At long last, our MDVP staycations finally turned into a vacation, and what more appropriate place to be than in the City of Love (why’s it the romance capital? I still don’t get it…)! The MDVP crew made our way to Paris in May in our first vacation with each other, the truest test of friendship. It’s one thing to spend a night or two at someone’s place, or go to a cottage for a weekend, but when you’re able to travel with each other for a week, that’s when you know you’ve got strong chemistry. Sharing a washroom, accommodating travel styles, and rolling with each other’s BS without having options of bailing, those are the truest signs of travel compatibility.
Flight and Day 1
Our flights were bought at the end of October 2017 and the flight out was on May 19th (the night of the day of the Royal Wedding) so we had plenty of time to prepare and get all of our bags packed. Despite months of preparation, I still managed to forget our travel adapters as we left home (they were literally under a pillow). Yay for me, the first choke job of the trip and we hadn’t even left Pearson yet. The next hurdle we faced was when we were getting ready to go out the first evening we were there. The sun wasn’t setting until 10pm (WHAT?!) so getting ready to go take photos at 5pm was super chill because we had all the time we needed. Thankfully, Mel and Dave packed their adapters and Vic was able to start curling her hair before we left and BANG. The fuse blew and we officially had no travel adapters in Paris.
Day 2
Is her hair curled? I can’t tell…We finished the night having dinner with our friend Camilla and her father, some delicious sushi in the comfort of their own home, great way to settle in the first night. The next day was probably the most tiring day of our trip. We each didn’t sleep very much, and I can confidently say we were all grumpy. We made our way to the Montmarte for a quick photo op and then walked down to Galeries Lafayette for a quick make up-touch up for the girls with YSL Beauty. Needless to say, Dave and I were already looking fly so we didn’t need anything done…but we NEEDED food! On the bright side, we were partially rescued by Camilla who is always down to encourage food and I must say, I couldn’t have been happier to eat. We headed over to Printemps and enjoyed a beautiful view with our lunch.
After lunch, it was my time to shine. After creeping this place on Instagram for months, I finally got to head over to the Pigalle Basketball court. Radiant and smooth colours, strong pink and purple colours, this place was designed to be photographed and filmed! After walking there, we realized it was closed! The court was locked up for a film crew for the day, and I was SOL. Definitely the biggest heartbreak of the trip for me, and I’m still waiting for the day that I can come back and get buckets here.
I can’t lie, the rest of the day is sort of a blur after I didn’t get into the court. I was super bummed out since it was gonna be the highlight of my trip, not the Louvre or Arc de Triomphe. I want to say that the girls went shopping and Dave and I ended up getting some beers to end the night. Can Vic, Mel, or Dave please confirm my suspicion?
Day 3
At this point, we’ve gotten to the half way point of our trip and everyone was already zonked. We had packed so much into the first couple of days that we all wanted some chill time. But that was not on the itinerary. Instead, we woke up at 4:30AM (you read that correctly) to go take MFing photos at the Trocadéro. Why the hell would anyone go this early? To avoid the big crowds of people, of course! Who’s up that early? Only people taking pictures, not even the clean up crew! But I can’t lie, the photos turned out pretty nicely…
Luckily for us, we were able to stay very close to the Trocadero so after a VERY UNSUCCESSFUL breakfast (the restaurant’s stoves were out of commission, so they brought us OVERPRICED pastries instead and I absolutely refuse to give them a shout out because we were not told that the stoves were down, instead we were forced pastries…), we were able to go back and freshen up before tackling the rest of the day. Naturally, I wanted to fresh up since it wasn’t just Vic that would have to deal with my nastiness for the day. I didn’t wanna scare off Mel or Camilla (sorry Dave, you can deal with my smelliness) so I decided to use my YSL cologne to keep myself fresh. I can’t lie, this was definitely planned out to keep the Parisian theme going, even with my scents.
Day 4
On day 4, we made the worst discovery of the trip (asides from Pigalle being closed for me, obv…). We found out that somehow in our planning, each couple had booked separate dates home! Vic and I were scheduled to leave on the Friday whereas Mel and Dave had until Saturday. We lost out in a whole day that I had planned for just chilling! On the bright side, this was after we had a serious talk about our itinerary. We all decided that we needed to slow down with the photos and just enjoy the city! We had gone crazy and no lie, became a little obsessive about shooting content and we forgot to take in the air. This meant slowing down between places to go, wandering neighborhoods, and just taking things in stride instead of forcing ourselves to stay on a timeline.
It quickly became my favorite day of the trip because we STILL got amazing content and we wandered the city properly. We started off with a meeting with the Atelier cologne team where we got a stronger idea of the brand, the scents (my favourite smells like freshly cut grass), and how each scent was created and what they represent. I find that these types of interactions are key to working with a company, as you get to see if your values truly align with theirs. We quickly realized that Atelier’s focus on citrus scents was a great theme especially for summer travels.
Now that you’ve seen me in my morning routine, how about seeing me in real life. We hopped on the Metro and made our way around the city and just explored! This was the first time that we split up from Mel and Dave so each couple did their own thing before we met up for dinner. Rocking my fresh Paris Polo from Lacoste and clean white Aldo sneakers, Vic and I ended up exploring Saint Germain and Notre Dame.
Day 5
The final day in Paris did not disappoint us at all! It was an exhausting day but we went out with a bang, hitting the Palace of Versailles in the morning, but not early enough to avoid the crazy crowds. We were all tested this day because naturally we wanted to shoot content, but it took absolutely forever! Waiting for people outside to clear out, and dealing with one EXTREMELY rude woman, we tested our patience and our hunger at this one but I’d like to think it was all worth it. We then went back to the city, went to Luxembourg Gardens, and had dinner in Saint Germain to end our trip.
Overall
I’m tired of Mel and Dave. Ha, I kid I kid. I had a hell of a time with them and we all learned each other’s travel quirks. People’s annoying alarm clocks in the morning, eating schedules, and sharing ONE bathroom between 4 people! We made it work, and through this trip, I learned the most important thing to do is communicate. Whenever we were frustrated with each other, it was mostly due to a miscommunication or lack of communication. We didn’t want to voice certain things with each other in the case that we’d piss each other off. That’s the real test of friendship, you can tell your friends that you’re tired of their sh*t or that you’re tired of doing stuff, and they’ll say my bad and move on to something that everyone wants to do. Communication and accommodation, keys to traveling and being a good friend!
Shouts to Mel, Dave, Vic, and Camilla for making this trip an unforgettable one!
