I’m not sure what came over us, but this summer we set our sights on a Tour of France… the scenic version, not the athletic one.

We bought the tickets about two months ago, but I never had time to work on the route the way I usually do. Work was so demanding that I had no energy left for anything else. So this year, George built the itinerary — an unexpected but very welcome plot twist.

We loaded our bags onto the plane and, after roughly six hours of flying from Ottawa, landed in Paris at Charles de Gaulle. I’ve said it before: our airport back in Canada’s capital is calm and civilized. The contrast with Parisian chaos is… let’s say noticeable. Maybe it’s the fatigue talking, but the bustle here has nothing in common with Ottawa’s quiet. And we’ll have to adapt, because for the next month, this is the pace we’re living at.

The Accommodation — Where the Nightmare Begins

We rented an apartment in a hotel‑style setup through booking.com, but the less charming part is that the owners don’t open access before 4 p.m. I politely explained that we’d been at the airport since 6 in the morning and that wandering the streets for hours with our luggage wasn’t exactly our dream Parisian experience. In the end, we managed to convince them — with an extra 30 euros, of course — to let us in at 1 p.m. First impression? Let’s just say… not exactly dazzling.

We finally made it to our destination. Unfortunately, the apartment we rented is a nightmare. It looks like we’ve landed in a third‑world country — although, to be fair, the beds are clean and comfortable.

Everything else… disaster. In one of the bathrooms, water is dripping from the ceiling; one sink is completely clogged and won’t drain at all; and everywhere you turn, there’s a strong sewage smell. And that’s without even mentioning the building itself: the staircase is dirty, narrow, reeks of trash, and is covered in cobwebs. Le rêve, right…

I have no idea what the standards are here in Paris, but from where I’m standing, a functional shower and a working sink are the absolute bare minimum for any accommodation. We paid over $4,000 for this 8‑day stay in Paris only to end up in these conditions… 😤

The problem is that when you’re not from around here and it’s your first time visiting, you rely on Booking.com reviews. But this is already the second time we’ve ended up in a place that looks nothing like the description or the comments. People exaggerate or lie without shame — tourists write that it’s clean, that the apartment looks great, that everything is fine. Then you show up and reality smacks you in the face: dirt, dust, garbage… And outside, just to complete the picture, the terraces and restaurants are full of people smoking and drinking themselves into oblivion for hours. No wonder everything looks like we’ve somehow wandered into the Maghreb.

Now I’m trying to see whether we can get out of here and get our money back. Hopefully we’ll find something else. This is definitely not the kind of experience we needed on day one.

The (Late) Discovery of the Neighborhood

While I was jotting all these impressions down, it occurred to me to check what artificial intelligence has to say about the area we’re staying in — the 20th arrondissement. I have no idea why it didn’t cross my mind to do this earlier; I was probably too caught up with work and everything else, when in fact I should have checked the neighborhood before booking our stay.

Well, according to AI, the area has a “raw,” very urban kind of energy, with lots of different communities. 🤦🏻‍♀️ For some people it’s considered “authentic,” for others it’s simply “chaotic and exhausting.” What’s certain is that it’s not exactly recommended for families or for tourists looking for peace and quiet — and most travel guides even suggest avoiding it if you want a clean, safe, calm neighborhood. A bit late for me to figure that out… We’re definitely feeling the pulse of Paris’s many multicultural communities — the kind of “authenticity” you won’t find in tourist brochures, but which finds you, uninvited and very determined. 🤣

Our First Outing in the City

After a three‑hour siesta — absolutely necessary after our brutal first contact with La Ville Lumière — we headed out in the evening toward the Eiffel Tower area. We walked straight into a massive crowd, a heat that glued you to the pavement, and a metro where air‑conditioning is apparently just an urban legend. For us it was downright suffocating.

We’ll have to go back another time, because at exactly 10:00 p.m. they closed access to the top. Naturally, we arrived at 10:00 p.m. on the dot — not a minute earlier. 🤨