Paris in 6 Days (Day 1)

Day 1
20^th Dec 2009

It is with a sad heart that we have to bid Rome goodbye this morning as this city is truly beautiful and I vowed to come back again in future perhaps with both side of our family… if I can afford it, otherwise, most likely it will just be the two of us. We took the metro to Anagnina and from there a bus to Ciampino airport. Taking a bus to this airport is the cheapest mode (around €1.50 per person) and it is surprisingly not too difficult to do so BUT since we are a little behind schedule, we managed to share a cab (€20 for a one way ride) with a pair of Italian young couple. I am bad with names and even more so with Italian names and naturally, I don’t remember their names. I have given them my contact and blog address though so hopefully if they are reading this, they would leave a comment… otherwise, que sera sera.

[Tips: We fly with easyjet as it does not have other hidden charges that will inflate the airfare unlike RyanAir which has additional hidden charges once you confirmed your flight details]

We touched down in Paris’ Orly airport at 1215hr and both of us are pretty thrilled as we saw snow covering that area! After collecting our luggages, we headed to the information centre to enquire on how to get to our hotel in Champs Elysees. The helpful personnel suggested to us to purchase a return shuttle bus tickets which will bring us to Charles de Gaulle Etoile, where you will find the Arc de Triomphe. We however did not noticed that there are more than one buses and each stop at different location and we took a wrong bus that goes to Montparnesse Bleuvenue instead. No fear as Montparnesse is a metro interchange, which means we could take the metro to other parts of Paris. We took metro Line 6 (Light green line) towards Charles de Gaulle Etoile and from there transferred to Line 1 (Yellow Line) to George V. We realized fairly quickly that the Paris Marriott Hotel Champ-Elysees is actually nearer to the Franklin D. Roosevelt metro although the map shows that the hotel is in the middle of the two.

[Tips: The rooms in Paris Marriott hotel Champ-Elysees are generally small and it is unlikely for the hotel to offer an upgrade all year round as this place is packed even during winter time and we also noticed that there are hardly any other hotels on the famous street]

Our room in Paris Marriott Champ-Elysees

The view from our room... nothing much

The bathroom

Got some baguette and fresh ingredients from the MonoPrix
supermart downstairs, just a 5mins walk from the Marriott hotel

Itinerary for the day (According to my pre-planned itinerary) is to walk to CDG Etoile to see the Arc de Triomphe and then shop in Champ Elysees but we changed it again and stroll along the Christmas street bazaar along Champ Elysees all the way to Concorde metro. There are plenty of goodies along the street and not wanting to miss out, we bought ourselves a long beef burger. OK, I know you must be wondering why eating burger in France, right? But the smell of the beef and aroma of the baguette in such cold weather is simply irresistible! It costs €6+ and it is worth it! Saw churos too but can’t bear to get it at €3 per small packet of 4 churos.

The "Pasar Malam" in Paris... sort of

They use fake snow here too although there are real snow around.
I guess the effect of real snow are not as nice as these fake ones!
Piping hot and inviting!

Look at the joy on her face...

Beautiful streets along Champ Elysees

We saw this building some distance away
but am not sure whether it is a hotel or
a residential. If it is the latter, I wouldn't
want to guess how much the owner is worth!

One of the goodies sold in the many stalls on the street.
Interesting... but we didn't try this as we already had the huge
beef burger earlier

Place des Vosges

Shot of an alley

Crossing Pont Marie towards Notre Dame!
My wife is happily showing off her "catch"

Next is to visit the Notre Dame! Can’t wait to see this building and when I lay my eyes on it, I am amazed at the kind of details and efforts placed into building this church. I am even more amazed at the beautiful stained glass windows upon entering it! It is definitely a place that you wouldn’t want to miss when you visit Paris. We took the flight of spiral stairs to the top of the building (Cost €8 per pax) and from there you could view a fair bit of the city of light.

Notre Dame's view from the back

This way to Notre Dame... duh??

View from atop the Notre Dame

The Notre Dame church is filled with gargoyles like this one

She's exhausted from all the climbing!

Plenty of pigeons here too.. too bad our lunch has gone down
our tummy before we scale the stairs of Notre Dame

View of Notre Dame church from the front

Beautiful stained glass window in Notre Dame

This stained glass window is the most beautiful out of 'em all

Sculpture of Mother Mary and baby Jesus

Replica model of the Notre Dame church

It was drizzling by the time we are making our way back to the hotel. Oh, we stopped by a jewellery shop located at the island side of the Pont Neuf to get some accessories and my wife bought two pairs of earrings and later regretted not buying the beautiful pearl necklace too. I guess if she is able to go there as I am typing now, she would buy even more… nay much much more!

[Tips: To be fair, the shop did sell some good quality items at very good price. A pair of pearl earrings on promotion cost lesser than €5 and these are of good quality unlike the many fakes that we can find]

Before we head back to our hotel, we ventured down Pont Neuf to catch a view of the city with the bridge and we got rewarded with a pair of lovers making out passionately on one of the many benches there…

It is drizzling! Geez, my lens got some water droplets on it!
I like the effect!

See those couple on the right of the photo? They are making out!

No doubt that Paris is beautiful, whichever corner you go to

Can’t wait for tomorrow to come though as the itinerary would be Arc de Triomphe, La Defense, Eiffel Tower and Hard Rock Café-Paris!

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