Day 1: Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher
I landed at Charles de Gaulle airport and called a cab over to the Platine Hotel, which is where I’ll be staying for the next few days with James! The hotel is Hollywood themed (and most of the artwork is specifically of Marilyn Monroe), which is kind of weird but the hotel itself was pretty nice.
The view outside of our room has a community garden and there happened to be a rainbow out when I took this photo.
I grabbed a quick bite for lunch and then made my way over to meet up with Hide to watch the Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher. The venue was perfectly sized, so there was room to sit but you could still feel the energy in the room.
The full event livestream is available here:
After the jam, I went with Hide and his friends Cesar and Guillerm to get dinner. We ended up going to a kebab joint nearby Cesar’s apartment, which was surprising really good!
After dinner, we chatted for a while and I ended up crashing on Cesar’s couch for the night. Here’s the view from outside of his apartment balcony.
Day 2: Reunited with Samara and James
I woke up early and headed back over to the hotel to meet up with James and let him into the room. After resting for a little bit, we grabbed some coffee and sandwiches at the nearby cafe, Biogrenelle.
Samara landed around noon so we met up and helped her to get settled at her hostel, The Three Ducks. They have a really cool outside courtyard area where residents can grab a quick drink or bite to eat.
After dropping off Samara’s stuff in her room, we all made our way over for brunch at Café Beaugrenelle!
We walked off brunch by making our way over to the Eiffel Tower and explored the nearby area a bit!
It started pouring a bunch, so we went back to our hotel to wash up before heading out again to meet up with Samara’s friend, Rose. While wandering the streets, we randomly stopped by Lobo Bistronomie for dinner. Surprisingly, they had the best burger I’ve ever had and we ended up befriending the staff there! They gave us a free round of drinks at the end of our meal 🙂
After dinner, we met up with Rose and her friends at a local bar!
We had also bought a few tickets to a night club called Cabaret Sauvage, which started in the AM so we made our way there after the bar. The vibe was kind of insane and we stayed out until around 6am before going home.
Day 3: Red Bull BC One World Final
We were all battling a bit of a hangover after the night of partying, so we all woke up a bit late and grabbed a bowl of Pho near Samara’s hostel.
After lunch, we wandered the cute little street nearby and got some pastries (and a really good Tiramisu ice cream).
Before long, we started heading over to Roland-Garros stadium to watch the Red Bull BC One World Finals with Hide and his friends! The line-up was crazy and we had a great time watching the battles. If I had to complain, I’d say that the venue was a little bigger than I’d like (so the energy in the room was a bit muted and it was hard to see the expressions of the dancers).
In case you missed the event, the full livestream is on YouTube!
Hong10 ended up beating Phil Wizard to take the jam (for the 3rd time).
After the event, we went to a restaurant for savory crepes (these are uh-mazing) and hot cider.
Cesar mentioned a crazy bar called Glazart that opens at 6am and closes in the afternoon (he said that the weird hours cater to people tripping on hard drugs that can’t sleep). We all decided that we were going to try to stay out until Glazart opened.
First we went to a bar called The Frog & Underground where we had a bunch of crazy dance battles and even ended up befriending the DJ there! Eventually the bar closed and our group split up (with the intention of meeting up at Glazart): Samara, James, and I went looking for another bar and Hide and Cesar went gambling.
We wandered the streets and tried (unsuccessfully) to find a bar that was open 😦
Since nothing was open, we decided to have our own party and bought some Ricard (after a convenience store clerk suggested it) which was a mistake because it tastes awful. Then we rented some electric bikes and made our way around town!
We stopped by a river (somewhat near Glazart) to take a few photos and enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately, two random guys tried to steal our parked bikes and Samara managed to get one of them to return the bike they took. The other guy was long gone (with my bike) and ended up costing me about $50 on the app before the bike ran out of battery and he ditched it.
After that fiasco, we went to a bakery near Glazart and grabbed a chocolate croissant and an espresso while waiting for the club to open. Once it opened, we went in with Hide and Cesar! The venue has a setup where there’s an outside bar with a wide open sandy beach area and an inside club with techno music.
After an hour or so at the bar we were all dying from exhaustion, so we went back home and passed out for the night.
Day 4: Recovery Day
We had planned to wake up earlier, but ended up sleeping in until around noon. James and I grabbed Korean food nearby, which turned out to be pretty good (even by LA standards).
Once Samara woke up, we all met up at a nearby park.
We stumbled upon a cool little museum (the National Archives Museum) while exploring Le Marais.
Afterwards, we went on a little shopping adventure (and Samara got a cool retro jacket) before dinner!
We looked up Italian restaurants in the area and ended up going to this spot which had the most amazing truffle risotto! The bartender also gave us a lemon drop shot after our meal on the house.
We walked off our huge dinner by strolling along the Seine River. At one point, we found a cozy spot to chill out and a swan came up to Samara!
Day 5: Seine River Cruise
Even before we arrived in Paris, James said he wanted to try Beef Bourguignon, so we walked around to a bunch of restaurants near our hotel until we found a spot that had the dish. It wasn’t bad by any means, but definitely wasn’t my favorite meal (partially because the food we had up until now has been insanely good).
It started pouring rain (and it was pretty cold out), but we persevered and made it out to see the Louvre!
We even got some cool action shots straight out of a dance film while we were out in the rain.
A few days prior we had booked a boat cruise on the River Seine, so we went to catch our boat! Turns out we went to the wrong spot (we went to the place where the tour ends instead of where it begins) and ended up missing our tour. Thankfully there was a different boat tour at the spot we went to, so we ended up taking that cruise instead.
While we were there we befriended the tour guide and bartender! This was super spontaneous, but definitely one of my favorite moments on the trip 🙂
We managed to fit in a little bit of shopping after the boat cruise.
Got a little hungry, so we took a break from walking at a little cafe and had some french onion soup and escargot!
James went back to the hotel afterwards and Samara and I biked over to the Arc de Triomphe.
Day 6: Au revoir Paris!
This was our last day in Paris! James had an early flight, so I woke up and saw him off to the airport. Samara and I grabbed a bite at the nearby cafe before doing some last minute shopping and catching our flight back to D.C.!
m'attaboy 