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Europe Part II (Paris I)
written on 19 Nov 2012 @ Monday, November 19, 2012 ✈
 Paris, a city I would love to visit in this lifetime of mine. A place, where romance is at its height. It was also a desired place for honeymoon and maybe, just to feel the icy cold snowflakes falling on my head, and walk in the beautiful shade of white, hand in hand with the person I love most. It was a dream I had, many many years ago. It still is actually, so imagine my excitement when Paris is included in this Europe trip. Thanks to movies and dramas and what have you, Paris is suppose to be this romantic yes? Hmm... it was a pretty different feeling I had when I finally set foot in Paris. Lol! Now, where should I start? Ok, from London to Paris, we took a train. It's not the usual commuters daily train. I will talk about their 'normal' train later. We got to Paris, alighted at the station, took some time to figure out the way to the hotel and we lugged our luggages on the street, and finally, we got to where we are gonna stay for the next few days. Buying train tickets is a chore coz we're obviously not well versed in French and everything is in French. Sorry, no English. Plus, it was kinda scary to have like a syndicate trying to sell us tickets. They don't come alone but with a few people. If you're an Asian and you don't speak French, well oh well, alot of people have told their stories and IT IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. People are not quite warm, even their service staffs! But then again, I would say not all of them are like this, but the percentage will go like 70% 30%. 30% not too bad. Moral of the story, learn French before you go France. Haha! So anyway, the hotel we stayed in was Holiday Inn Express- Canal De La Villette. I lurve the name. Check out our view from our room.  
This is super beautiful!
  Dinner was at a cafe opposite our hotel and then back to room to rest. Next morning.... The day view. We're going to visit a number of places for the day. I guess it was rather unfortunate that during the weekend that we're in Paris, there was a temperature spike across Europe. So, I guess the partial reason which all of us didn't enjoy the time in Paris was due to the temperature too. It was like 38-39 degrees celcius. Not humid like Singapore, but you just keep perspiring and perspiring. It makes going to the tourist attractions kinda unbearable. Anyway, just enjoy the pictures and here me rant abit here and there k. :X 
The architectures are soooooooo breath-taking!
   
Photoshoot for Montrose Desires
Oh yes, Notre Dame.
   
How much work is this?
        
It was really way too hot, and we just wanted to find somewhere to have a drink and eat ice-cream. European culture is where most people love the alfresco style dining. As much as we wanna find a place with air-condition but it wasn't easy. So we ended up at a crepe's place to have a rest.
   
Even the ice-cream can't take the heat.
Ok, journey continues. Love this photo I took. A suave-looking ang moh, depicting the life in Paris. There's alot of cyclists there.
Macaroons. Anybody's favorite?
   
You get to see alot of street musicians. I do enjoy the music.
Ah hah! The metro (train). It kinda look like some evil devouring place.
The next 4 photos, credits to the owners. Disclaimer: It's just my opinion on some things ok. The train stations were really not something pleasing to the eye I would say, and I realise I didn't take any photo of it at all.
It's quite scary to take trains at night. Even some stations look so spooky in the day. I'll probably not dare to take trains alone. Maybe we're too pampered in Singapore. Whenever I see people complaining about the trains in Singapore, they have obviously not compared the safety, cleanliness etc etc with other places before. No doubt our train system breaks down quite easily nowadays and it is oh so frustrating, let's not forget the good things too.
Safety, is also a concern. Hearing the number of people who got mugged in Paris and the crimes happening in other countries, aren't you glad to be living in Singapore where crime rates are relatively low?
This is exactly how an older train station looks like. Dark.
  
As these are all photos found from the web, well... you just have to go there to see for yourself. Oh, and people can be not law-abiding too. They can choose not to purchase a train ticket and just jump over the barricade. Of course there are some who will still buy a ticket. Mothers who have prams... Singapore's train have got this huge gantry right? Over there, it's sooooooooo difficult for a mother to push the pram through. Imagine holding on to another toddler and all. We saw it, and you know, it really makes us appreciate Singapore alot more.
If you're on a tour to Paris, perhaps taking trains won't be something you'll experience. By the way, we have awesome lifts and escalators. They don't. I wonder how the handicap and elderly make their way. We were travelling with luggages and let me tell you, it's not easy moving around.
Bless Singapore to have easy accessibility for the less fortunate people.
Ok, back to the streets.
 
This was by chance we walked to. Lovers bridge, where love gets locked forever.
 
You have no idea how hot it is was just to stand there to have a photo taken.
Someone used a super huge lock. If we were to go to Paris again, I'll bring a lock this time round.
Musée du Louvre
   
We wanted to go into the museum but sadly, the queue was way too long and the heat was so unbearable, we decided to skip it, which is a waste but really, by then we were so shagged. A sneak of the interior of the museum.
 
Finally it's shopping time! I was looking forward to the air-condition to be exact, more than the shopping. Make a guess where this is?
 
Oh la! Lafayette. Branded, here we come! As his parents and sister don't shop much over here, so we only spend about 2-3 hours here. There were so many things to look at and multiple orders from friends. I wanted to go in to LV and the queue was crazy. In fact queues were relatively crazy everywhere, so a large part of our time was spent queuing. Sorry friends, I didn't have enough time to help you get what you want.
Talking about the people here.... Ok, eventually I bought an LV bag. Before that we were at the men's and were in the queue. We got in to the shop and was attended to by one male service staff.
Initially he's nice and all, and when I wanted to go in to the ladies section which is at another shop, therefore needed to re-queue, but the man brought us in without having us to queue again. Which was nice right?
Long story short, I chose the bag I wanted and bought it. Then, THE SERVICE DISAPPEARS. We got the vibe that he was chasing us out of the shop :( :( :( Sad max. You see, that's why we didn't enjoy Paris too.
Dear didn't go back empty handed too. He bought a pair of Givenchy cuff links and some skin care. If you're using skin care from Paris, get it there!!! It's alot cheaper.
Oh, by the way, it was a Saturday and Lafayette closes at 7.30pm.. Unlike Singapore where we can shop till 10pm or 10.30pm.
So it's dinner time for us... It wasn't exactly nice. Lol!
     
The man who served us have the vibe of Robert Downey Jr. Even looks a little like him. But his attitude wasn't that great, kinda weird too. He scolds his staffs like nobody's business. All in our eyes. Oh well..
 The following day was a Sunday, and we, as Singaporeans totally forgot that some places don't operate on a Sunday. Like malls. Sigh.... so there really wasn't many places to go. First we saw Arch de Triomphe. You know there are some architectures that make you feel so wow... say the Great Wall of China. We're really not quite sure if it's the weather or what, but when we saw all of these, our feelings were like, ok, we're in Paris. Oh, it's really pretty. THAT'S IT. Like really? Why?????????? Just like the Arch de Triomphe. It's really beautiful. An architecture standing in the middle of the road. To us, was like, that's it. I blame the weather.   
It's always been my dream, since I was a young girl, all the way to being a teenager, and then falling in love, and wishing that the man I love will bring me to Paris.
Why, dear Paris why? You broke the beautiful dream I had. If I were to decide to go for my incentive trip next year, I will give you another chance. Please, please, make me in awe, like open my mouth and go "Wow" type of awe. Rant finish... let's continue. And so we walked on and reached.................... 
Eiffel Tower!
Everyday we're having ice-cream.
   
So near, almost touchable. The feeling was like......... a huge piece of metal piece standing in front of me. I'm sorry to break everybody's dream of Paris.
 
And then, heat got the better of us. We went in to Illy's coffee for a break and to use wifi. It's one of the rare cafes that's open on a Sunday.
Then, we went back to the hotel to take a shower, rest abit and it's dinner time! This has got to be the best dinner we had in the entire trip of Europe.
La Criee is situated right beside the lobby of our hotel. Having an awesome view and enjoying the air-con. We couldn't understand why there are patrons who are willing to stand the heat and sit alfresco style.
        Wine and bread to start. My main course. The fish is super duper fresh. I had salmon :)  
Uncle and I ordered sets with desserts. All in all, the food was great and nice to dine at a place with air-con and good view.
Back to hotel room to rest for the night. I will continue Paris in another post, coz the next post will have alot of photos!!!!
Labels: arch de Triomphe, canal De La Villette, effiel tower, la criee, lafayette, lovers bridge, Musée du Louvre, notre dame, paris 0 comment[s] | back to top |
