Europe Winter Trip (Part 3 - Paris)

Day 6

Took another early Eurolines bus to Paris. Reached there around 8am. Checked in to the hotel (not hostel, but still, cheaper than most hotels) at Porte de Vincennes first. Did some basic shopping at a nearby supermarket.

Ratatouille!

We then rushed to the Place Saint-Michel for the New Paris Free tour (they even have it on Christmas day!). Unfortunately the lady there said that the tour guide was sick so it was cancelled =( What a pity. We didn't take the tour on other days because we didn't see the point - usually we take a tour as an "orientation" of the city.

No matter, we crafted out of own route then. First we went to Notre Dame, which was located on an island in the middle of the Seine. I happened to knock myself into a lamppost on the way as I was holding up my map in front of me and didn't see what was in front. Hurt my chest. *ouch* It felt like a blue-black injury only when I was in Italy though.

The Seine

Notre Dame

Statue of Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc)

We later came to notice that there were many other churches in Paris that had the similar flat-roof-tower design of Notre Dame. There were many souvenir shops located beside Notre Dame and we went to take a look.

View of Notre Dame from behind. A nice park was located there.

It was a nice sunny day (rather rare in Munich nowadays) in Paris.

We then went to Musée Du Louvre and saw the famous Pyramide. Met one of Melvin's friend here. He offered us his Louvre tickets (it was already torn but you can reuse them as many times a day as you like) but we had other plans today so we declined.

Pyramide + Louvre

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, in front of the Louvre

Passed by an artificial pond. I like this type of green-headed ducks.

We then walked all the way down this huge park to Place de la Concorde (there was a large ferris wheel here, as well as an Egyptian obelisk) and crossed the river. Passed by Hôtel des Invalides on our way to Parc du Champ de Mars, which is the park leading to the Eiffel Tower (or Tour Eiffel in French). Only me and Enrique wanted to go up so we queued for quite some time. Only went up to the 1st and 2nd level though (by stairs. Quite a climb), because to go up further you'll need to buy another ticket (and queue again). It was quite dark already so there wasn't really much to see. After some time we bought some souvenirs and went down.

Tour Eiffel, nearing dusk.

a view of Paris from the tower

Lit up at night

Enrique had to leave as he was joining our Japanese friends who were going to Romanievi on the Arctic Circle in Finland. We had dinner at a fast food restaurant called Quick. I had a burger (it tasted quite good to me... different from the usual, but Arvin didn't fancy it). Afterwards we all had Nutella crêpes from Aux Meilleurs Crêpes de Paris. Got really sick of it after some time. Lol. Maybe we didn't buy from a good shop? But quite a number of people were buying from there. [update: searched online, it's purportedly one of the best in Paris! But trust me, it wasn't. So don't bother] Bought some food for tomorrow at a supermarket as most shops would be closed the next day.

Interesting packaging...

Nutella crêpe... was scared of Nutella for the next few days

Day 7 (Christmas Day)

As I really didn't feel well, I stayed the whole day in the room, most in bed. There were some interesting things on TV though, like the Larry King interview with The (remaining) Beatles and their spouses, talking about their lives and collaboration with Cirque du Soleil in the production of "LOVE".

Meanwhile, Bernard and Arvin were enjoying themselves at Disneyland. Think they really had a great time (esp. Bernard, who has been to all other Disneylands in the world. He also thinks this was the best part in the whole Europe Trip). I think it was good the both of them went without me coz I'm not really into Disney stuff, and also I guess they wouldn't act naturally in front of me bah. Anyway, for those who want to go to Paris Disneyland, get the train+entrance ticket package at main train stations. You'll skip the queue to buy tickets at Disneyland.

My situation got a bit worse but it got much better by night. Thanks to Arvin for the medicine!

Day 8

I was much better but still coughing and stuff. Still, didn't want to waste anymore time. We first moved to our new hotel at Rue de Dunkerque (nearer to Gare du Nord station, more on that in the next blog entry). We went to Basilisque du Sacré-Cœur (which was nearby) first as the room wasn't ready yet. It was located atop a hill. Bought some souvenirs in the surrounding areas.

Basilisque du Sacré-Cœur

French berets make me look like a taxi driver

After checking in we went out again, this time to Bal du Moulin Rouge. From there we walked towards Arc de Triomphe, passing by a park (Plaine et Parc de Monceau). Arc de Triomphe is located at the centre of the Place Charles du Gaulle roundabout, at the end of Avenue des Champs-Élysées and 11 other roads (!).

Moulin Rouge theater and the iconic windmill

Arc de Triomphe

This was a bit disturbing coz the general in the centre puts his arm round a naked boy

The next place to go is of course down the Champs-Élysées. Lots of high end shops, but also normal shops.

The lights lit up suddenly. It was fantastic. I had to stand in the middle of the road at the zebra crossing to take this.

We then went back to the souvenir shops near Notre Dame because a shop there was selling 2 T-shirts for €14 =P After that we parted ways coz I wanted to visit the Louvre and they weren't interested. The normal price is €9,- but there are €6 tickets for Wednesdays and Friday evenings when they close at 10pm instead of the usual 6pm.

Louvre at night, also splendidly beautiful

The Louvre is separated into 3 sections/wings (Richelieu, Sully and Denon), each 3 - 4 storeys (LG, G, 1, 2) and terribly huge. I didn't even manage to touch the 2nd floor. And I was kinda like rushing through though coz I only had 3+ hours. Plus I was lost sometimes (even with the map that I had. Coz some places are connected on the map but not when I walked around). Almost every exhibit description was in French. There were audioguides but I didn't have much time so I decided not to get them (plus I had to pay more). Those I managed to see: Pharaonic Egypt, 5th-18th and 18th-19th century French Sculptures, Arts of Islam, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Greek Antiquities, Large-Format French Paintings, 13th-15th and 16th-17th century Italian Paintings. Visitors were being chased out at around 9.30 - 9.45pm.

the famous Venus de Milo

Egyptian statue

Islamic art. This was one of my favorites, though I don't know what it means.

This felt sooo Lord of the Rings-ish. It's actually a French sculpture.

Incidents that happened:

1. Saw 2 couples quarrelling in public. I rarely even see a couple quarrel in a week. So if you are going with your bf/gf, make sure both sides are in a good mood before visiting the Louvre.

2. It is sometimes more convenient to exit one section, then showing your ticket again at the other section (esp. going from Richelieu to Denon and vice versa). So there I was about to go into Denon and I realised I lost my ticket =( So I went back to the same counter and I asked if I could buy a new ticket coz I lost mine (assuming they don't believe I bought a ticket). The person then asked what did I want to see. I said I just wanted to see Mona Lisa. He called up the person in charge of entrance to Denon and I was let in. Yippie! =)

At some halls photo taking was supposedly not allowed (flash or not), but everyone were taking photos and the guards were happily chatting at one corner. So I took photos of some famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci such as Mona Lisa, Virgin of the Rocks and Saint John the Baptist.

The inverted Pyramid I saw on the way out. There's like a "Louvre" shopping mall underground!

I took the metro from Palais Royal Musée du Louvre and as I was waiting, I heard this guy saying: "eh Siti, dari sini" (hey Siti, [come] in from here) or something like that. He was standing at the automated exit to let his friends come in. It was very common to do that apparently, coz I've seen it a few times in Paris, kinda like how people jump the gates at Barcelona and Paris to get in to the platform. Anyway I chatted up with him. He was surprised I spoke Malay. Haha. Apparently he (and his friends, all Malay girls) was from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) but on exchange at Essen, Germany. Too bad didn't get his contacts! Coz I had to get off at Châtelet. Oh well...

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Other points:

Paris's metro was resonably well, after what we've seen in Amsterdam and Brussels. Apparently the metros I've used so far in Europe (Munich, Berlin and Barcelona) have been rather clean already (still, unimaginable in Singapore). Metros here allow food and drinks in trains and stations. More on that next time maybe. I should be writing a few entries for Munich before going flying back to Singapore. Btw, I should be back in Singapore by 20 Feb.

Art-Nouveau entrances into the Paris Metro, by Hector Guimard