Hi Friends! This is one of the 3 posts that is submitted for the nomination of Best Photo Blog category by OMY Singapore Blog Awards. I must hereby THANK the panel of judges from OMY’s editorial team for selecting TravelerFolio.com as one of the top ten finalists in the Photo Blog category.

Please leave your comment in this post if you like it.

A more relaxing sightseeing day for us, after the mad cow rush the day before. It was very hot, seemed hotter than Singapore, on 29 May. It’s always good to start Europe first from the South like Italy, as it is warmer; then move to colder regions so that by the time, those colder regions should be nearer to Summer and turn warmer.

We visited the Catacombs, which are the underground burial places under Rome. It was a mind boggling experience, seeing human bones being arranged artistically with shivers down the spine.

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Hi Friends! This is one of the 3 posts that is submitted for the nomination of Best Photo Blog category by OMY Singapore Blog Awards. I must hereby THANK the panel of judges from OMY’s editorial team for selecting TravelerFolio.com as one of the top ten finalists in the Photo Blog category.

Please leave your comment in this post if you like it.

Rest and Relax day for us. We set out for our hiking at Untertal, a beautiful alpine path behind our resort that leads to the highest waterfall in the region.

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We backpacked around Europe in May 2003 for about a month. It was Spring, nice weather, less touristy, better rates and longer opening hours for sightseeing. We visited France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Italy.

We flew with Qantas, from Singapore to Paris. The air ticket was really a good bargain in 2003 - S$780 in total, a direct and open-jaw ticket, returning from Rome. We managed to grab this bargain in March, days just before the US-led war on Iraq and when the deadly SARS epidemic started sweeping Asia.

When we were waiting to board our flight, most of the Caucasian passengers who transited in Singapore were wearing face masks. At that time, a total of 201 probable cases of SARS and 722 suspect cases had been reported in Singapore (CDC report). We were pretty worried that we might not be able to enter Paris smoothly.

Next: Romantic Paris!

After about 13 hours of direct flight from Singapore, we finally touched down at Charles de Gaulle Airport. We were a bit disorientated at first, and there were so many people at the airport. We went through the immigration custom very smoothly without any problem linked to the SARS issue from our country. However, we were quite worried as our passports were not stamped at the custom. We clarified this at the information counter and were relieved that it was not mandatory for that.

Paris is beautiful beyond words, with nice alleyways between the fine, elegant old buildings. Our backpacks were very heavy. We headed directly to AIJ, an international hostel providing bare-bones accommodation; but most importantly, it is located in the city centre and walking distance to Bastille district and Ledru Rollin Metro Station.

We checked in at AIJ Hostel around 10am but it was still early to get our room. We left our backpacks in a storage room with other people’s backpacks. Rather concerned with the safety of our belongings, we used a chain to secure our backpacks together and padlocked the chain.

We walked to Bastille. It was like a marketplace with many people.

We visited the Carnavalet museum (Musée Carnavalet in French) in the Marais district, free admission. This museum is devoted to the history of Paris from its origins to recent times. The architecture of the building is in renaissance style. It has many reconstituted palace rooms and a collection of paintings.

Saw this artefact depicting the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.

Lunch time. We walked to a peaceful and refreshing garden in The Place des Vosges that lies at the heart of Marais district. There were many people lying on the soft short grass; some were reading and some were just relaxing under the blue sky. We bought some kebab sandwiches from a nearby Turkish stall and had picnic at the garden. We were rather prudent in spending Euro dollars (in 2003, it was S$1.98 = 1 euro) so we tried to share food and buy out meals.

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Notre-Dame de Paris, a Catholic cathedral located on the Cité island surrounded by the Seine river. It is one of the masterpieces of Gothic art in Western Europe dated back in the 13th century, with stunning stained glasses and a huge interior. The Walt Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” has given it quite a lot of publicity too!

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We were early birds queuing up at the entrance to Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, the first Sunday of the month and it was free admission to all!

Louvre holds some of the world’s most famous works of art. It is so big and fascinating! It houses antiques, paintings, sculptures and royal treasures from all over the world.

The world famous Mona Lisa painting is actually a relatively small painting as compared to paintings that are a lot larger in Louvre. Apparently, Mona is encased in a bullet proof box. Under tight security, all we could see from a distance among the crowd, was her renowned enigmatic expression, smiling wanly through the yellowing varnish glass.

And the Mummy is still so beautifully wrapped up!

Venus de Milo - the Greek goddess of love and beauty - is so charming! She is so glamourous despite having missing arms! And she certainly steals the limelight and deserves everyone’s admiration.

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After we left Louvre, we adjourned to Montmartre, a hill known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (”Basilica of the Sacred Heart”) and a nightclub district. It was not all exhausting but somehow enjoyable walks uphill on cobblestones and steep staircases connecting one street to another, with old houses and little parks that still retain the village characteristics.

There are full of painters and souvenir shops too. Many penniless artists who once worked and lived in Montmartre included Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.

We entered a restaurant and had an overly charged meal, though before the trip, we had already read about how to avoid that kind of situation when ordering drinks, especially Evian! I asked for table water but the waiter served me Evian that cost €5 (about S$10)! I wanted to tell the waiter that was not what I wanted, but he was really fast to open the Evian bottle cap! I had never drink such an expensive mineral water before. =(

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