Summer’s over. It’s the end of staying up late, doing what you want, when you want, and going on holidays. Not for 2nd Bedfont though, for even when school’s begun, we stayed prepared counting down the days until September 6th – the day of our Paris day trip.
It took a while to organise this trip, a few cancellations here and there. But it was worth it for such a unique experience, since in my 8 years of Girlguiding I’d never gone with them for an abroad trip (unless you count Wales, but I’m not sure whether we count Wales). The only part I could say wasn’t really worth it was the time. It was 3 in the morning when I had to wake up. We met at Hatton Cross station for 4:30. What a perfect way to fix the already broken sleep schedules of the kids and adults for the coming of school! The reason for meeting at Hatton Cross was to take the Piccadilly line to St Pancras station in order to catch the 7:30 Eurostar train.
Once we got to St Pancras, I was surprised by the security checks we all had – basically like airport security, which made sense considering we were going to another country. Honestly, I really didn’t anticipate that, and I don’t know if it was the 3 hours of sleep or me just being a fool to think that. We get on the train eventually, and that’s my opportunity to take a nap. Meanwhile, the other Guides (and Ranger) were mysteriously full of energy. They spent the whole journey eating their lunch (at 8am), but fortunately weren’t loud. I got an hour of sleep but even that wasn’t enough. I needed coffee.
Once we arrived in “Paris Gare Du Nord” (The Paris North station) I thought we’d stop for a drink, but nope! Our leader (Louise) was on a tight schedule, and demanded that we speed walk to our first destination, which was some random art museum. Which one? No idea, for the only free area was unfortunately shut and everything else cost money. At least this had a silver lining though, since now we had more time to actually explore Paris for ourselves. We were drawn to the gift shops, where we bought some souvenirs. Personally, I bought a post card with an Eiffel Tower on it and also a really cool pen – a baguette shaped pen! Seriously, one of the greatest purchases I’ve ever made.
After shopping we sat by a fountain for a while, preparing for our long walk to our next destination. This was a little more well known one – The Louvre. Something I’ve learnt about The Louvre is that it’s surrounded by lots of larger stone buildings. Another thing I’ve learnt is that it’s surrounded by security everywhere. Sadly we didn’t go in, since the queue to enter was drastically long. Instead we sat by The Louvre and ate our lunch, or rather what was left of it since the rest of the girls had already eaten everything in the morning. How resourceful. That’s ok though, I think they were too interested in the pigeons walking around nearby to really care about their hunger.
We then were blessed enough to take one of the Parisian buses, which are much cleaner and I think look better than the London ones. There, the girls did some more sightseeing, as well as try to guess where we were going next. They obviously kept guessing the Eiffel Tower, and by the time we crossed The Seine, everyone knew it was the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower – France’s most iconic destination, and we got to actually go up! I didn’t go that far though, only to the first floor since my legs were burning from the ridiculous amount of stairs. Shoutout to the few girls that made it to the second floor though, I’m sure that the sights must have been way better. Not to say that the sights weren’t bad where I was. Seeing Paris from above was beautiful, and now I can kind of understand why people call it “The City of Love”. However I was disappointed to be scammed by the telescopes on the sidelines of the tower. They didn’t improve my view at all, and I wasted 3 euros of my Mum’s generously donated money on that. In the end I did get my coffee though on the tower, and it tasted lovely. I also tried a French snack called a beignet, which tasted really nice. I’ve got to say that the Eiffel Tower was definitely the highlight of my trip, for I found the views and the food there to be breathtaking. The first floor also had lots of food shops too, such as popcorn, slushies and pizzas – all stuff which the rest of the girls adored.
What was not the highlight of the trip though was trying to get home. Of course, no day trip is ever completed without transport issues and our trip was no different. There were some unfortunate complications with the evening Eurostar regarding the seating on the train. Our entire group had to be reseated, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that our seats had been split up. However our fears were thankfully short-lived as some passengers didn’t show up, meaning we all could sit on the same carriage afterall. This was no normal carriage either, it was a pretty fancy one, probably business class. I got a whole table and a window, which is perhaps a massive upgrade compared to possibly being sat in an entirely different carriage from the rest of the group. So things turned out alright in the end. We arrived back at Hatton Cross by 10pm, and the coffee had long worn out by then. The instant I got home I went to bed, and that’s the end of my Paris trip.
The group consisted mainly of Guides, but there was another Ranger there too alongside me. She described the experience as “amazing” and “exciting” and was a fan of the sights in Paris as well as the transport (the trains were double deckers, to us that’s unbelievable). She was also surprised at how tall the Eiffel Tower actually was too, which makes sense – you often don’t realise how tall something is until you actually see it with your own eyes. One thing me and her definitely agreed on is that we were very very tired.
As for me, I’ve mentioned that I liked the Eiffel Tower. I also had a French Pret as well to get a croissant, since of course I couldn’t go to France without having a fresh croissant. This was an unforgettable experience, but what amazes me the most is that 2nd Bedfont Guides were able to do a trip to Wales and a trip to France in the span of a year. I’m impressed, and I hope this can continue for my unit and many other units as well, for I hope that other Girl Guides such as myself get to experience this. Afterall, going abroad is amazing, but going abroad with Girlguiding is perhaps even better.
