Paris / #pfw17

By Hannah Brown
Mar 14, 2017
3 min read

Having a 5AM wake up and being out my flat by 5:30AM was tough. You all know the feeling of rushing around making sure you have all the necessities e.g. tooth brush, hair brush, jewellery, make up, wash bag and European adapters - all that jazz. I remembered everything! Arriving at Ebsfleet International by 06:15 while departure wasn’t till 08:12. The day got a whole lot better when we arrived in Paris and I forgot how tired I was. Me and a group of friends ended going off to find somewhere to get food, we ended up at a cafe/ restaurant called Café La Chaufferie I only wanted a croissant but they didn’t have it. They only sold full meals... I was gutted so, I got Thai noodles and chicken satey instead hahaha! Exactly the food you want when you arrive in Paris aha. Although it was delicious so, I can’t complain - however it wasn't very Parisian.

Anyway, looking forward from the food stories, we set our sights on trying to find where the venue and location was for the shows that are being held during Paris fashion week for the A/W 17 collection. While originally planning to go to Galeries Lafayette, a group of students caught my eye on the metro. They looked quite eccentric and their outfits shouted out to me, so I approached them with my best French asking them if they know anything about the next show coming up and where about is its location. They were friendly and told us we could follow them as they are heading to the Dior show. OKAY WE ARE IN! We followed them round the metro, till we were at our destination. I was so thankful for their kindness, because when we got to the venue I was on such a high. There were photographers everywhere, people dressed up in the nicest outfits (mostly dripping in Dior). This was my first taste of a fashion week atmosphere where I’ve been on the outside, not on the inside helping, and to start with a Dior show was pretty major. There were a lot of police around arranging the crowds of photographers and creatives allowing cars and other vehicles by. Nevertheless, I was in my element. There were photographers trying to take pictures of me and my friends and some on my own which was quite flattering. When someone important or major walked out of the event space the photographers went mad, all rushing to get that perfect piccy. It was amazing to see as I’ve never been in that environment before. Plus I got to see two of my favourite models, Adwoa Aboah and Lineisy Montero!

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We took a stroll from the Dior venue to his Eiffel tower and admired the beautiful architecture we admired the beautiful architecture and then went on our way. It was only a quick stop as we needed to be back at the hostel for 5pm. For the rest of the evening we went on a little stroll up to Sacré-Coeur. The girls I were with had never been to Paris before, this was their first time so, I thought it was a good way to spend the first night. We went past all the sweet apartments while walking up unfortunately there is lots of tacky touristy shops along the way which I think ruins it slightly but despite them, it was great. The not so great part… walking up the 300 steep steps before being at the top! I warned them that we will be walking up some steps however I may have talked them down slightly haha. There is also an electric carriage cart that zooms you near enough to the top and avoids you walking up the 300 steps but I think that’s cheating! When you’re at the top it’s so worth it, the view is stunning! You see a huge landscape of Paris as you’ve never seen it before, the dark night highlights all the lights, making the allusion of stars. The view is spectacular and so is the Basilica, designed by Paul Abadie. Going around the corner you can catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower light up, standing tall. It was beautiful! The walk home entailed the end of full, well-travelled day.

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