I spent two weeks in France (and Monaco) which probably more time than any other country so far (other than England). That’s a lot to condense into one post. I don’t seem to have any shortage of amazingly hospitable French friends and sadly, there were a bunch that I didn’t get to see. I haven’t had a good internet connection for a while so this is pretty late.
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It’s Paris. It’s always going to be worth seeing at least once. Personally, the museums and monuments were absolutely ruined for me by the giant hordes of idiot tourists. Any view of the city would be basic without the presence of the Eiffel Tower, which on it’s own makes the city undeniably beautiful. The city barely looked anything like Ratatouille in real life though.
I got to stay with my bro Jeremy. The ORIGINAL Vulture. If you’re not from Australia and you’ve met me in the last 2-3 years, it’s probably thanks to this guy so we both definitely owe him a lot. Lifetime friend no doubt. I doubt I would have even considered studying abroad or big-time travelling otherwise. So here in Paris, I think had a lot more fun hanging out, drinking Cognac, and playing FIFA with him, Sam, Flo and Katia than seeing the world-famous tourist traps. I’m not going to be one of those travel bloggers who tells you not to see stuff because they didn’t enjoy it though. See it for yourself and form an opinion on whether the magnificent collections outweigh the tourist issue. I jumped a metro turnstyle here like a straight-up badass. Also witnessed my first authentic Worldstar fight between some ghetto bitches on the train. It was pretty awesome.
Especially in French.
Very nice and peaceful city. Definitely worth a visit. I had a great time staying with my friend Lea. Finally got to eat some authentically home-cooked Ratatouille among a lot of other great food. Delicious.
Lea took me to the tallest sand dunes in Europe, the Dune de Pilat. I don’t think my calves have ever burned as much as they did that day.
She says her beauty has been classified at the UNESCO World Heritage.
Nothing to do here, really. Les Calanques are nearby.
I witnessed my second ghetto train fight from Marseille to Toulon. Someone politely explained the situation in French so I understood perfectly.
Toulon is a bit nicer and newer (I think) than Marseille. Not much to do here either but thankfully I got to meet up with my friend Lauren and she drove me to ‘Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon’, Gorges Du Verdon. Kayaking through here was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. It was Gorges. Haha, me. I also grew some stones and jumped off a ‘small’ cliff somewhere here and pretty much died.
We then finished the day with a spectacular BBQ.
“Ah Putain!”
The next day I mished to the Calanques and hiked a fair bit to get to this stunning little swimming area called Sugiton.
Worth it.
As I had close family friends in Monaco that offered me my own flat right in the centre of the city, I used Monaco as a base to explore the Cote d’Azur. I had a disagreement with one of my favourite people a while ago about whether it was pronounced Moe-Nah-Coe or Mon-Ah-Coe. Guess who was right??
“I was wrong, sorry Justin.” - Lauren W. sometime soon.
Monaco is pretty glamorous. There’s a lot of nice cars around. The famous Monte Carlo Casino didn’t really live up to my fancy expectations. There were a couple guys wearing shorts inside. Only Porsches and Jaguars outside. Basic.
Very good for day trips to experience the beauty of the Riviera. Killer views. Nice is.. good. Not much to say about either. Both are definitely worth visiting for a short time. Rock beaches suck.
The exotic gardens of Eze are a gem.
I had a really great time in France. The locals are much nicer and more helpful than their reputation would indicate. I spent this time catching up with dear friends rather than experiencing the hectic hostel life. It’s starting to get really hot and my body has acclimatised to the UK.
I just read through some of my older posts and I realised I’ve lost a lot of that classic enthusiasm I used to write with. Keeping this journal up to date gets a bit tiring with terrible internet and an ultra slow Macbook. I promise the next post will be a much better read.
© 2026 Justin Tang
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