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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…

Let the post of Paris trip continues…

21/6/2013

First thing we arrived in Paris, we wanted to take the metro but ended up with taxi because some how the ticketing machine didn’t take card and we didn’t have small change. Took us quite awhile to reach our apartment! Had to walk a bit as the street was closed due to a music festival that day. Finally! So tired! It’s awesome!

It’s located in a very old building but the interior was very modern. We booked this from Airbnb. The stay cost us EUR800+ for 4 nights. It’s located near The Panthéon area. There’s so many eateries and nightspots down there! Highly recommended! The owner is Thibault. Very friendly guy.

Don’t have to worry about the noise down there, you can’t really hear them. The place is very clean and you have everything available. Felt right at home, very cosy. Carrefour is just around the corner too. Highly recommended! The place can fit 6 people.

22/7/2013

The next day, we headed out to discover Paris! First stop, The Panthéon.

Luxembourg Gardens.

Left: The random street in Paris. I just couldn’t believe that I’m actually walking in the street of Paris! All these while I was just looking and admiring the views from photos or on TV. Felt surreal! How I wish I’m there with someone… Too bad I don’t have one hahaha… What a waste!

Right: I don’t remember this sculpture but it can be found in the movie, The Da Vinci Code. However, it’s under maintenance now.

Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris.

We had our lunch at Leon de Bruxelles, a popular chain of restaurants in France that primarily serves moules-frites. Were served with complimentary pretzel while we decide on what to order.

Left: Complimentary bread too were served.

Right: Wet wipe for us as we ordered mussels. Need to clean our hands after eating.

Left: Was craving for steak so I ordered Sirloin Steak (EUR18,90), 220gm steak with bearnaise sauce and served with fries and salad. We requested for medium. Oh… It’s been a long time not having a good steak!

Right: Leon’s Burger The Cheese (EUR12) prepared with 2 savoury potato gallettes, a beef steak, mustard, ketchup, tartar sauce, sliced onions, and lettuce. I like the potato gallettes but not the beef.

Left: Fish and Fries (EUR11,40), a fillet of “meuniere”, french fries and tartar sauce. Nothing special about this, it’s just your normal fish and chips.

Right: Mussels!! We ordered Mussels with cream and fresh mushrooms (EUR17,20). Oh yummy!

Left: Fresh Salmon Steak (EUR15,90) with rice and green beans. Salmon was a bit small ;p

I have no idea of the address where we dined, we just simply walked around and saw it. Since it’s a popular restaurant chain in France, you should be able to find it in many places.

Part 4 will come soon.