Paris/ Milan Day 1

27th Dec 2009

This is our final day in Paris and we are bound for our flight to Milan at 1100hr so we had to check out of our hotel early to make our way to the Orly airport early for check in. We made our way to Charles de Gaulles Etoile where our shuttle bus is waiting to pick us up. The pick up location is just beside the Arch de Triomphe so I managed to have my final snap of the great structure early in the morning where cars and tourists are scarce, which makes a photo!

Bar area of Marriott Champ Elysees

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

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

Rome Day 7

19th Dec 2009

Today is effectively the last day that we had in Rome, as we need to wake up early to do the checking out tomorrow and head to the Ciampino airport to catch our early flight departure towards Paris, France. The itinerary for today is the Roman Forum/Palatino hill, the Isola Tiberina and Trastevere.

Anna, the best hotel personnel in Rome Marriott Grand Flora Hotel

Rome Day 6

18th Dec 2009

The day that I dreaded yet am looking forward to has finally arrives. We have booked a car from Europcar for the promotion that it offered to easyjet's passengers. I have pre-booked a Peugeot 308 SW and has already started to imagine how it would felt to operate one especially on a left driver seated car. One thing left me perplexed is that IF I were to rent the car for a day, it will costs me more compared to renting it for 3 days... unbelievable? Believe it! IT only costs me €75.43 plus administration cost of €3.

The view of Villa Borghese in the morn reminded me
how blessed I am to be able to behold such beauty

Rome Day 5

17^th Dec 2009

Today is an exciting day! The itinerary for the day will be to interesting visit places like the Scala Santa, The Colloseum and Palatino! We headed out early today as we wanted to make full use of the short daylight hours that we have to cover all that has been lined up for the day. The day started off a little bad as it was drizzling in the morning but thank God that the drizzling relented and we started to have sunlights around 1000hr.

 Beautiful facade of San Giovanni in Laterano