Friday, October 30, 2009

4D3N Paris

We arrived at the Paris De Gaulle Airport in the morning, 7am. After roughly 11 hours in the 747, I felt rather free when I was landed. In my eyes, I saw a man started busy collecting fliers, maps, and train routes at the tourist information counter in the airport. (Key learning: those are free, collect as many as you can, you would use them anyway) Yes, that was HIM, my 2-month Europe trip partner.

The first place we headed was the Paris most famous cathedral, Notre Dame. She was so beautiful and stunning, quiet and peace, we had a quick round walk inside the cathedral with our big backpacks and daypacks, accidentally knocked some of the tourists, several times but luckily did not banged on the sacred displays, candles and statues. Before we left the doorsteps, a message ‘Peace on Earth’ and two signatures were created by us on the big book there; we have been there, huh? Then, we sat on a bench under a big tree, outside the huge cathedral for a rest, had some photos taken, and also cereal bars eaten, the feelings were so relax and blissful, HE looked at me and said, ‘xiao qing, we are in Paris!’. I could see nothing but just a word ‘happy’ written all over HIS face. My happiness was doubled at that time.




After that, it was time for us to search for a place to settle down our stuffs and accommodate us the night. There we came to a hostel but yet named it as hotel by the owner at the signboard (the room was just okay, a real ar ar okay and the stairway to the room was older than my grandmom, I guessed). However, we decided to take it without any second thoughts as the backpacks were killing our backs after walking for so long.

Next, we visited the second must-see cathedral which was built at the top hill, the highest point in Paris, the Sacre- Coeur. On the way up, we walked pass many road side restaurants and souvenir stalls. There were many tourists sitting at the steps right outside the cathedral, enjoying the sun. We sat there as well just to have fun following the whites, to enjoy the scenery and to take photos. But for just merely 10mins, we had moved ourselves to a shaded place; it was too hot for us, Malaysians!



With the 3-day train tickets (8.60€/ticket) purchased, we were allowed to travel up north and down south in Paris as many times as we liked. By looking at it was still early after coming down from Sacre-Coeur cathedral, we made up our mind to have the icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower as our next destination for the evening. The real Eiffel Tower was far taller than the one I saw in Shenzhen’s Windows of the World.



In order to save money, we chose to climb up (taking lift is another alternative) to the second floor (668 steps), the highest stage where we were allowed to climb up to, and to take lift (no other options) from there to the top. The nearly-700-step was so tiring, luckily I had my muscles exercised (jogging and gym) before the trip, I thought to myself. The view of Paris city from the second floor (not fully fenced) and the top (fully fenced) was breathtaking and great, the city structure was well aligned and symmetry, like it was planned ahead before it was actually built. We did not stay long there at the top as it was so windy and the wind was chilling.


We had an early sleep that night due to jet lack I guessed. The ‘hotel’ bed was so soft and lumpy. When I was on the bed alone, HE nearly could not see me. The lousy bed needed 2 people to sleep on it at the same time to balance up the uneven parts. I was in my sleeping bag that night due to the yellowish on bed sheet.

Our day started with brunches (I had a Panini of salmon and cheese and HE had a pitabread stuffed with chicken and veggie) at the roadside stalls on our way to the Jardin Du Luxembourg. Jardin means garden in French; Du Luxembourg is a big and beautiful garden in the city. The trees all lined up neatly at the sides of the boulevard and bowed to us (as wind blew) as we walked in to the big pool with a small fountain in the centre. There were some chairs nearby the pool where we could sit down to take a good look at the garden, to enjoy the wind and fresh air, and also to feed the birds that were around us. It was amazing to notice that the birds were so friendly to come so near to us for food, human seemed harmless to them.



We spend the rest of our afternoon by walking around Paris, along the river.



We met our first couch surfer friend, Fabien Lajoye, in the evening. He brought us to try the French snack, Crepes. Crepes is like what we have in Malaysia, Apom, a think layer of pancake (flour) that folded up with anything you like, from fruits (banana, strawberries), poultry (ham) to dairy products (cheese and chocolate). It was yummy. Next, he took us to meet up some of his friends (French, Mexican, but mostly American) for dinner. We had Mexican food at a small restaurant named La Luna, we enjoyed it very much, not only the food but also the times spent with them. After dinner, we all went party at the American-Latin pub nearby; the place was so crowded and noisy. I watched how the girls danced and also followed them with some stupid moves. Overall it was okay! We went back at about 3am by walking (no more trains), and wondered if we could wake up early for tomorrow’s plan.



Clock stroked 8am, we woke up reluctantly. It was the first Sunday of the month where the entries to the famous museum in Paris, Musee Du Louvre, were free. We managed to get to the place at 10.30am; it was already a very long (500m) queue (opened at 9am). The largest (there were three of them) see-through pyramid outside the museum was so elegant; the place was used to film the movie, the Da Vincci Code, starring by Tom Hanks before. We were in the museum after about 30minutes wait (faster than we could imagine high efficiency, we claimed!). The museum was huge, 3 storey and consisted of many zones. Although I am not an artistic person but some of the large paintings and sculptures did wow me. I was a bit sleepy along the visit, due to late sleep last night and also the art piece did not really impress me. However, the chance to have a glance at the original Mona Lisa Portrait was satisfying enough.


Afterward, we headed to Arc De Triomphe the arc honours those general that fought for France during Napoleonic wars, their names were carved inside and top of the arc. We continued with a walk at the Champs Elysees, which is connected to the arc, the avenue where all the branded shop lots located, including the 5-storey LV (Louis Vuitton) boutique. Besides shops, there were many restaurants too, all looked full, guessed it was Sunday!


We bought Kebab (served with fries) as our dinner, and had it while walking around the city and back to our host's couch. After showers, we packed our bags, had some chats with Fabien and also passed him a small token we brought from our hometown, then zzzz ...

On the very next morning, we bid goodbye to Paris and our lovely host, Fabien (we were gonna miss him, we thought, well, we do really miss him and think of him from time to time now) and headed to our next planned destination.

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