Los
AngelesLos Angeles: First Steps in the United States

A bit of background: during my trip to Quebec, some friends and I had decided to drive to Niagara Falls. After a break, the GPS started spinning and, without our noticing, the route sent us towards the US border and the border police. But that’s another story.

After a few more adventures, once again with US customs at Los Angeles airport, here we are together, Mél and me, ready to start this road trip without a hitch.

We had booked an SUV for 3 weeks with Sixt, near the airport. As you come out, minibuses from each rental company do their rounds to take you a few kilometres away to their depot. Because of the delay at customs, the car we had booked was no longer available: we went to pick it up the next morning.

10 am, keys in hand, the holidays had finally begun!

Los Angeles is a very spread-out city, and we quickly understood that you need a car to visit it. For this first day, we went to visit the Downtown district and Chinatown. The city is very quiet compared with Paris (it was a Sunday), and Chinatown looked more like a retirees’ neighbourhood. The area is very nice and the good weather was perfect for sipping a bubble tea for just $4 at Ju & Wei.

Near Chinatown, we came across Little Tokyo, a Japanese neighbourhood well worth the detour, with beautiful decorations along the street, restaurants and shops full of kawaii Japanese items!

El Pueblo, the historic district of L.A., is full of places to visit. You can walk to the Our Lady Queen of the Angels church, an all-white church close to the small traditional market of Olvera Street. A very colourful place thanks to the Latino vendors’ stalls: you’ll find lots of wrestling masks, the spectacle sport so popular in Mexico, traditional outfits and pretty sandals.

A good afternoon is enough to visit these neighbourhoods close to one another, and you’ll find everything you need for lunch or an afternoon snack.

What would Los Angeles be without its beaches along the coast? Our first beach was Santa Monica Beach. We spent a few hours walking along the beach, and we visited the legendary pier, its many restaurants, its street food, its small attractions and its little shops. It’s the ideal opportunity to relax, and the atmosphere is very family-friendly.

The next day, we swapped our city shoes for hiking boots. We stopped near the start of the Wonder View Trailhead. The idea: reach the Wisdom Tree, a tree at the top of a small mountain offering a panoramic view over Los Angeles, then follow this mountain to the famous Hollywood sign.

The hike is easy and takes 1 to 2 hours. For the less adventurous, you can park a few metres below the sign, at the start of the Hollywood Sign Trail. You’ll get a small view over L.A. and a sandy plateau that’s ideal for photographing the legendary Hollywood sign.

In the afternoon, we wanted to visit the Griffith Observatory. Entry is free, but you can also attend a show at the planetarium. Personally, having already been to the one at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris, it was nothing exceptional, but if it’s your first time, it’s worth the detour.

At the end of the day, you can watch the sunset from the top of the observatory and, if you stay until it’s completely dark, enjoy a view of Los Angeles lit up.

During our 5 days in Los Angeles, we set aside a day for Universal Studios Hollywood. The atmosphere is really nice, especially the world of The Simpsons with its sets and the chance to eat a giant donut! The rides are fun, and I highly recommend the Special Effects Stage, which shows the techniques used for special effects in films, and the Studio Tour, which takes you around the Universal studios for 45 minutes. You can do the park in a good day, with several shows and the different rides.

Not far away, we toured the Warner Bros studios for more than 3 hours. Very different from Universal’s, it takes you through the filming locations in detail, the sets stored in a huge Aladdin’s cave and all kinds of props. You’ll see the fake neighbourhoods from cult films and series, and the tour is really well paced! There’s a lot to say about Universal and Warner Bros: we’ll soon devote an article to them.

There are still so many things we did or missed in Los Angeles. The city is full of neighbourhoods and avenues like Melrose Avenue, with its shops, its restaurants and all kinds of graffiti. Not to mention the beaches several kilometres long, the studios and theme parks like Disneyland, which alone will be a reason for us to go back! Feel free to check the map at the bottom of the article to discover other places we visited.

Leave us a comment with your impressions, or if you’d like to discuss a particular topic from this short but intense week in Los Angeles!