Paris...

Prepare for a huge rant with a picture overload ;) Only read this when you've nothing better to do! ;P

On a day, like any other, there suddenly was a big commotion. We would have a schooltrip to Paris...And that we didn't have to pay anything!

And so, six days ago, I was carrying my luggage into the Thalys, and was on my way to Paris.

I never had the chance to travel with the Thalys train before. I saw it though, every day, passing me by. And every single day I wondered how it would be to just step into it, and see where I would end up. Well, today was the day I was the one sitting inside it! ... And it was a bit disappointing. I was hoping it would be travelling with the speed of light, something like that. Or that it would be super luxe at least, but it wasn't.

This is Myra, of the 4th year. Like everyone on the thalys, she was sleepy, haha!

The second we came out of the train, we walked right to the metro station. We got a couple of free tickets, so we could go to the hotel without problems. We had the hotel near the Bastille, on a central point in Paris.

This is the metro station of the Bastille. It was really cool that they painted the history on the walls. You could actually learn something while travelling!

We arrived in the hotel pretty quickly thanks to one of my French classmates. He knew Paris very well, so he came in handy ;P I got to sleep in room 101 once again. It's a mystery how many times I encounter that number, on my hotelrooms, on my make-up, on the clocks... Somehow I started to think it would give me luck! I shared the room with three 4th years. It was not a room at the hilton, haha, but it was just fine. And we even had a bath, that made us all very happy!

When we installed ourselves in our room, we all went out for dinner. It's not easy to find a place for a big group, that's for sure. But in the end, we discovered 'Chez Paul', just around the corner. We waited to get in, and a lot of girls immediately got distracted by the surrounding shops. Including me ofcourse. Before everyone knew it, I was fitting a dress, and fell in love with it. I didn't want to buy it yet, because we only just arrived, and there where tons of great shops to discover.

The dinner we had was great, really French. And with wine. Lot's of wine.

Well, after all that wine, we all followed the French classmates to fancy lounge bars. I hoped to end up in the spectacular nightlife in Paris, but we ended up in gay bars...Since half of my class is gay. (it's true!) After a cocktail, I started seeing life like this:

We got a bit bored after a while, and decided with a couple of people to walk back to the hotel. We totally got lost, ofcourse. It was a bit our intention to get lost though, in order for us to see a lot of Paris at night. We saw some pretty buildings. We also walked next to the Seine for a while. It was special, we found a saxophone player under a bridge. He was playing jazz music, all by himself. We wanted to make music too, so we started to sing under another bridge. One of my classmates appeared to have an amazing voice, unlike anything I've heard IRL before. Her stunning voice, combined with Paris at night, alcohol, and a deserted bridge...was like a magical moment.

We had fun being drunk and taking pictures with this old carousel

Pretty buildings looked a bit like this after a while...

My classmate André, walking over the Seine.

We walked for a very long time, and I was really tired when we finally found the hotel. I couldn't sleep though, due to the noise from outside and inside the hotel. On the other hand, this came in use, because we decided to meet up early in the morning. It's not hard to come out of bed when you can't sleep and have nothing else to watch but the ceiling.
We met up with my teacher and my costume-hero Bert. He knew a great Fashion museum where we all went. Believe me, nothing is better than to watch amazing fashion from 1920 with an expert at your side. I got an inspiration overload.

We had to search before we got there...

The museum - besides the fashion, the building was pretty.

We had some extremely expensive coffee, and walked back over the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It was fun how Bert could point out mistakes in the finest clothing of expensive brands. He's the expert after all - he knows. He told he is competing in an international competition that's pretty high leveled. I took a picture of him with the Arc de Triomphe, for good luck. It's funny to think about it... The costume competitions I compete in are nothing in comparisation with those kind of competitions. I have such a long way to go....

This building was an optical illusion in front of the real version that was being restaurated. We got fooled by it!

The group split up, between people who wanted to visit a modern art museum, and a group who wanted to shop for fabrics at the Montmartre. It was not hard to say which group I would follow! Though I lost the Montmartre group in no time, when I was there. When I shop for fabrics, I tend to go berserk or to sink into my own little world. A world full of pink dresses, shiny fabrics and lot's, lot's of lace. I didn't buy that much though, because I wanted to save my money a bit. I do have some high quality lace, that will appear in my shop soon! So if you're a real lolita, with an expensive taste, be sure to check it out ;)

I felt like walking around by myself for a while. I noticed that I liked that very much. I climbed the steps to the sacre coeur. I got a bracelet from a nice man. I lit a candle for Sint Michael, the angel that inspires me, always. I walked back, tried to get lost, couldn't get lost, so I took the metro back to the hotel. I came across the shop where I fitted the dress the day before. I couldn't resist it for a second time and I bought it. I hurried back, changed myself into my new dress, and stepped into my high heels, and but on a lot of make-up.

Ready for the premiére! Yes! It was always my wish to go to a nice premiere in a city like Paris, all dressed up! All the girls in the group went all out with their looks, and we had quite the attention..

The theatre was amazing, it had a lot of atmosphere. The play itself was...just fantastic. I liked it a lot. It had drama, and a great humor. The acting was perfect. I like the style of acting so much. The props and costumes where minimal, but fitted very well. The light design was also perfect, they lighted details of the theatre itself. After visiting several Dutch plays, I got a bit depressed. I wondered if theatre was really the thing for me. But after seeing this, the doubt flew away and made place for inspiration.

When we where back at the hotel, we all dressed up to go out the whole night. We hanged on the beds for a while, talking about the premiere. In the end, we all fell asleep, without doing anything!

Because I liked it to walk around by myself the other day, I wanted to do it again! I went to the Notre Dam first, because I promised Ealynn I would take a souvenir along. She made the most amazing comic about it. I walked next to the Seine again. It was perfect weather, so it was a very nice walk. I got a bit annoyed at the Notre Dam, because it was an overload of tourists. (I was one too, but still!) I wanted to go to Park Luxembourg next, because the French guys told me I should go there. On my way, I encountered a street full of manga shops! I had to keep my purse closed with a lot of strength. In the end I bought a Chevalier manga pocket, because I cosplayed Lia.

On my way, there where a lot of homeless people. They where actually pulling my sleeves and holding on to me until I gave them some money. I didn't do that though. I felt greedy, but still, I have to work hard to earn money too. Everyone can work, and it doesn't matter what you're social status is.

I also met some people who where protesting against the European Union. I got into debating with them, half French, half English.

I was amazed by the park when I got there. I instantly wanted to walk around in Lia's dress! There where a lot of statues of women in pretty dresses. When I walked further, I suddenly came eye in eye with myself! I met the actual statue which I'm named after; the goddess Diana. That specific statue inspired my mom to give me my name, and I felt a bit nostalgic.

The statue of Diana

I walked all the way back. My legs started to hurt quite a bit at that time. I have deformed feet, and I can't walk for long distances. But I wanted to, so I forced to walk anyway.

Back at the hotel, the group was already waiting to move on to the next theatre. So without a pause I moved on again. This theatre was totally different than the one of the previous night, but it had it's own charms.

The play was also different. It started at 15:00, and ended at 22:40. It was amazing, the actors where very good, the set design and the costumes as well. The story was really really sad, and made us all cry. We all got a blanket, because it was cold in the theatre. The blanket, the long play, the relaxing music that supported some relaxing scenes made me fall asleep sometimes too ._. I felt bad about that.

We immediately went back to our beds after the play. It drained all our energy, and my legs still hurt from the long walk that morning.

The next morning, I woke up early again. I wanted to visit the st. Denis basilique. I drew a comic about it once, but I never visited. The story goes that you can see an angel in the light trough the windows. I went there with Fiona, the girl who sings so well. We where kind of clueless, and stepped in a train with our metro ticket. The trains and metro's really look alike! We got caught, and had to pay :( So we where in a bad mood when we got there.
It was a nice neighborhood though, we had few time there, so I really want to go back one day. It was special to be at the church too. It's so weird to actually see it in real life. And somehow I expected to see my characters to walk around. But due to the gray sky that day, we didn't even see an angel.

After this, kind of awkward, experience, we went back with the thalys. We got out in Brussels for a while, because we wanted to visit the comics museum. We didn't like Brussels at all, it was really quiet, gray and depressing. There was only one little street and square which looked nice. And I saw another st. Michael statue.


Then, after a long journey, I went back home. Impressed by finding out that you can be that tired after just four days...
It was a great experience though, and I can't wait to go back to Paris again.