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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What a different scene of old Paris at Arche de la Défense (La Grande Arche)! Where are the romantic pathways?! Here is in the major business district of La Défense in Paris. This district constitutes high-rise buildings and though it’s not far from the old city, it seems completely out of place in the city of romance. Many tourists assume that La Défense is some kind of military zone, but it is actually named to commemorate the soldiers who had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

Nothing much to see in this business district, except looking at working people busily moving around.

Musée d’Orsay closes every Monday. Too bad, we went there on Monday. This museum is best known for its extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces by famous painters like Monet and Renoir.

We bought 10 metro tickets at €9.60 for a better discount.

We walked to La Sainte-Chapelle (The Holy Chapel). The Sainte Chapelle is a pure masterpiece of Gothic art, a chapel designed as a shrine for Jesus Christ’s thorn crown and other precious relics during the colourful Middle Ages by the king of France. The most visually beautiful aspects of the chapel are its stained glass and rose windows, that are considered the best of their type in the world. The rose windows depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments, moments from the passion of Christ, tree of Jesse and the history of the passion relics.

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The most dangerous shot - we were risking our lives to take this photo!! The Arc De Triomphe stands 49m high, 45m wide and 22m deep. It honours those who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars and is also the tomb of unknown soldiers. It is an arch of triumph commissioned by Napoléon at Champs Elysées avenue.

This guy is so tall!

The Champs-Elysées is known as the most beautiful avenue in the world and also a top Paris district for city life, with galleries of designer labels. We heard that there were Chinese people wooing tourists to help them buy branded goods with their passports and in return, these tourists would get a token from these wooers. Indeed, we were even approached by a Chinese lady who persuaded us to help her buy Louis Vuitton. We turned down her request to save our time.

Eiffel Tower - the most visited paid monument in the world - was once an eyesore to many when it was built. The objective of the project was to demonstrate the capabilities of modern steel engineering at Paris 1889 world exhibition, and originally had no use at all! A novelist supposedly ate lunch at the Tower’s restaurant every day as he claimed that it was the only place in Paris where he couldn’t see the Tower!

There was some restoration work going on at the lower part of the Eiffel Tower, and it was not uncommon to see that at tourist attractions too. We went up to the second floor only as we thought we would only see tiny buildings on the third floor (top floor), just like what we experienced when we were on top of the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. Also, to get to the higher floor, means higher ticket price. Our friend bought the ticket to the top floor. This awesome photo was taken from the top floor of Eiffel Tower.

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Around 3plus, we took a 30-min train ride to Château de Versailles, which is located in the suburb of Paris. It is a very grand palace, with a very big garden.

KAPPA???

The last night in Paris. After a few days of having meagre meals on prudent spending, it was time for us to try out the authentic French cuisine. We read that restaurants in a non English-speaking country that have a lot of English descriptions on the signboards and menus are normally more expensive as they are frequent by tourists. We walked along the streets in the old city, looking for a French restaurant with little English words, yet readable, and hoping to spot a menu with affordable prices.

Fortunately, just before we dropped “dead” of hunger, we found this friendly French restaurant. We were welcomed with “Bonjour!” and “Bon Appétit!” when the food arrived. We had a candle-light dinner, but the food was never enough. We ordered duck meat, salmon, and crepes, but it was the typical fine cuisine that could never satisfy the appetite of starving travellers like us.

First post of Paris:Romantic Paris

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