Paris, je t'aime

Paris' most famous icon.

Paris can be considered as the last leg of Europe for us even though that wasn't supposed to be the initial plan; if you remember, we winded up in Basel, Switzerland, instead of Brussels, Belgium, due to a big phonetic misunderstanding between F, I and the train ticketing lady who sold us our train tickets. We didn't see too much of Brussels apart from the railway station, our hostel and the airport and I sometimes forget that we've actually been to Belgium.

F and the Arc de Triomphe.

If my memory doesn't fail me, we spent a grand total of 3 days in Paris. And most of it was great. I probably spent the most money here (in the whole of our UK/Europe journey) on shopping at Champs-Elysee (for the Guccis and Miu Mius that Mumsy's colleagues got me to buy on their behalf), Mumsy gave me the go-ahead for my first Gucci over the phone and I visited Disney for the first time.

Laduree's pretty (delicious) macarons. We finally tried PH's in Paris too.

Here are some pictures (and descriptions) of the places that we've been to in our really short stay in Paris:

on our way to Disneyland

There are many ways to get to Paris' Disneyland and the metro (i.e. subway) was one of them. It was really empty when we boarded so we weren't really expecting (such) a big crowd when we arrived.

pretty castle... from Sleeping Beauty maybe?

must take picture with pretty castle.

stained windows depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty.

I realize as I'm typing this that I've never watched this Disney cartoon in its entirety before - only bits and pieces when I was in kindergarten back then.

love these hanging lamps that can be found at the entrance of the Arabian streets (Aladdin!)

It was like the start of the summer holidays in Europe when we were there so every corner in Disneyland was packed to the brim; quite a pain to move about but then again, I've never been too fond of massive crowds.

Woody greeting his fans

Lilo makes an appearance

We tried to catch the parade show on the main street but due to some technical errors (faulty speakers or something like that), the characters only came out for 5 minutes before the cancellation announcement was made. Meh. Bummer.

I've always thought that Minnie and Donald have something going on behind Mickey and Daisy's backs :p

That's about it for my Disney adventure; I kind of regret not taking more pictures and getting put off by the sweaty crowds (so I shall snap more pictures in future travels!).

We didn't visit too many places due to time constraints, but we did visit the Notre Dame Cathedral as well as the Louvre. More pictures!

didn't have a clue what the cathedral looked like before arriving; slightly under-exposed in this picture.

Notre Dame Cathedral with much better lighting.

lone pigeon taking a lovely sun bath outside the cathedral

and a boy who kept very still to feed the little birds found at the cathedral's courtyard. 

Outside, there were quite a number of gypsies roaming the cathedral grounds and most of them held cards that said something like "Do you speak English?" and "I need your help urgently with (something) please. Please help me." and they seemed to mainly only talk to tourists (or people who looked like tourists). It can be a little disorienting at first, all the flurry of activity going on around you but things get much better once you get inside.

interior of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Once you've managed to shake off the crowd at the entrance, the inside of the cathedral is in comparison, much more cooling and peaceful due to the dim lights and you'll manage to reorientate quickly.

tea lights put up by the some of the believers.

The next few pictures will be the last for Paris, and they've all got the pyramids of Musée du Louvre in them some way. I strongly feel that Dan Brown did a pretty damned good job at making people become interested in the museum.

the inverted glass pyramid.

F (candied) and the big glass pyramid

my noob attempt at a symmetrical shot; see the number of people at the bottom of the pyramid?!

enlarged so now you'll see them.

I can't remember now what was my fascination with the triangles (hence the numerous pictures of the pyramids) back then! 

It's been close to to a year (probably just 1-2 weeks away) since we've completed this UK/Europe journey and while I am amazed by my own inefficiency in posting this entry, I am really glad that I'm finally done with it and it's now up! Looking back, I really do miss the times the two of F and I had back there - not too much trouble but lots of funny episodes and great memories.

Now that F's younger brother is in Tokyo (and will be for the next 4 years), I'm really looking forward to doing some travelling with her again, to Japan sometime in the near future!

ps. all pictures taken by my trusty (close-to-2-years-old) G10.