Goodbye France

I left France on the 4th of December after spending 32 days in it. I was so excited to be back home and to see my friends and family. My flight was at 7 p.m so I had enough time to enjoy Paris in the morning of that day. It was snowing and I was so happy to walk in the snow but I didn't think about what happens when this snow melts. Actually my boots were all wet and even my socks which wasn't a nice thing at all. I had to get out a dry clean pair of socks in the airport to change my socks in the toilet. It was very strange to see a girl with no shoes holding her boots under the drier in the toilet to let them dry and that girl was of course me :)

My wet boots 

The plane was a whole hour late. Everybody was worried that it might not take off because of the snow but thank God everything was ok. Actually I spent most of the time in it editing the documentary video I'm making about Marseille.

The last glimpse of Paris

Both the airports were very empty. It seemed that my flight was the only one that night. Even in the plane itself there were around 60 persons only and I lay down on 3 seats myself. I arrived in Cairo at around 2 a.m. and it was supposed to have only 3 hours to arrive to Alexandria but the fog was so bad. I wish I could find anyone from my family or friends as I only found the driver of the limo that would take me back home. The weather was so bad because of the terrible fog. Everybody was worried that the plane might not land because of it but thank God for the 2nd time. In the middle of the way we couldn't literally see anything beside or in front of us. All the cars had to slow down and I came back home at around 7 a.m.

The fog in the highway between Cairo & Alexandria

The French Cinema Museum

I really enjoyed visiting the cinema museum in Paris. I spent half the day only inside it. It was very nice to see the first cameras and projectors used and how the industry evolved and even trying some of the things myself.

The French Cinema Museum

After visiting all the museum and an exhibition about blondes and brunettes in films I was told about another exhibition in a famous place near the Louvre that I don't remember its name at the moment. I had a lot of fun over there seeing the light design of some scenes of old films and even trying myself some locations.

Me inside the "Le royaume des fées" movie of 1903

The light design of a scene in a film

The location of a scene in the film "La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'arc"

Snow in Paris

Maybe the weather was the worst thing in Paris. I couldn't walk properly because of all the clothes I was wearing but yet it was not just cold, it was freezing. The first day I woke up early in the morning and I was just waiting for the sun to appear. I thought that it was still dawn before I checked the time to be totally surprised to find it was 8 a.m !! I was even more surprised to find lots of people in the streets walking and acting normally. 

No sun in the sky of Paris

The first day was very cold that I went with Karim to buy thick gloves as we couldn't feel our hands. We realized that we are hot weather persons. It's really hard but exciting to try that weather while in Egypt it is almost summer all the year. We even wondered how the weather is in the middle of Winter and what about the people in the north pole !!

Karim is very happy with his new weird gloves

Despite the cold weather and the fact that I couldn't feel my hands at some points I was really excited to see snow in Paris. It was my first time to see snow and to walk on it. It was really fun but what wasn't fun is the fact that it's very tricky to walk on snow you can easily slip. Besides after a while the snow would melt and everything would be wet. After all it was just beautiful to experience it anyway.

Paris VS Marseille

No one can miss the big difference between Marseille and Paris. Marseille is more like Alexandria with smaller streets and less people but Paris is more like Cairo with bigger streets and more people. But of course Paris is way cleaner and has far less people than Cairo. 

There are lots of places to visit in Paris and therefor much more tourists than Marseille, they are just everywhere in Paris from all over the world. Maybe that's why it's easier to speak in English. People seem more okay with the idea of speaking in English than Marseille. 

People in Paris are much more stylish than Marseille. Even in the subway when it's very crowded you find people running to catch it in a very stylish way. I know that this is normal in the city of fashion :) 

Despite the fact that people seem more friendly in Paris I think they are not as tolerant as in Marseille. Some people in the subway didn't seem okay with my veil I guess. Some were even staring all the way which was not a very nice thing. Nothing similar to this happened to me in Marseille. I even tried to ask a lady about directions in the subway and she refused to speak to me !!!! and kept saying angry words in Italian !!!

Another lady thought that I was a beggar just because I was holding my camera and tried to ask her to take a photo for me. It really amazes me when some people react in such way. It's just so ignorant !!!

Paris at Night

I really enjoyed walking in the streets of Paris at night by my self. They were very beautiful with all these lights and colors for christmas. 

Being a tourist in Paris

I was planning to go to so many places in these 4 days but I ended up going to almost half of them. The city is very big for only 4 days to discover it and you can spend all your in the subway trying to go from one place to another. I only visited the most famous touristic places there like the Eiffel tower, the Louvre museum,... etc

Sainte Chapelle church

Notre Dame church

The Eiffel tower

The Louvre museum

Paris je t'aime

I arrived to Paris at night with Karim and we were very lucky to have Claudine waiting for us as we would have been lost without her. I went to the hotel to put my big bags and so did Karim in the apartment he was staying in. The hotel room was very small that it even reminded me of a very famous Egyptian play which is one of my favorites called "الهمجي" "El Hamagy" or "The Barbaric" :)

I spent only 4 days in Paris and I really fell in love with Paris. It's a vey nice city and the most important thing is that you can find lots of people in the streets late at night unlike Marseille so for me it's more alive just like home :)