Heading through to Paris the weekend following Fashion Week was always going to be a little bittersweet for me. Had I been there seven days earlier, this would have been a blog post about how I snuck into the listening session for the new Yeezy album, or stage-dived onto Cara Delevigne with Travi$ Scott, or signed to G.O.O.D. Music under my rap game alias Yung Flame Emoji – but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
I did, however, have the pleasure of attending this year’s Be Street Weeknd – which you can read all about here.
Following on from our Be Street coverage, this post should fill in the blanks on what me and my photographer pal Tom Joy got up to when we weren’t busy (literally) hitting on girls using bumper cars or spending €7 Euros a pop on a pint of lager. The photos you’re about to scroll through in awe and amazement were snapped over a few days, with multiple visits to Be Street breaking up the action.
So, in no particular order – here’s our scattered weekend in Paris. Enjoy!
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First things first, we nailed our accommodation using Airbnb. Pardon my French, but it cost us ‘fuck all’ – which I believe translates to ‘not much at all.’ We had a balcony view across town towards the Sacré-Cœur (which we’ll get to later) and we were within walking distance to both Be Street Weeknd and the city centre. Like I said – nailed it.
Our host, Eric, was a pretty dope guy who happened to be interested in photography, fashion and design – you know – all the pretentious shit that we’re into. He had around a million issues of Vogue in the apartment which was both hella impressive and played into my ‘if a French girl falls for my bullshit, I can just bring her back here and pretend I own the place’ plan.
As with any trip to France, it would be rude to start the day without a cliché as hell croissant and coffee.
We found this sweet little café across the road from our apartment, which was really handy, but it also meant I couldn’t shout the ‘Hurry up with my damn croissants!‘ lyric from “I Am A God” at the waitress because she knew where we were staying. I could have been Vine-famous, guys.
There was free WIFI at the café, so naturally I checked my DM’s to see if I’d received any booty photos since leaving the apartment 5 minutes previously. ‘No new messages.’ Sad face emoji.
Next up, we cut across town in the direction of the Sacré-Cœur. En route, we crossed paths with this guy, who was evidently loving life.
This thing about Paris is: It’s fucking beautiful. I wasn’t even pissed to be walking up hills when this was my perspective.
After finally making our way to the summit of Rue Maurice Untrillo, we finally reached Sacré-Cœur.
The view over the city was pretty stunning from up here.
‘I should probably Instagram this.’
We bumped into a couple of pals from Milan along the way and sank some beers as we looked out across Paris.
The hill that Sacré-Cœur sits on and its surrounding area is called Montmartre. The Montmartre village is a bit of a renowned tourist trap, but we decided it was probably worth wandering through its winding alleyways anyway.
Now, this section of the article was going to cover the amazing retail locations that Paris has to offer. Namely; Colette, Pigalle, A.P.C., and Black Rainbow. However, we planned this really badly and decided to try checking them out on the Sunday when seemingly every shop in the city was closed. But hey, we wouldn’t have seen Black Rainbow’s dope shutters if it was open, so…
While we were there, we wandered through the Marais neighbourhood to see what else it had to offer.
Oh, look! A Pixel Mario by the infamous, Space Invader.
I decided if it was okay for Space Invader to leave his mark, it was equally fine for me to slap up some of my Deathtrap stickers.
On the way to Notre Dame, we stumbled across this guy who was having a bubble.
‘Having a bubble’ is short for ‘having a bubble bath’, which, in cockney rhyming slang, means ‘having a laugh.’ The more you know.
And this is Notre Dame. A V Instagrammable tourist hotspot. And a place of historical significance, or something.
We headed west, following the River Seine towards the Louvre.
Street sellers line the banks of the Seine selling all sorts of nice (and not-so-nice) keepsakes. It’s actually quite an organised operation, with each seller having their own little pop-up stall.
At last, the Illuminati headquarters. I mean, the famous glass pyramids of the Louvre gallery.
Okay, so 99.9% all of these super rad photos were taken by Tom Joy tha gawd. However, I did manage to get this one nice photo of the Eiffel Tower on my Sony RX100 point and shoot.
And that’s exactly where we’re heading next, folks! Time to jump on the Métro.
And look who we found aboard the train. This guy gets everywhere, doesn’t he?
Escaping the labyrinth of the Métro, we wandered up the famous Champs-Élysées shopping boulevard towards the Arc de Triomphe.
There she blows.
Apparently that photo wasn’t good enough, so Joy ran across 6 lanes of traffic and stood in a super-restricted area for this next shot. What a bada$$.
Finally, we headed to check out the pièce de resisténce: The Eiffel Tower.
This monument flexes so hard, bruh.
Yo, so this entire tower starts magically twinkling on the hour, every hour. Like, wow.
Naturally, we had to go up this thing. When in Rome. (Or Paris.)
So. Many. Selfies.
Trying not to catch feels. This place was way too romantic for me.
No lie, when we got to the top, this one guy immediately got down on one knee and proposed to his girl in the most cramped space you have ever seen. His knee was actually on my foot. But whatever… I was too busy taking in this view.
Let the ridiculousness of this vantage point sink in a minute.
If you ever get the chance, you need to experience this for yourself.
And that just about concludes our trip to Paris. The best bits, anyway.
Don’t forget to check out our recap of Be Street Weeknd to see what we got up to between all of this.
Until next time. Peace!
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For more photo goodness, follow Tom Joy’s work on Instagram.
And if you’re not sick of me already, everything you need to know is here.