Flew to Paris for the Day

It has always been on my bucket list to fly to Paris for the day in a spur of the moment decision. There is something about the idea that seemed so glamorous and exciting when I saw it in movies growing up, but I always knew that wasn't feasible since all trips require planning. I knew when I went abroad I would go to Paris at some point, but I never thought I would actually get to live out my dream of a one way trip to Paris with no time, no plan, and no warning. Here's what happened:

When my friends and I were flying back from Switzerland to London our flight got canceled due to severe weather from the Hurricane in the UK. We tried to get another flight home but all flights were canceled into London until further notice. Normally we would have just stayed in Switzerland for another day and fly home the next morning, but the storm was scheduled to come to Switzerland the next which would have left us trapped in the country indefinitely. With classes to go to and panic setting in, we made a spur of the moment decision: get on the last flight to Paris to escape the storm and take the Eurostar home the next day once the storm had gone past London. 

What happened next was the craziest few hours of my life. We saw that the last flight to Paris was leaving in an hour and raced to the ticket desk to buy last minute tickets and then raced through security. We got on the flight with minutes to spare and took the hour-long ride to Paris with a landing full of so much turbulence from the storm that it had my friends and I holding hands the whole way down. Once we landed we got our luggage from baggage claim and booked a cheap hotel in the city. It was starting to look like Paris would just be a pit stop on the way home, but all of a sudden things turned around. 

When we got to our hotel the lady behind the desk told us that they had given our room away but offered to give us a better room for the same price. When we got upstairs we discovered they had given us the honeymoon suite which had a full-sized hot tub in it. We spent the whole night laughing, eating french cookies, and drinking wine in the hot tub and went out to a family-owned restaurant next to our hotel with some the best food I have ever eaten in my life. Even better was when we heard back from our program advisor that we could skip class on Monday since most of our program was stranded in other places. In response, we booked our Eurostar tickets for 5 pm the next day so we could spend the entire day in Paris.

We woke up early in the morning and got to the Eiffel Tower right before sunrise. We took pictures and even saw a proposal in front of it which was incredible and just like in the movies. Next, we went for a French breakfast with chocolate croissants, baguettes, crepes, and tea. After our meal, we went to see the landmarks which were all on a stretch by the river in the middle of the city. We spend 3 hours walking the river to see everything which was tiring but 100% worth it as it was a nice day and the walk was stunning. We ended the day with shopping, of course, which is something every tourist needs to do in the largest fashion capital in the world. I got a few items from the thrift store and from a discounted high fashion outlet and then we made our way to the Eurostar station to go home to London.

I have had so many amazing adventures abroad so far, and each one seems better than the next. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get to live out my fantasy of going to Paris for the day, but I've learned that anything is possible when you stay positive in an unfortunate situation.