23/6/2013, we headed out to Arc de Triomphe.
This is one crazy roundabout! Man! Driving in Paris is scary! There’s no way you can cross the road so they built an underground tunnel to get to the arc. There’s people everywhere in Paris especially tourists.
After that we walked down to Champs-Elysées for window shopping. Can see cannot buy hahaha… Love this staircase at Swarovski.
Peugeot showroom, the national car of France.
LV! First time in my life get to touch so many LV bags, accessories, and even shoes! The price wasn’t very bad if I’m earning the money here but we’re spending Ringgit. Can’t buy any. Thought of getting the cheapest product but all way over my budget hahaha… Next time… One day…
Mercedes Benz showroom.
Didn’t really go in many shops. We just walked pass them. It’s time to hunt for lunch, not easy to find something to eat. Along the way, there’s a Lamborghini and a Ferrari for test drive (EUR89 for 20 minutes), forgot to save the photo after editing for the post ;p
After walking for quite a fair bit, we decided to try this place out, Lotus de Siam. Very small Chinese restaurant, very nice environment but serving bloody expensive meal because the portion was extremely small! Guess how much for our lunch? More than EUR100! Crazy! The most expensive and just so-so meal we had in the entire trip. My advice, do not go there!
Left: Prawn crackers and peanuts.
Right: The chili, very spicy! Never expect to get such spiciness here in Europe. Never had such spicy chili in Australia.
Left: Beef kueh tiaw. Don’t remember the price. In fact the price was pretty standard but just the portion couldn’t justify it.
Right: Fried rice.
Left: Pho (EUR9), I miss the one in Australia. This wasn’t up to my expectations.
Right: Pork intestines with suan cai (sour vegetables).
Left: Fried egg with something… No idea. Didn’t really bother anymore after seeing the portion.
Right: Just your average broccoli.
We had to order another fried kueh tiaw because the portion was so small! To end the meal, we were given with a plate of oranges, washcloth, and mints. Not satisfied at all! Do you think all these worth more than EUR100? Obviously not! With this money, it’s equivalent to our 2 1/2 meals! With such amount we can have nicer and better food. Felt cheated. Don’t be fooled by the reviews you see in the Internet. We were fooled by it -.-” Obviously, these reviewers’ standard are not on par with us.
Wanted to take the metro to Grand Palais but couldn’t find the nearest metro and we decided to just walk, it’s in walking distant anyway.
It rained so we quickly went into Grand Palais. Spent quite a long time in there. So many arts to see.
Some books at the souvenir shops. Amazing! The one on the left cost EUR25 if not mistaken.
Petit Palais.
Finally the rain stopped. We walked again to Pont Alexandre III, an arch bridge that spans the Seine. It also connects the Champs-Élysées quarter, Invalides (the building at the background) and Eiffel Tower quarter, widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in Paris. Speechless! Couldn’t believe that I’m seeing these with my own eyes.
Paris, the city of romance with many amazing architectures. Many people went there for pre-wedding or wedding day photo shoot. Saw the most couples here. There were one at Notre Dame Cathedral, one near Eiffel Tower but 3 of them here and more came after we left! A friend’s cousin went to Paris recently for her pre-wedding photo shooting. Such a popular place for wedding photography. Where’s mine? Where’s my prince? *LOL* If I have one, this will not be the place for me, too common ;p
The views from the arch bridge.
Left: And again… We walked to Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris. We called this “The Needle” hahaha…
Right: The Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation, one of the two Fontaines de la Concorde (1840) on the Place de la Concorde.
We walked into the park opposite the “The Needle” where Musée du Louvre can be found at the end of the park but because we didn’t have enough time for it, we decided to just relax at the park while having ice cream. Not long later, heavy rain came! GOSH! Everyone tried to find a place to hide from the rain and most ended up at the nearest cafe but got shooed away by the staff. So we all had to stay under the trees. Luckily the rain didn’t last too long, no lightning or thunder but it’s pretty heavy.
After the rain stopped, we decided to call it a day. We headed back to our apartment. Extremely tired because we all slept quite late the night before and woke up early today. Did a lot of walking too simply because we couldn’t find the nearest metro station and when we found it, we’re already at the place we wanted to go *LOL*
To be continued…