Europe Trip - Paris Day 3

Final day in Paris...

Actually the hotel that we stayed has cafeteria and their breakfast was only 5 euro per person (if I'm not mistaken). From the first day we stayed in, we already decided to have the breakfast there one of the morning. So, last day already, gotta be that morning.

Very simple breakfast... all sort of bread (free flow), all sort of jams, butters, cheese, chocolate and tea and coffee
compare to the breakfast that we normally take, ie nasi lemak, noodles, dim sum... obviously, our breakfast have more choices and more interesting!

Then, we decided to go up to Eiffel Tower. Actually the night before we (at least myself) were struggling shall we go to see the beautiful Eiffel Tower with light on again? But end up, we were too exhausted, we ended up in bed instead.

Before leaving this city, we gotta at least say a proper goodbye to Eiffel Tower

The legs of Eiffel Tower
That day was very windy and thick clouds in the sky
While queuing for ticket, I enjoyed seeing the movement of clouds, they were fast!

Although the queue was very long, but in short while, we already in the ticket counter. We were thinking, shall we told the cashier we were students? Ya, we looked young in their eyes.
When we were talking to the cashier, we forgot to mention, then when she collected the money from us, we were thinking, shall we cheat? But ended up, she didn't believe us, so, mission failed. hahaha
We are just not a professional liar...

I'm quite excited about going up and yea, quite scary too although I know the lift should be very very safe.

In seconds, we were already at the waist of the tower. Wow... what a magnificent view from there... Paris is so packed and congested, all the building, houses are very crowded, and I noticed that Paris does not has a lot of tall building and does not has a lot of greenery.

From there, I was trying to locate some famous attractions that we read from books.

A building with gold roof top... anyone know what's this building?
It's actually quite far away from the tower... just that my camera has great zoom power... hehe, so proud of it.

A cruise @ Seine River

Ha, finally found this...
Arc of Triomphe

Bottom: Pont de Lena (the bridge)
Middle: Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero)
Top: I called it another part of the world... with tall buildings
anyone know where's that place?

Me & Qiaoyi before going up to the top

My ticket

There's a chamber at the top of Eiffer Tower
and there are 2 wax figures inside... one of them is Mr. Eiffel and another one is the inventor Thomas Edison
This room was used to a meeting room for Mr. Eiffel to meet some famous people.
So, I was wondering... the lift was build since that time? or they have different way to reach the top?

Champ De Mars (Field of Mars)
A large green area in the city

Seine River
A few bridges linking both side of the city

Toilet up there!
Wonder how is the whole sewage system working?

Lunch time again... we went to Lafayette again because Qiaoyi found out that the Longchamps
that she bought still has the magnetic tag attached to it, so, she needs to go back to the shop to remove the tag.

When we were there the day before, we walked pass this restaurant, selling mixed rice (zhap fan)... So, we decided to bring the parents there and we ate Subways which was opposite this shop.

Variety of dishes, looked yummy, taste... erm, can't compare with what we have in Malaysia

After eating and settling the tag, we went to one of the famous churches in Paris
- Notre Dame Cathedral
Can never miss this...

Remember the cartoon "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", the cartoon was drawn base on this church

It's Friday... and there were a "service" in the church
I'm not a Christian nor a Catholic... has no idea who are they and what were they doing

The interior of the church is beautiful

The exterior, with a lot of carvings

The statue outside the church

Chasing the pigeon

These 2 girls hugging each other and cry after coming out from the church...
why? felt touch gua...

A mother hanging out with her 2 handsome sons
see, one of them smile to me

There are a lot of ugly creatures on the wall

At the back of the church, there is a garden
A lot of big roses can be found there

The garden

Before leaving the place, we realized we haven't tried any dessert in Paris... how could that happen? So, we picked this which is just next to Notre Dame

Can't miss their Crepe
and this is Chocolate & banana crepe

I think the one that I took in Eurostar is nicer...

Creme brulee

one of the must try dessert in Paris
The burnt caramel top smell so good

Frankly speaking, I don't take strawberry product, for example, strawberry cake, strawberry ice-cream... but this strawberry ice-cream has changed my taste... it tasted so refreshing and cool!
Since then, when I came back to KL, I started trying strawberry cheesecake ice-cream and strawberry sorbet... never thought that I will like it.

A group photo in Paris
I like this photo, everybody looks so good

Love this pic too...
what a serene scenery

This day, we went back to Chinatown again... same restaurant for our dinner
Qiaoyi ordered this Vietnamese Pho Soup noodle the day before and she let use try and we think that the noodle and the soup was nice, so, this day, out of 7 of us, 4 ordered this without second thought. hehe

Have we left of any must-go attractions in Paris?
I told my friend, Paris isn't as romantic as I think, maybe I was there "alone", I mean I didn't go with my love one or what.
If there are really some places that I've missed during this trip... I think, I will be only going back after I've traveled to other countries/ cities of Europe, eg Spain, Protugal, Italy, Germany... or maybe when I have the significant other... :)

I was so looking forward to Amsterdam the next day...
stay tune... for more interesting travel dairies in Amsterdam

Europe Trip - Paris Day 2

2nd Day in Paris

Just as previous days, we have plan, flexi plan... Itinerary of the day will be visiting Lourve Museum... then... ar... plan later.

Cafe everywhere...
we just picked one to try the local breakfast

Baguette with cheese and ham
simple yet delicious
the bread was not as hard as I think... cheese and ham were fresh
of course, we ordered coffee too... very aromatic, unfortunately, I'm allergy to caffeine

A group of bicycle tour passed by when we were having our breakfast

Phone booth in Paris
reminded me of a friend, I received his called when he was traveling to Paris with his family. But we didn't get in touch with each other for a very long time, wonder how is he doing now, hope that this friend of Garfield is doing well.

While we were walking to Metro station, we saw this...
Flipping through our directory, oh... this is July Column
but what is it for? Donno...
if you are interested to know more, can click on the link above

This station is very unique... easy to guess where were we right?

This station is exceptional darker... create a misterious yet classical and artistic feel

The Lourve Museum

Chill out!

Yea, we decided to go in
Trying to be "atas" abit, long time didn't go to any museum, some more this is world class art museum... although might not (definitely not) understand or really know how to appreciate.
I'm so not a Libra

Will I get sue for doing this?

Ah... I saw this before... but don't know who is the artist and name of this art

Never saw this before... but love this at first sight
feel touch... in a way

Even the ceiling, it is piece of art too

Art corridor
Getting nearer... nearer...

Erm....
A little disappointed by the size
Some friends who have been there before were surprise when I showed them this picture, they said previously, photo taking was prohibited.

This is the painting opposite Mona Lisa, I'm sure it's a very famous painting too, something related to Jesus and dinner...
and I like this better

Another painting that I like... who can tell me who painted this and what's the meaning? I really want to know

I become so small with all the "heads"

Qiaoyi likes this scrulpture

We spent the whole morning there...
I think it will be more interesting if you can find somebody who love art and know some history about the arts.
I was just loitering around... like a "blind headed fly"... hehehe

What's next? Lunch la!

headache, headache... after a few "in-communicative" experiences with waiter, we decided to try something easier... FAST FOOD!

Various coffees served in McD

Tried this special burger - CBO
C-Chicken, B-Bacon, O-Onions

A huge burger... yummy

Fueled up after lunch... we were somewhere near Lafayette
aiyo... how can we miss this shopping paradise?

You know what? Travel to Europe in Summer isn't a bad choice... most of the shop were doing great sales!

I didn't plan to buy Longchamp actually, but... they were doing up to 50% of sales...
so tempting...

At the end? I bought one and Qiaoyi bought 2! hehehe
Believe me, 50% off... plus the VAT (value added tax) claim...
please do the calculation on your own.

The only moment that we have totally forgotten about the tireness of our legs

There are a lot of designer brands in Lafayette, LV, Gucci... you name it, they have it
Before going to this trip, I was thinking, should I get myself a LV? Will it be too extravegant? Anyway, I still go through LV website, shortlisted a few item that I like, but I still couldn't decided, shall or shall not get it.

When I was in Lafayette, we did went in to the LV shop, crowded with a lot of people, especially Asian... I couldn't explain the feeling when I stepped in, it's kind of nervous, erm no, scary, nope... erm... the feeling was very complicated. Finally, courage came out of noway, I asked a lady to show me the items which I have taken down the code in my note.
She explained in a polite manner, actually we should go to look for someone who has a red scarf on their shoulder, and that person will assign a sales person to serve us. We are Chinese, quite obvious from our appearance, so, the lady with red scarf assigned a Chinese to serve us too. However, the 2 modals that I have shortlisted was out of stock, she is kind enough to help us to check through their inventory system and said the modals are still available in their flagship and she even showed us the way to get there (somewhere at Champs-Elysees).

Flagship... omg... hearing so many story about "you gotta queue up early in the morning", "they limit the number of people get in", "sales person there were not patient, you better do some research before you get in"...
Well, just try our luck! We were planning to go to Champs-Elysees too anyway.

Surprising... when we got there, we didn't see any queue.
Doors are wide open, I still got to take a deep breath before going in... it's difficult to explain how I feel at that moment.
(ok, all I have to say, I don't used to buy or even use designer brand stuff)

aha, this time we have experience, we first looked for the person with red scarf... then she assigned a Chinese sales lady to serve us. The sales lady is very very pretty and she speaks English very well. (phew... finally...)
She was trying her very best to find the modals that I'm looking. But I think there's some problem with their inventory system, she couldn't find them.

You know, when come to that stage, you are not going to leave the store empty handed. So, I asked her to show me the purse that is very popular, because I saw a lot of people are using that, but I didn't know what's that modal, I described to her and yeah, finally, she got it to show me. Holding it on hand, my undecisive character came again... should I get it?

At the end, I bought it...
The sales lady is very helpful, she wrapped the purse nicely in box, like a present... at least made me feel better, I can tell myself, it's a present for my birthday this year! (although my birthday still has months to go)
While she walked me down to get my "present", she showed us how to do the VAT claim.
I was curious how could she speak English so well, so she explained a little bit about her background, she studied in UK before, then she is planning to further her studies in China, planning to take marketing... wow... this girl is so lovely... if I were a guy, will definitely fall to her already.

When we walked out, then we saw a lot of people crowded at the Cinema opposite... because Jonny Depp was there to promote his new movie - Public Enermy...
I love Jonny Depp too, but really, it was too crowded, can't squeeze myself in the crowd.

All the way down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, there stand the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of Charles de Gaulle - the famous "roundabout" in the world... haha
Charles de Gaulle is the meeting point (wikipedia used this phrase) of 12 straight avenues. Ken's father teased me, he said if I can go across all the avenues, I will be able to meet my prince charming... hahaha, of course I didn't do that... it's too dangerous
I will say, anybody who can drive skillfully in this roundabout, he/ she will have no problem to drive around the world. hehe

One of the avenues

Open Tour bus
25 Euro a trip...

Exhausted... exhausted...
I brought wrong pair of shoes to the trip... and that shoes give me a lot of pain
Moral of the story: never never bring new shoes to travel

Dinner, we had it at China Town @ Belleville.
When we reached there, some of the restaurant already closed, then instead of called it Chinatown, I think Vietnamtown suit better - a lot of Vietnamese restaurant there.

We picked one, the restaurant served both Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine.

Me and my char siew and roasted duck rice
Trying hard to squeeze a glimmer of smile on my tired face :)

Time to get good rest...
Must fully charging myself to enjoy the last day in Paris