EU trip - Day 8 - CU L8R London, Bonjour Paris

Ahhh... Day 8. We're the halfway there people! Are you guys bored yet? Don't worry, it'll end soon enough :-) Oh btw, the Picasaweb for Paris is here.

I left the house with Azizul and we took the bus until Earl's Court, where we changed to the Piccadilly line. We parted ways when he got off at Green Park while I continued my journey to St. Pancras. Eurostar was nice and fast. Before I knew it, we arrived at Paris Gare du Nord. Okay, I did read a little and jotted down some notes from my time in Rome and London so that I wouldn't forget.

St Pancras station

I'm finally here! Woohoooo!

My hotel was just a metro stop away, so I opted to walk. It was located right across from Gare de L'est railway station. Thanks to the converted Citibank points, I had the room for free. What it really tells me is that I spent a lot on my credit cards. At least I try to spend the money that I have, rather than snowballing the balance to the next few months; the magic word here is "try" :D

My room at Holiday Inn-Paris Gare de l'Est

Gare de l'Est railway station

I will only meet up with Lil (a friend of Sila's) tomorrow so I'm on my own today. But my itinerary for the next 2 days won't be possible if I didn't run through my itinerary with her. Few times in fact :) Merci, Lil.

Before I came, I've taken a look at the Paris attractions in the vicinity of my hotel and I found out that Notre Dame-de-Lorette would be a probably option. Not the Notre Dame. Upon getting there, it looked like any other church so I just walked past it and headed towards Boulevard Montmartre. That's where HRC is located :D

I took the metro to Eiffel. Someone used the term "ghetto" to describe the Eiffel-neighbourhood to me. Probably "ghetto" isn't the best way to describe it, but I guess I could understand what they mean by that. It wasn't what I pictured Eiffel Tour in my head. True, these ideas are mainly depicted by numerous Hollywood movies and thus implanted into my brain. Okay, I get the whole idea of souvenir selling, because it is where tourists (like myself) flock to. But toy dogs that stop and bark after taking a few steps? Toy monkey riding a bicycle in circles? Seriously? Sure, these are to attract the kids in the family... but seriously? Alright, I may have taken all this thing too seriously...

Up close and personal

Tour Montparnasse on the horizon

I can't believe I'm this close to the Eiffel Tower

Trocadero on the other side

I was taking pictures underneath the tower when I was approached by this Malay-speaking South Asian guy from behind.

Him: Kawan, awak dari Malaysia kan? (Friend, aren't you from Malaysia?)
I continued talking pictures
Him: Saya tahu awak dari Malaysia (I know you're from Malaysia)
I actually wanted to get some of those keychains, so I took this opportunity to buy a couple of Euros worth from him. And I could do so in my own mother tongue :D
Him: Awak dari mana? (Where are you from?)
Me: KL
Him: Ooo, KL. Awak tahu itu Masjid India? (You do know Masjid India right?)
Me: Tahu (Yes)
Him: Saya kerja sana 5 tahun (I worked there for 5 years)
Me: Sudah berapa lama di sini? (How long have you been here?)
Him: Sudah satu tahun (It's been a year)
Me: Mana lagi best? Sini ke KL? (Which is better - here or KL?)
Him: Sini banyak susah la kawan (Life's harder here)
Yeah I could tell there's a lot of competition from fellow souvenir sellers.

Seeing that there was a long queue to go up the tower, I was off to do my next item in the list which is Palais de Chaillot at Trocadéro. I've planned to be back later in the evening so that I could appreciate Tour Eiffel at both times of the day.

The queue for the elevator

The Seine and the river cruise

Trocadéro has one of the best vantage points to view the Eiffel Tower in its entirety.

View from across the Seine

View from Palais de Chaillot

One for the road :)

Arc de Triomphe was next. It was interesting to see how traffic was taking shape at the roundabout (rotary).

Arc de Triomphe

My main destination was Musée du Louvre. So from Arc de Triomphe, I walked down Champs-Élysées. At halfway point, there's the Obelisk in Place de la Concorde.

The stores along Champs-Elysees

Arc de Triomphe

Halfway down Champs-Elysees

Grand Palais

Place de la Concorde

The Obelisk

After you reach Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, you'll see the famous glass pyramids in the main Louvre courtyard.

Jardin des Tuileries

They provide chairs to lounge around a pond. Nice!

This is what I call - "Smelling the armpit" or "Bird, please don't shit on me!"

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Louvre!

The famous glass pyramids

It was good that Louvre has extended hours on Fridays. I arrived at around 6 after making my way down Champs-Élysées. There was a line to get by security, but it went by quickly. One could choose to start the museum tour from the 3 wings - Richelieu, Denon and Sully - as well as 4 floors - depending on their preference. But you need to check out every nook and corner of Louvre (while getting lost) to appreciate it ;-)

A shot from underneath the pyramid

The lower ground floor of Louvre

If you are pressed for time, you could grab one of the maps from the information center and work your way to the attractions that are pointed out in the map.

How the free map looks like

I believe this is the Ramses Sphinx

Venus de Milo

Tarian piring (saucer dance)? :)

This is where you do your sarcophagus shopping

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

The Winged Victory of Samothrace - another angle

da Vinci's Mona Lisa

I overheard a girl telling her friend - "I thought it would be bigger"

Seems to be of great interest

One of the rooms

Psyche and Cupid

These formed a base for a fountain

Michaelangelo's Captive (The Dying Slave)

St. Mary Magdalene

A performer for the "Night at Louvre" show

A SLR would do even better job

Once I was *done with Louvre, I returned to Eiffel. I saw the stairs line was shorter than the elevator line, so I decided to do the stairs. Besides, the security guy sold it to us by saying "It's cheaper and not that high". Okay, I can agree with his first statement, but it was still tiring on the legs to walk up the stairs after a full day of walking. I bumped into several couples who had to take a breather or two on the way. The girls could be questioning their boyfriends "Is this your idea of being romantic?" Hehehe.

(* - I realized that I missed the Inverted Pyramid after I was outside. Drat! and Double Drat!)

I was back at Trocadero

South Pillar - The "stairs" entrance

Although Paris is mostly flat, but the view at the top was still breathtaking. The sparkles went on twice throughout the time I was time - when I was queuing up for ticket and when I was walking down the stairs.