New Kid On The Blog

Paris - The city of love. That's what they call it. The most romantic city in the world. I wonder why they said so because the 3-day 2-night trip to Paris was enjoyable and fun but romantic is definitely not how I would describe it.

We woke up at 5am to catch the Eurostar at the London Waterloo station. SM had booked the tickets in advance and we collected out tickets that morning from the electronic kiosk. We had our passports stamped by the French immigration, had breakfast and boarded the train around 8am. The journey took approximately 2 and a half hours and we slept most of the time.

Our hotel was within walking distance from the train station - Gare Du Nord. It was a 2-star hotel and it was sadly below our expectations. We stayed in a 3-star hotel in Edinburgh and it was very nice. So we certainly did not expect that missing one star would make a lot of difference. There wasn't a lift and we had to walk up 3 floors carrying Dominic who's now 9kg. The room was old and dingy - and certainly did not bring up any romantic notions at all. Dominic had to bathe under the shower for the first time because there wasn't a bath tub. There was no kettle in the room so I had to get down to the kitchen every morning to get hot water to prepare Dominic's milk. There was no hair dryer, no fridge, no minibar, no coffee, no tea ... but there was a small TV hanging on the ceiling. Anyway it was cheap (around 70 euro per night) and it was right in the city centre.

For the next 2 days, we walked so much that my legs permanently ached. We took the subway to Eiffel Tower. Tickets to up cost 4.20 euro to go all the way up and 2.30 euro to go halfway. However we didn't go up because the queue ... oh my God! My cousin Celine even wrote in her blog that she spent 3 hours in the queue.

Eiffel Tower. Dominic smiles everytime we take a pic. He knows!!!


The ticket queue:



Eiffel Tower At Night:

Then walked towards Champs Elysees, and then walked some more to God knows where until we found a Metro to take us back to the hotel. Dinner was at McDonald's and the people do not speak English so we just used sign languages.

Champs-Elysees:


Gotta queue to shop at Louis Vuitton. Crazy!

The next day, we went to The Louvre. I had expected the place to be huge but this was beyond my imagination. My God, we walked and walked and walked around the museum for 4 hours! And we didn't even stop to inspect every painting or sculpture. Mona Lisa hangs in there but it was so heavily guarded that we couldn't even go within 5 metres of the painting. That also because it was surrounded by a crowd of people.

Is this the Holy Grail described in Da Vinci Code? I've not seen the movie. Have you?





No photography in this gallery, but Mona Lisa is right at the end. Can you see it?

After The Louvre, we went on a boat ride and disembarked at Notre Dame. The Notre Dame Cathedral was a beautiful structure - and full of visitors. There was a book where you can write down your life's intentions that you would entrust to God - and SM commented that maybe God can understand only French. Hahaha!

Boat Ride:


Notre Dame Cathedral:


Notre Dame Cathedral:



Notre Dame Cathedral:


Gargoyles ...

We took the boat again and went to another church situated on top of a hill. I think it's called Saint Pierre de Montmartre. So you see ... we had walked and walked so much and now we had to walk up the hill to get to the church. And what with Dominic's buggy - we had to carry that up the stairs as well! And the church ... if you've seen one you've seen them all. :p But you must go up there to view Paris from the top. :-)