went smoothly.

 Edinburgh was really fun, we toured Holyrood House, Edinburgh Castle, and even took a trip up into the highlands to see Dunnottar Castle which is tied to my Mom’s side, the Marshal side, of my family. London was also fun and uneventful, we even met up with a friend my sister Kailey met at a science program in Vancouver earlier that summer. He took us to an amazing restaurant in Chinatown and I used chopsticks for the first time, I’m still terrible with them. We also went to see Six the musical live in the Westend along with the other touristy things, including the London Eye where we were in the same pod as an Italian woman wearing the exact same, very distinct floral top as Kailey. What are the odds?

As I stated before in this story, Paris is next, and that is where things went off the rails. Getting on the train was fine, we knew where we were going beforehand because Dad and I walked around the train station the night prior. We stopped at an M&S which is a British grocery store. I got some pasta, apple slices, and a pink lemonade. I forget what my parents got, but Kailey got a caesar salad wrap, granola bar, and a bottle of iced coffee. On the train I listened to my music and audiobook.  

The train ride was 2 and a half hours long, and we got off at the Paris Gare du Nord. It would probably be a good time to mention that the only person in my family who truly understands French is my Mom, and she isn’t the best in stressful situations, especially in an unfamiliar city. This is important because there were a grand total of zero English signs in this train station! And I understand that it is unrealistic to expect English signs everywhere you go, but you’d think that a city as famous as Paris would think to just maybe have a few English signs so more people could understand the already complicated subway system that is the Paris Metro.

All was well and good when we first got off the train, because we just followed everyone else getting off the train. It’s when people began to fan out and go their separate ways when trouble struck. We decided to just follow the arrows until we found those little gates they use to get into the subway, they’re the same gates that are used in Toronto, London, and Stockholm. The thing is, in Winnipeg when you see an arrow pointing down it means “go down”, but in Paris, an arrow pointing down means “go straight”. This is really confusing when there is a staircase heading down right under the sign! Oh, but that’s not where the issues end. Once we found the little gates, we pulled up the cards on our phones, expecting to just tap to pay and be on our way, but that’s not how they do it in Paris. Because why would they make the Metro make sense? So we had to go back up the stairs to these little kiosks we saw before but paid no mind to, in order to buy these cards which we then had to upload a specific number of rides that also cost extra. 

Once we finally made it back through the little gates it was safe to say we were all tired and a little cranky, not nearly as cranky as Kailey in Blackpool but I won’t include details about that in here because she would get really mad at me, but still really cranky. We walked around in circles for around 15 minutes before finding the correct platform which of course was exceptionally crowded. When we saw the train pulling up to the platform we made our way up towards where the doors would open. As the doors slid open I stepped onto the train along with my mother and sister, but the train car was so full that I couldn’t move far enough in time for my Dad to make it onto the train. 

“Meet me at the next stop,” he said as the doors shut. We all took this to mean that we should get off at the next stop and then get on the next train that showed up. So that is what we did. It turns out he meant for us to meet him at the stop we were supposed to get off at to then go to our hotel. 

So when the next train showed up Kailey and I got on the train, followed by Mom who shortly upon getting on the train started screaming bloody murder at us to, and I quote, “GET OFF THE TRAIN! GIRLS THIS IS THE WRONG TRAIN, GET OFF!” People stared at her like she was crazy, and honestly I’d think that too if someone got on a train and then started screaming at people to get off as if it was about to explode.Panicking we rushed off the train just before the doors closed and as it pulled away saw my Dad standing in the other half of the car we were just in. He then texted the group chat to meet him at the stop we were supposed to get off to then head to our hotel.

After that little excitement, the Metro ride went smoothly, though one thing to note about the Paris subway system is that for the most part it’s actually above ground, unlike most subways I’ve been on.

Once we got off the subway, we started to head towards our hotel; with the trusty Google maps leading the way of course. It was an uphill climb on adorable cobbled streets lined with classic Parisian architecture and ivy climbing up the walls. It was about a fifteen minute walk until Google told us “you’ve arrived at your destination.” The trouble is we didn’t see our hotel.

What we did see was a door with a buzzer into an apartment complex, though I suppose they call them flats there, and a nail salon. Thankfully a woman saw our poor, confused tourist faces and asked us if we were looking for the hotel. I don’t actually remember the name of the hotel, but she asked us if we were looking for it by name. 

Turns out that the door we thought was for the apartments actually doubles as the entrance to the hotel. The only indication that it also was the entrance to the hotel was this little tiny gold plaque with the name of the hotel on it! So you can’t really fault us for not seeing it.

Once we walked through those poorly labeled doors, we entered a small courtyard, then walked to the other side of it to reach the actual entrance. It was actually really nice on the inside, with painted walls covered in art and photos. There was also a bar along with a little sitting area which my sister and I promptly put to good use while my parents went to check in. 

It took around twenty minutes to check in because my parents kept on asking the poor receptionist, who only knew a bit of English, how far Vimy Ridge was. To which the receptionist replied that he didn’t know what that was. Once they realized that asking him was moot, we headed towards the elevator to get to our third floor room.

A fun little fact about most buildings in Paris is that they are like four or five hundred years old. Thus most of them don’t have air conditioning (which is really annoying when you're there during a heatwave), and the ones that do have elevators are set up so strangely and are so small. The one at this particular hotel had an elevator that in order to get to it, you have to go up half a flight of stairs, have one person with their suitcase or four suitcases go into the elevator, and then decide if they want to land half a flight of stairs above or below their floor. If that sounds strange to you, that’s because it is. The elevator was set up in a way that no matter what you’d have to walk on stairs, which kind of defeats the whole point of an elevator to begin with!

Eventually we all made it up to the room which was really nice, and now that I think of it I believe that it did have air conditioning. We put all of our stuff down, looked out the window to see if we could see the Eiffel Tower, which you could when you squished your face against the glass at a very specific angle, and claimed which bed we wanted, because in Europe when you say you want two queens or two doubles, they give you four twins. I’m pretty sure they do that in Japan as well.

By this point all of us were very hungry, and it was getting close to when my Mom’s and I’s tickets to climb up the Eiffel Tower were for. So we set out into the streets of Paris, on the lookout for a pleasant cafe or restaurant to have dinner at only to discover that the French are absolutely insane and eat dinner at eight; meaning all the restaurants don’t open until seven. We did find a Burger King right next to the Seine River, and I had the best fast food of my life from that place. Kind of tells you about how good the quality of our food is here in North America. I had this slider trio thing by the way, and I can not stress how good those burgers were, and I’ve had some pretty fancy burgers.

We ate on benches overlooking the Seine, then continued to the scenic route to the Eiffel Tower, and no we weren’t lost, we just wanted to walk along the river for a while more before heading into what we knew was going to be a very crowded area. We actually came across both the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty that France just decided to keep when they gave the big one to the United States I guess, and a to-scale model of Lady Liberty’s torch. There was also an outdoor gym right next to the small Statue of Liberty, but that’s less exciting, though it was a pretty cool gym.

After that we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower! I had wanted to visit Paris for pretty much as long as I can remember, I literally have a Paris themed comforter on my bed that’s how much I wanted to go. So finally being that close to such a magnificent and iconic symbol of the city was so exciting, and knowing that I was going to be climbing up it was just mind boggling, and it still is quite frankly. 

Mom and I got in line while Kailey and Dad went off to sit down somewhere, both of them don’t like heights so they didn’t want to go up it. I on the other hand was more than prepared to climb the 674 steps up to the second floor of the tower. Going up the stairs felt like you were climbing up a large metal cage, because that’s essentially what it is, a large metal cage. It took around ten minutes to reach the first floor, and it was so cool to see all the people walking around on the ground. Both the floors that I was on are just big squares with the centers cut out of them, so on the first floor they had these large glass windows that you could walk up to to look at the ground right under the tower. So, naturally I did that, and it wasn’t until I looked down that I realised the floor was also made of glass there. I literally jumped back when I saw that.

Then we headed up to the second floor which had a bakery that sold macarons. We bought two chocolate raspberry macarons and ate them overlooking downtown Paris; it was magical. We walked around up there some more, took a million pictures, and I even got a mini Eiffel Tower as a souvenir for one of my friends back home.

When we decided that it was time to head back down we got a tad turned around trying to find the down stairs. They have different sets of stairs for going up and down because of how narrow the staircases are. We began our slow descent to the ground once we did finally find them. It took us probably twice as long to go back down than it did to go up because, while my Mom and I are both good with heights, she’s in her fifties and I didn’t like that I could see all the way down because of the holes in the stairs.

We met back up with Kailey and Dad under the tower and walked back to our room for a well deserved evening and night of rest, because tomorrow we do it all again, except hopefully with a bit less getting lost.

Day two was significantly more relaxing than the first day. We decided to go on this hop on-hop off tour bus that took us all around the touristy parts of Paris. We walked over and got on at the Eiffel Tower stop, and while we were walking by the tower three armed guards dressed in full-on military camouflage. The bus was bright red with an open deck on the second floor; that’s where we sat because it had a better view of the city and free “air conditioning”. When we got on the driver gave each of us a little package with wired earphones that connect to these speakers that could give you the tour in English, French, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Portuguese. The speakers were attached to the seats in front of you or the wall if you were sitting in the front row.

The bus went past all sorts on monuments including but not limited to, the Eiffel Tower (obviously), the Louvre which I went to on the third day, the National War Museum which had functioning cannons outside of it, the square where people used to be executed via guillotine, the fancy bridge leading up to said square, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees which is the final street of the long annual bike race in France each year, and the street that the original Louis Vuitton is located, and finally this really old opera house that the Phantom of the Opera was supposedly took place at. 

Throughout all of the tour the audio guide was giving us fun facts about the locations we were passing. An example of one such fact is that for the 1967 Expo the Eiffel Tower was going to be sold and moved to Montreal Canada!

The first spot we got off was the one just down the street from Notre Dame. We went and had lunch at this lovely creperie before doing a little bit of shopping where I got a grey sweatshirt that says “Paris” on it and a tea towel for my grandparents. We also sat down in a lovely park for a small break before going to tour Notre Dame.

The square outside the church was much less crowded than I expected it to be. Of course there were lots of people, but not nearly as many as you’d assume would be outside such a famous building. We got a few pictures outside the church before buying entrance tickets and headed inside. 

The outside of Notre Dame was impressive, but the inside was drop-dead gorgeous. The detailed stone carvings, the high arches, and the intricate stained glass windows made it look like something straight out of a fairy tale. 

There were stands with candles that you could donate some money to light scattered throughout the church. I decided that I wanted to light one, the only issue was that most of the candles were either already lit or the wick in the candle was so small that it would’ve been impossible to light. I imagine they do that on purpose to keep the chance of Notre Dame catching on fire again to a minimum. I did eventually find one that I was able to light right at the end of the area we were allowed to walk through.

On our way out we stopped at the gift shop–yes, there is a gift shop in a church. I personally think it’s wrong to have a gift shop in a place of worship but hey, business is business. The reason why we stopped at the gift shop was so my Mom could pick out a necklace or rosary for some family friends of ours who are very religious. 

We then walked back to the pick up/drop off spot for the bus and continued on our way towards the next place we got off at. While we were walking we stopped at a fence to admire the “love locks”. A “love lock” is this small lock and key that you can buy at pretty much any souvenir store in Paris that you lock onto a bridge or fence with a partner before throwing away the key. It's meant to symbolise eternal love or something like that. The most famous place for these locks was this walking bridge, but they had to remove all of them and replace the railings with glass because it was starting to sag due to the weight of all the locks.

The next stop we got off the bus was near Champs-Elysees, well it was exactly next to Champs-Elysees. The only reason we got off was because we were tired of listening to the same facts about Paris over and over again, and there was a Lindt store. The Lindt store was the main reason. 

It was a huge store, by far the biggest one I’ve ever been in. It had rows upon rows of the Lindor balls, and a whole bunch of exclusive flavours as well. We ended up getting a small bag for the four of us to share once we got back on the bus which was almost immediately after. And I know it’s just a trick of the mind, but I could swear that the chocolate from there tasted way better than the chocolate I occasionally get at the Lindt store in Winnipeg.

We ended up doing one more loop on the bus and got off at Galeries Lafayette, which is this giant department store that has this gorgeous, domed stained glass ceiling in the women's building; that’s right, they don’t separate the store into departments, they separate it into buildings! The women's building is six floors tall, and that’s including the rooftop terrace with one of the best views of the city. The inside was filled with all these sections of designer and fancy companies trying to sell their product to you for an insanely high price. The first floor held all the perfume vendors, the second had the shoes, the third had clothing, the fourth floor was the food court and cooking section which was where we had a snack, the fifth was baby stuff, and as I said before the sixth floor is the terrace.

After walking around and deciding that we literally cannot afford anything in there except for the food we ate, we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the Eiffel tower stop. We got off and walked over to a restaurant we saw on the bus for dinner. It was here that Kailey and I had to use the washroom at the same time, so we went downstairs and found the women’s stall was occupied, this in and of itself wouldn’t have been a problem. The problem came when a girl around our age who only spoke Spanish came down the stairs and my sister and I, who don’t know a lick of Spanish, had to communicate to her through hand gestures and pointing that the washroom was occupied. It was shortly after that when we got our food, the table behind us did as well at this time, and sitting at that table was this eight year old boy who started shaking salt onto his pasta; that seemed normal enough to me, some people like their pasta a little salty. It started to become strange when this kid continued to put salt on his pasta for twenty more seconds, and he did that five more times before he finished eating! He put enough salt on his pasta to kill twenty slugs!

After we finished eating we walked back over to the Eiffel Tower and arrived just in time to see it get lit up and sparkle for 9 o’clock. In case you didn’t know or couldn’t tell, the Eiffel Tower lights up at night and every hour on the hour it sparkles for five minutes.

We then continued across a bridge that had the olympic rings on it from the Paris Olympics the summer before, and even stopped to look at some of the vendors who were selling little Eiffel Towers or keychains; we didn’t buy any though because my family has a bit of a rule to not buy things from strange people in touristy places.

We made it back to our hotel without any hiccups for the first time in Paris! I was quite proud of us for that. My sister and I went to bed almost instantly upon entering the room, but my parents decided to go downstairs and have a drink together which I thought was a bad idea because tomorrow we conquer the Louvre!

Day three, the Louvre and the Arc du Triumph. Buckle up folks because today is almost as chaotic as day one. We started the day by heading to our nearest subway station and getting on the train headed towards the station right under the Louvre. It was a tad confusing because there were two with very similar names, but we did figure it out before our stop.

The stop we got off at was in this underground mall that was attached to one of the Louvre’s entrances. We got in the ever growing line to get into the art gallery, and after 45 minutes of waiting we finally were able to enter! 

We went in, got a couple of maps, and headed towards the spot where you can get an information/electronic tour guide which honestly was pointless because I don’t think I used it more than twice the entire time I was in there, but my Mom insisted that we get them so we did. After making a beeline to the Mona Lisa, which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be to be honest, we decided to split into two groups just like we did for the British Museum. I went with Mom and Kailey went with Dad.

Overall I found the Louvre kind of underwhelming. I'm still happy we did it but I feel as if I had already seen most of the stuff earlier in the trip. The only real things of note was the giant hall of greek vases, the random dresses they had scattered throughout, the part that looked like a 18th century palace, the hot chocolate that was ten euros (who buys ten euro hot chocolate!), I got to see the crown jewels before they got stolen which is pretty cool, and the fact that it is darn near impossible to leave. I swear Mom and I spent almost an hour trying to find an exit but we kept on going up and down stairs and through exhibits that weren't even on the map!

Eventually we escaped the maze and found Kailey and Dad again before heading to the gift shop so I could get another pin for my bucket hat. Once we got my pin we took the metro over to Champs-Elysees to have dinner and go up the Arc de Triomphe.

That night dinner was uneventful, no communicating through hand gestures or salt addicted kids; there were a few birds picking food off the ground though. We then walked over to the entrance to the tunnel you have to go through to reach the entrance to the Arc de Triomphe. We bought our tickets and climbed up the very small spiral staircase up to the top.

All along the edge of the roof were these large metal spikes meant to keep people from falling over the edge, a great safety feature if you ask me. But there was this little boy whose parents weren’t paying that much attention to him, and he managed to stick his feet between two of the spikes in order to then pull his head over top of them and then sink back down. If you're having trouble imagining the sight, just picture a kid’s head stuck in the railings of a staircase and it’s pretty much the same thing.

Crazy kid aside, the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous, one of the photos I took is actually still the lock screen for my phone. You could see all across the city from up there, and I have to say that it was a much better view than from the Eiffel Tower.

After we were done there we went back to our hotel for the last time because tomorrow we were leaving.

Day four, the final day in Paris. We got up early so we could see things one last time before we left and so we could go on a little river tour that was actually really fun. The tour took us up and down the Seine and gave us facts about different bridges and some of the architecture. There were also these old guys in speedos tanning on an island that possessed as we went by, so naturally everyone cheered.

After the tour was over we checked out of the hotel and called a taxi to drive us to the airport. It was a very nice ride, by far the most relaxing mode of transport in Paris, and the driver was very friendly. Things started to get a little complicated when we arrived, at least for me. 

We made it to security no problem, but when I put my stuff on the conveyor belt so they can check it while you go through the metal detector I was pulled aside and asked to put my hands on my hips with the palms facing out so they could dust my palms for bomb residue. And believe it or not, but that’s not the first time that has happened, it’s happened quite a lot actually and it is really annoying. The only thing is I didn’t know why they pulled me aside, and they didn’t tell me either. I only figured it out the next morning in Stockholm. Do you remember the bottle of iced coffee Kailey had on the train to Paris? Well I didn’t, so I accidentally brought an entire bottle filled with liquid through airport security and no one stopped me!

We then waited for three hours for our plane to arrive because it got delayed, which was okay because once we got on the plane Kailey and I realized awhile in that we had gotten some sort of free upgrade to first class, meaning we got all sorts of free food for what was only a two hour flight. The flight went smoothly and so did the rest of the trip, other than us learning the hard way that the “window seat” at the very back row of a plane doesn't actually have a window!

So in short, the trip to Europe was an amazing adventure and Paris is chaotic.

*****

My name is Megan Edwards, I am currently fifteen years old, and am from La Salle Manitoba. I enjoy reading, baking, playing music, listening to music, watching movies, going to and performing plays, and writing. I'm a part of my high school's writing club which is actually how I found out about this competition and realized I had the perfect story for it. Last year I entered into a 100 word short story contest with Tadpole Press but nothing came of it. This is the second writing contest I have ever entered into and I just want to share this funny true story with people who want to read it and possibly win some money out of it.

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