Category: Food Porn

So many photos from two cameras, there’s three cameras all together but do not have photos from the third camera.

Anyway, continue with the post of 24/6/2013.

After Musée du Louvre, we took the metro to another destination. This is one interesting station. Alphabets on tiles, we had fun trying to find words from the tiles while waiting.

Left: The typical cafe you can find in Paris. Too bad, there’s no way for me to enjoy it. We’re always on the go and was not with the right travel companions for this thing.

Right: Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre was our next destination. This is the location where the metro station was different. So many staircases and it took us quite awhile to get out of it. Usually it’s just one flight of stairs but this one went spiraling, don’t have the photo with me. Many tourists including us weren’t prepared for it. It was rather funny. Anyway, This area was also where we went souvenirs shopping spree before going to this building.

Finally we’re up there! Beware of this place while you are on the way going up/down. There’s two options, you can either walk up or take the elevator-like thing up where you need to use a new metro ticket for it. We went up with the elevator and walked down.

Many black youngsters will try to ask you to show your hand to them or just blatantly grab your hand then will tie a string on your wrist, after that demand you to pay for it, there is no way you can reject once they managed to tie the string on you. No joke! They are aggressive and at the same time you might get pickpocket. They are bunch of bastards! We just kept our hand inside our pockets and didn’t respond to them to avoid giving them the chance but my bro was caught by surprise because he didn’t know, wasn’t in time to warn him. Luckily he managed to pull his hand away. They are very forceful. Damn! They just ruined the place to the max! Be sure to stay alert at all time!

Also, one thing to bear in mind, NO PHOTOGRAPHY in the church! You’ll get scolded. Many tourists got scolded very loudly! Don’t even try to sneak a shoot with your phone, not allowed at all!

View of great but the bad people there sure ruin the whole experience.

Left: Another couple coming here for pre-wedding photo shoot. My goodness! The driver was good! He managed to squeezed the Audi(the black car on the right) into a very cramp space.

Right: A stunt that a guy did on the pillar. Beware! This is meant to distract you so that thieves can steal your things. We didn’t know that time. Luckily didn’t become one of the victims. I only knew about this when I am composing this post as I need some information online to complete this post.

After this place, we walked around the area again to discover more shops.

All chocolates, sweets, cookies and more! Bought more macarons here. Don’t remember how much and the shop’s name but it’s cheaper than buying those already packed ones (with boxes or nice packaging) in the shop.

Another shops selling cookies and sweets. Didn’t buy anything though. After that, we headed back to our apartment.

Left: McD’s macarons and the one we bought just now. See the sizes? McD’s has standard size but the one we bought from the shop wasn’t standard, big and small, and it failed big time! I tried rose, mint, chocolate, peanut, butterscotch, and orange. Couldn’t figure out some of the other flavours. It’s macarons days for us! *LOL* Even had it for breakfast the next day.

Right: Time to discover the area were we’re staying.

Lots of eateries there! Food galore!

We decided to have our dinner here at L’Atlantide (4 rue du pot de fer 75005 Paris). The 3-course meal cost EUR12. Original price was EUR14 but they offered us EUR12. Too much competitions. Were served with complimentary bread.

Left: Starter: Escargot, first time having it. Not bad.
Right: Starter: Onion soup, hmmm… Very salty -.-”

Left: Starter: Fish soup, there’s cheese and sour cream there. It tasted a bit odd. The texture was like Penang assam laksa but without the assam. We pretended the cheese was the laksa *LOL* It tasted slightly better after adding in the cheese and the cream.

Right: Main: Bourguignon beef (beef Burgundy) with potatoes, presentation wise was -.-” taste wise? I don’t remember, let’s just say that it’s edible but not great.

Left: Main: Turkey with mushroom sauce, so-so only.

Right: Main: Rump steak cheese sauce, this wasn’t too bad but that I didn’t expect the sauce was all over the meat.

Left: Main: Bourguignon beef (beef Burgundy) with chips which they forgot and we had to remind them about it.

Right: Dessert: Chocolate mousse, not bad, not too sweet, just nice but… We’re stuffed already.

Left: Cheese and its coulis, it tasted like yogurt and raspberry sauce. Quite sour but it’s OK for me to even out the saltiness and oiliness of the starters and mains. We thought we were scammed but didn’t bother to ask them hehehe… Now that I checked, it’s actually French-style Fresh Cheese (The French answer to yogurt).

Right: Day pie, French Apple Pie for the day. I assume they serve different type of pie everyday. I like this the most but was too stuffed to properly enjoy it. Not too sweet with hint of sourness and very big piece. Was expecting something crusted but it’s not.

We ordered 4 sets but how come only 3 types of food? This was due to the choice for the fourth set that we made weren’t available yet the other options were just usual type food we could get anywhere.

Overall, the food was average, price was acceptable, and service was good. Coming back? No, I think there’s better place out there but then again I don’t think I will be coming to Paris in any near future and this is likely my first and last.

This marks the end of our trip in Paris. Gonna head back to London the next morning.

24/6/2013, we managed to head out very early as we had an early night the night before.

Off to Musée du Louvre.

Goodness! LONG QUEUE! In fact, all the tourist spots in Paris are like that. Even though it’s long, it didn’t really require one to wait for too long to get in.

The entrance fee was don’t-remember-how-much. It’s more than EUR10/adult. If not mistaken we bought the EUR16 ticket.

Left: I think this is the highlight of the museum. The crowd was crazy! I’m sure those who were there will 100% look for this first before anything. We didn’t. Managed to squeezed myself to the front to take a snap of it. Gosh! No one can properly enjoy this portrait, everyone just wanted to take a photo of it. Even if you want to have a proper look at it, I doubt you will have the chance to do so. It’s also quite far away and the size was so much smaller than I had imagined ;p. No flash photography allowed but too many stupid people *shake head*

Right: It’s the heaven for art lovers. A must-go.

We spent half day there. Will just let the photos do the talking…

Finally, completed the tour, found most of the key artworks as stated in the brochure.

Right: The Inverted Pyramid.

Left:Time for lunch! There’s a food court there, definitely doing very good business. It’s so hard to find a table even at 2pm. Luckily we found one.

No idea what to eat so just bought few sets of McD. Also bought McDonald’s macaron. I have no idea how much as I wasn’t the one who bought everything. Tried looking for the price on the Internet, it’s EUR4,50 for a box of six. No idea of the flavours too but I I could only recall pistachio, chocolate, and strawberry. *LOL* I like pistachio the most. At least it’s so much better the one I had previously. Still, based on what I read before about good characteristics of macaron, this failed in some aspects (don’t remember what they were ;p).

All right! That’s it for the museum visit. After Musée du Louvre, we went to another place which will be covered in the coming post.

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…