So our Eurostar reached Paris Gare Du Nord train station. I queued up to buy a carnet (10) of metro tickets for 11 Euros at the ticketing machine. I had zero idea how to use it, it had this roller thing as a mouse and of course, everything was in French. After stoning for a while and freaking out cos there was a queue behind me, this guy behind me stepped forward to help me and with lots of 'oui' and 'non's I managed to buy what I wanted with my credit card. Haha.
Here's what the machine looks like:
Here's what the machine looks like:
Late at night, we managed to reach our Balard station (his lousy company gave us this lousy hotel that is at the last station of the metro. Just imagine staying at Pasir Ris or Boon Lay when you visit Singapore. Damn expensive summore. We came out of Balard and freaked out for a second cos we had no idea which direction to walk and it was all dark. Thank goodness we saw this:
Our hotel!! Whee! If it was not that tall/had no signage we would probably have to spend the night in the station haha. Checked in to a room which had dirty towels on the floor.. Turned out that the aircon was leaking so carpet was wet and that's what the towels were there for. Must have been given the lousiest room cos we checked in so late. We called the reception but apparently housekeeping has gone home and there's nothing they can do about it. I don't like the French very much.
Tuesday, 12th August, 2008
We woke up and got ready to use the gym at our hotel. Act healthy mah. The anal receptionists wanted us to have some card or something, our room keys weren't enough so we spent some time going up and down the slow small and crowded elevators to get the right stuff. Some of his colleagues were also chased out of a room with treadmills cos these were for walking, not running (??). So they all went into another room which had like 5 treadmills and I didn't have any to run on. So I just cycled a bit, damn boliao.
This was the only proper hotel we were staying in with a gym, so I lugged my SAF Brooks shoes to Europe for nothing. It took up like, 1/3 of my backpack loh.
can see the eiffel tower from the gym!
Looks like the california fitness schedule
After my boliao gym session, we had breakfast and headed out to Musee d'Orsay. We had wanted to visit the Louvre but luckily Gerry told us that it was closed on Tuesdays. Haha.
walking from the metro station to d'Orsay
the museum
bought our 2 day museum pass and are ready to go!
I just realized that this place used to be a train station, so now this clock, and the layout of the museum (very spacious middle) makes sense..
This furniture section was like an olden day ikea.
cute waitress
we checked out van gogh..
look at the crazy crowd.
monet..
whistler.. (think mr bean)
i love van gogh's bedroom. damn cute. i think i can draw this though.
To think of it.. I think art museums are best enjoyed alone. 1 or 2 days of alone time, just wandering through the pieces and savouring the details slowly. I have never been a arty farty person but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Just that it's easier going alone and with lots of time, reflecting on each piece slowly with an audio guide. It's also interesting to see the different pieces one artist can come up with, and how each piece reflects his mood or life during that period. After reading up I realized that Manet's Luncheon on the Grass is also kept in this museum.. How could I have missed that! =(
looking across the river seine
left d'Orsay in search of lunch
decided on this touristy cafe
my steak was rather tough. Other than that, the potato, tomato and salad were really good.
velib.. we were considering renting a bike
Pont Alexandre III
just had to sit on grass somewhere
Les Invalides
only in Paris, the skies are that clear shade of blue even without photoshop
This is where all the military ceremonies take place. I remember seeing this on the news in late August when the 10 French soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, there was a national ceremony held here with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Walked to the back of the compound and there was where Napoleon's tomb was kept.
at 1.69m, Napoleon Bonaparte was quite petite for a French man
the exterior of Napoleon's tomb
walked along and saw some old folks enjoying a game
can't miss the Eiffel everywhere you go
shopping time!!
we were super gian to get some ice cream, but the queues were way too long
iphone! sold out worldwide
Ladurée! Popped in for its famed macarons
very pretty stuff.
colorful macarons. I think this box cost us sgd20+? And we paid a lot more for the stupid box. [but but. it's pretty right?] Luckily I'm not a huge crazy fan of macarons and seriously I can't taste the difference.
trotted on a bit more and there it was in its full glory.. the Louis Vuitton flagship store!
it was full of kiasu asians out to get a good deal, machiam free like that. The sales personnel in there were all very friendly and 'helpful', to the extent of even pushy.
we sure didn't leave empty handed. quite a bad choice to shop in the middle of the day cos we then had to lug those huge heavy bags around while worrying about being robbed. But it was lucky cos we didn't have any time to come back here after this.
Arc de Triomphe at the end (or beginning?) of Champs Elysees
we had to climb up about, 1 million steps to reach this which is almost the top of the Arc.
on top!
you can see far from here. If you check out googlemaps you can see that 12 roads are paved radially out from the Arc. The cluster of tall buildings in the background is La Défense the Parisian business district.
below the arc
back on Champs Elysees. The shops were already closing. Thank goodness we were here in summer so the days are long.
We decided to take a break at McDonald's and there happened to be a protest there! [btw they sell macarons at macs too, much cheaper than laduree but didn't try haha]
Free Tibet. We were a bit blur so we asked these 2 french girls sitting next to us what it was about.. And they explained that since McD sponsored the Beijing Olympics, these protesters were unhappy about it.
this lady was taking out raw pieces of meat.. too bad we didn't understand what they were shouting. Most of the Parisians just continued munching on their burgers as if nothing happened.. We were a bit worried for a while, but after taking our share of videos and photos, we too continued on our large gasless coke.
it was getting late, so we walked into one of the little alleys to find a place for dinner. Found a little eatery, Ponthieu L'Angle.
pb's confit de canard which you can't go wrong with. And which we ate every single day haha it's kinda like eating pho bo in Vietnam.. Every restaurant does it a little differently, but they're all good and you can't get sick of it
my Dos De Cabillaud, which is a very tasteless white fish, and rice! (I always order the lousy food, but hey I was just being adventurous)
Luckily they served us tap water here. So after which.. we made our way down to the Tour de Eiffel! We were really lucky cos we didn't really know where to get the best views, and when we were at Trocadero's metro station waiting to change to another train, we spotted some of their colleagues on the opposite side of the platform. After some embarrassing shouting across the train rail road we realized that Trocadero WAS the place the exit to get good views of the tower.. so we left abruptly.
really regret not having our tripod. We have really crappy photos of the eiffel.
during the light show it started to sparkle
pb's photo taking skills are much better than mine so photos of him are way lousier than this =(. There were MANY touters trying to sell us miniature towers and they looked like some sort of syndicate. So we were really worried while lugging our 2 huge LV shopping bags.
back in the hotel.. all the lv stuff! haha.. no, they are not mine.
