First 2 days of Paris

10-June-06

Arrived at 6am in Paris. Along the way, the scenery wasn’t all too inspiring (looks like some other modern city with some ugly buildings even). Or maybe it’s just travel fatigue. Note that travel fatigue need not necessarily mean being tired out from travelling, but may also include tiring of seeing “new sights” and being in a “new place”, often due to travelling to more than one city/country. After a while, it really seems like everything looks the same, nothing is refreshing anymore.

The part of Paris our “hotel” was in was rather dilapidated, but what could we expect, only paying 22 euros for a night! We had to climb 6 storeys to reach our “penthouse apartment”, which was cramped and had a bathroom which could fit a hamster nicely. The internet there was charged at 4 euros per hour, so I thought I could live without internet for a day.

After checking in and sleeping for an hour, we decided to explore Paris a little. We had earlier agreed to go to the Sacre Couer, a cathedral which was atop a hill and which offered a bird’s eye view of the Parisian city. So up we trudged, step by step, slope after slope. Gawd, it seemed like an eternity but we finally made it up to Sacre Couer. At least the view on top was quite good though not entirely unobstructed. So there we conquered one, and left with many others to go. Yes that was the attitude already towards travelling, at least for me. See one landmark, cross it out, conquered one. I hope I can really enjoy the travelling part, but when we climb and walk so much, it gets tiring. Nope, I’m not complaining, just stating facts.

After that, we headed for the Opera Theatre, passed by Galleries Lafayette, Paris’ equivalent of London’s Harrods. I must say I was rather more impressed with Lafayette than Harrods, cos I think Harrods was over-hyped (although it is a great place to shop too!). We met up with ZM, his bro and WL and had some dim sum at a store in Lafayette. It was a great meal, though it didn’t really fill my tummy (at least not all of it), but nevertheless, good enough.

Moulin Rouge and the red light district in Pigalle.

At the Arc de Triomphe. This roundabout is bigger than any of Singapore's. 8 roads connect to it.

After lunch our groups parted ways, and we headed for Arc de Triomphe, actually a tomb of an unknown soldier who died in World War I, and also its purpose was to commemorate the deaths of soldiers in WWI (I think). On the way, we passed by Champs Elyseés, the shopping street in Paris (any girl’s fantasy). When the Arc was standing before us, I was admiring the architecture when we all heard a commotion. There was a parade led by Toulouse Rugby team’s supporters marching down the street. There was a championship match final between Toulouse and another team and their supporters were just creating awareness of this. It was rather entertaining and we even had a photo with some of the supporters!

With Toulouse supporters.

Climbed the Arc, got another bird’s eye view (the Arc is actually like the centre of the city cos 8 lanes are connected by it in a roundabout). There I got my first picture with the Eiffel Tower. Yippee!

Subsequently we walked down Champs Elyseés, joining hundreds of eager shoppers in milling around and strolling down the famous street. Went into a few shops, but decided that the shopping was too expensive for us to get anything.

Headed for Louvre, walking past a huge park (Jardin de Tuileries), a museum housing the Mona Lisa painting. Too expensive and we were also not big on paying that amount to see only about 3 important pieces of art. So we only took photos of the facade (and JX was so enthusiastic that he went closer to take more pics).

After that, we walked over the Seine (the river cutting across Paris), and tried to get something to eat. Had a baguette dinner (almost 8 euros for me).

11-June-06

Moved to hostel (Aloha). Set off for Versailles town after that, at around 11am. Weather was damn hot, unbearingly so, and it felt almost like being in a desert, especially without much trees around and sandy ground. It was almost a relief as we got into the main building itself.

There we met KSY and company (3 guys and a girl) by coincidence (it really is a small world after all!), and we chatted along the way, and had lunch together after that. And then, Wenbin and his girlfriend were at the same Macs as us when we were eating! It almost seemed like a mini Singaporean reunion. LOL! We were thinking about the odds of finding another Singaporean in Paris and decided that it was highly possible to meet at least one other.

After lunch we headed for Eiffel Tower, Paris and France’s most recognized landmark. I had been hearing stories about this place so much that I even thought about going to Paris for my honeymoon in the future, if I get a wife that is. Oh of course you all heard Eiffel Tower is so romantic and blah blah… But when you are with 2 other guys and thousands of other strangers, romance is the last thing on your mind.

So when we got there, we were joined by thousands of other tourists, eager to catch a glimpse of this amazing tower. We decided to climb to the second storey so that we could save some money. Hmm, in case you thought there’s nothing about climbing to the second storey, I have to let you know that it is about 700 steps up. When we are there, it’s about the height of a 20 storey building or more. And I think it’s not even halfway up the tower. After that we had to take the elevator up (total cost: 6.30 euros. 3 euros for climbing, another 3.30 for taking the elevator from the second storey up. If we took the elevator from the ground floor, we would need to pay 11 euros.) I thought the view from the 1st storey and 2nd were about the same, but of course the higher you go, the more you can see. But from the second storey, we were easily higher than all the buildings in the area. So I wasn’t terribly excited when I got to the top floor. We stayed there for about 5 hours cos we wanted to catch the night scene of lights in Paris city. But in the end, the wait was too long, cos darkness would only fall after 10pm! So we decided to go down to catch the lights display at the Eiffel Tower (every hour from 10pm onwards till 1am, for 10 minutes at a time.) I wasn’t keen on going back to the hostel at 11pm so we stayed till the display ended (actually it was just some white lights flashing on and off for 10 minutes) and then headed back.

Back at the hostel, we found that we were living with 3 Brazilians who were travelling to Germany for the World Cup. Cool guys! Dinner was a simple meal of INSTANT NOODLES. Nice, quick and no mess. Boy, I just love travelling.

Tomorrow, Notre Dame and then time to chill out and recharge for Rome.

P.S.: Heard lotsa not too impressive stories about Rome. Need to be on alert all the time there. Let’s hope we won’t get mugged or anything.