Paris in 6 Days (Day 6)

26th Dec 2009

The itinerary for today will be the Les Invalides, shopping and KLKK (“Kia lai Kia Kee” meaning walking around aimlessly in Hokkien).

We made our way from the Champ Elysees to the Les Invalides and surprise surprise, we walked pass Gucci and my wife told me that she wanted to have a look inside and asked me to take some photos first as she will be out in a jiffy. Oh well, girls will be girls and there I was alone, taking photos and trying to make meaning out of my surrounding. I have to admit that it did squeeze the creative juice in me. I read somewhere (I believe it is Ken Rockwell’s blog) that says you will take great photos when your subjects are limited as that is the only time that you will really see and think hard before you press the shutter. I am not sure whether I have did exactly that or produced any great photos but here are some of the photos that I have taken during my lonely time out there.

Metro station

Paris in 6 Days (Day 5)

25th Dec 2009

Christmas!

In Paris, most shops are closed during Christmas so its ironic that there is really nothing much on the street during this festive day. Thank God that Disneyland Paris is open and this makes a perfect place to spend our Christmas!

We are not too sure how to go to Disneyland and proceeded to the hotel lobby to ask for assistance and to our horror, the reception staff told us that the train to Disneyland is on strike! He mentioned that we could still go to the train station and try our luck. Otherwise, we could take a taxi from here to Disneyland or take a metro to somewhere nearer to Disneyland and then take a taxi from there. Either way would cost us quite a bomb, so we decided to try our luck at the train station.

Some kinda custard pastry we bought yesterday for our breakfast today.
Don't really know what its called though...

Paris in 6 Days (Day 4)

24 Dec 2009

Maybe the long vacation has taken its toll on us, as we felt a little lazy to wake up early in the morning to explore Paris but rather sleep in till 0930 and sometimes 1000hr. Should I attribute this to the comfortable bed that they provide us in the Paris Marriott Champ Elysees? Perhaps…

We are supposed to head to Gare du Nord early in the morning about 0530hr to take the Eurostar to London. I have booked a one-day tour there and have made plans to meet up with my colleagues in the UK and all. Due to the terrible storm in the UK and some technical issues, the Eurostar was stuck in the channel and many passengers were stranded. The next news was that there would not be any trains departing from London to Paris or beyond and to add salt to injury, twenty thousand odd passengers are stranded in the London station waiting for a train (Any train) to head back to their respective hometown to spend Christmas with loved ones. In view of this, I have called Viator to cancel my booking and requested for a full refund. Thank God that I’ve got my full refund and to make way for these people to head back to their hometown. Why should I do that? Well, firstly, even if I get to go to London, it doesn’t mean that I could get back to Paris on the same day so why jeopardize my holiday on that? Secondly, I am only going on holiday whereas many of these people on the queue is heading back to spend one of the most important day of the year with their family and loved ones, why hog the precious seats? So, off with London and exploration continues in Paris.

Paris in 6 Days (Day 3)

22^nd Dec 2009Musee de Louvre

The Louvre museum is the largest museum in the world followed by the British Museum and The Vatican Museum! The total area of this museum records approximately 1000 square meter. It is totally impossible to truly appreciate all the items housed in this museum in one single day. Our own experience taught us that even to do a quick touch-and-go on all items, it is impossible to see all the collections here (That is if your leg and neck doesn’t kill you first… keeping high motivation for the whole day towards arts and sculptures and artifacts will definitely finish you off). Anyway, to start it off, we didn’t really spend the whole day in the Louvre per see as we woke up a little late thanks to the comfy bed and strolled to the Louvre instead of taking the metro.

The Museo de Louvre from the Tuileries

Paris in 6 Days (Day 2)

Day 2
21^st Dec 2009

This is an exciting day! With so many interesting attraction lining up back-to-back, I can’t wait to get started. I have make and paid for a dinner reservation for two at the Paris Hard Rock Café via Viator so the evening is taken care of. For the day time, we headed to La Defense to have a look at one of the many places in France that was featured in the movie “Mr. Bean’s Holiday”. The location is easily accessible as it is the last stop of metro Line 1 (Yellow line). I have also purchased a Louvre Museum ticket via their official website here (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en) but the collection point is at any Auchan (Which is like the Sistic counter in Singapore but with exception that the Auchan is also a French MNC retailing giant) and so happens that there is one in La Defense.

Arc de Triomphe fade to gray