Today will be our last day in Paris. We were just too tired to do anything last night back from a tiring one-day trip from Disneyland. We have to wake up early in the morning to do the packing. Squeezed everything into the tiny bag, check out and store our luggage in the electronic locker again. Our coach back to London will only be at 11pm tonight.. so, we have another one full day to cover my own planned itinerary in Paris.
A good day start with a good breakfast, and frankly speaking… Mister Bed City Paris served the best breakfast throughout our whole journey… Do not expect to be served overwhelming varieties of buffet like what we have in KL and other places in Europe country. What the good breakfast I mean here is I can see more choices of food.. Let me be detail, we can choose toast, baguette, or croissant with all kinds of jams, butter and unlimited supply for super smelly packed cheese, of course they have cereal, and one of this food I especially like, I dun understand the French written on it, but it’s a mix fruits paste, just like baby food!! Yay! I love it! Milk, coffee, tea and juice is free flow and you can have fresh fruits. Note. There is NO MEAT AT ALL!!!! So pity… me so miss my Nasi Lemak breakfast… Mak cik, I am coming back soon for your best Nasi Lemak in Kota Kemuning…..
Today is gonna be another own exploration day in Paris, Me of course learned to be smarter, to avoid scolding, I ask the Hotel Receptionist on the French word I can use to buy the Paris Visite Pass, after a few tries, I still can’t manage to get the pronunciation right, I gave up, and I ask her favor to write it on a piece of paper for me… ohhhh… how brilliant is me!!!
We walk to the Gallieni station and I got our travel pass without any problem.!! Paris is definitely not a place where you can explore it in a few days… So, me while doing research last time, has a planned a Da Vinci Code tour in Paris… That’s one of the best book I ever read and I really loves how brilliant Mr. Dan Brown wrote the detail of this story!
The weather today is not very cooperative for tour, its raining! But it doesn’t stop us! We took Metro to visit the St. Sulpice Church. Its call Eglise St Sulpice in French. It is definitely not easy to find this place from the metro station, we walked around in the row of shops before we can reach there.. There is this beautiful fountain in front of the church and I can’t resist taking a photo!! I just love all these historical building in Europe, never get enough of it, but mum can’t really appreciate it, she commented that the church and museum looks like same everywhere… she can’t even differentiate places she visited in Paris, Bath or London!!! Eglise St Sulpice is the second largest church in Paris after Notre Dame Cathedral. Its under renovation the time we are there, and due to the rain, I did not took any nice photo of this church, what a waste.
Fountain outside the St Sulpice Church
St Sulpice Church
We then decide to pay a visit to Pantheon. We toke the metro to Luxemborg station. My google map didn’t really serve me well this time, as it required some 15 mins walk to the Pantheon. And there is a very confusing junction. We tried to walk around and hope to find the place but fail miserably. Under no choice, we have to get some direction from the local…. Sigh ….. Why this kind of things happens to me, what if me being scolded by the Parisian again? Reluctantly, we stopped a passerby, me following the exact phrase from my phrase book, but he doesn’t seem to understand a single word from me…. Am I really not talented in speaking French? Under no choice, I show the book to him, and keep on saying Pantheon,he understand!!! See so easy! And I flip my phrase book which contain of English and French to the direction page and he show me the left and right direction… hahahahaha… so, me successfully passed the direction asking in Paris without being scolded.
Following his direction, we can see the Pantheon from far… me jumping in joy seeing our next destination in sight. Along the walk to Patheon,we saw this artistic puzzle man…. Unique right???
Unique Puzzle man
There, we at last reach Pantheon! The satisfaction of conquering another spot of your wish is just toooo exciting to be described. There is some council office I guess surrounding Pantheon.. or is it a University??? No idea
The Visits to Pantheon charge a fee of Î9, we decide not to pay and visit it, just take a few photos outside.
Me @ Pantheon
Pantheon is a non-classical church in Latin Quarter of Paris and originally named as St Genevieve.The Pantheon was also the place where the astronomer Jean Bernard Leon Foucault first held his famous experiment proving that the world spins around its axis. The Foucault pendulum is a must see in the Pantheon.
I drop by to an Internet café to send BB an email after missing in action for few days. The charges for 30 mins of usage is Î1. Due to the raining morning, my suede boots is wet… it feel so cold… The weather is 5 degree…. Brrrrrrr… freezing!!!
Our next destination will be the Largest and most well known church, The Notre Dame Cathedral that is predominantly present in Da Vinci Code and Disney’s Hunchback of The Notre Dame. Notre Dame Cathedral is just one station away from the Pantheon. We alight at the St Michael station, the gothic Cathedral is just beside the Seine River…. The Notre Dame Cathedral is still an active church and a place for pilgrimage. There are service going on by the time enter the Church, and loads of tourist as well… we have to elbow our way to walk through…
Siene River
Notre Dame Cathedral
The Cathedral is famous for its stained glass, the west and North rose… Soooo beautiful!!!! And I found this gigantic chandelier. I am very very obsessed with chandelier; don’t you think it’s beautiful??
Gigantic Chandelier in Notre Dame Cathedral
The West and North Rose stained Glass window
After that, we took a short walk around the Notre Dame Cathedral, same like Basilica; a lot of souvenir shops surrounded it… But Paris souvenirs are expensive…a painting can easily sell at Î5-15, t-shirts Î9-12, post card also Î1 a piece… Cannot afford to buy any souvenir!!
Food around here also looks like quite expensive; we decide to go back to Luxembourg for French most famous food, Baguette… We saw a shop selling a baguette with drinks at only Î3,20, and here in St Micheal is Î5 per set… just because this is Paris most famous monument area?
We do not have a lot of trouble buying the food, cause the shop owner is an Indian couple, and they have no problem speaking English! Me ordered a chicken ham baguette, the filling is sumptuous.. But the baguette is just too hard!! My mouth pain and hurt after chewing the 6” baguette… Its not like what we have here, its at least a time harder than ours… So, I can certified myself have strong teeth..
Its noon hours by now, even though the sun is shinning on the skies, but its still freezing cold! PARIS IS DEFINITELY COLDER THAN LONDON! I have to wrap myself like Arabian women to avoid chill wind to blow into my body!!
We finished all the historical and sacred attraction visits, and now what else? Of course is the super branded street at Champs Elysees…. Champs Elysees start from Arc De Triomphe… It’s another famous monument in Paris, and its just marking a starting point to venture to Champs Elysees…
Arc De Triomphe
Champs Elysees is loads with super brand outlets on both side of the road… Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Givenchi and blah blah blah branded which I can’t even think of I can afford to buy one… But we did some cheapskate stuff, we went into this 3 storey high LV boutique even we have no intention to buy anything… you know, just see see look look, its quite common for tourist to window shop at here rather than LV boutique at the rest of the world, before you even think of want to enter, there are stares to tell you off “ Don’t try to make a fool here, if you have no plan to buy, just get lost!!!”
So, we got the chance to examine every LV products and drop jaws for their pricing!!!!
Louis Vuitton at Champs Elysees
There are also some mid class brand at Champs Elysees, like Gap, Zara… Sis must be loving here… yet, we did not manage to buy anything, its all winter wear.. All thick clothing, how do you expect me to wear in Malaysia?
I got so tired of walking for so long in my boots with heels, I just sat down at the bench beside the street…
We then go to Hard Rock Café in Paris, thought to get a souvenir t-shirt back home… hmmm… its too expensive to get one… Its only 6pm by now… another 5 hours to go for our coach back… with no other itinerary, we go back to Bel Est mall for the Chinese Cuisine again… Though not cook very well if compared any Chinese food I had back In KL, but after so many days of western food, its just seems as good as it can be….
Took a warm meal, we walk again in the Jennifer Boutique and bought another few piece of clothing, we then have a walk at Auchan… Auchan is a French Brand Hypermarket… we chose and bought some snacks back for our colleague for souvenir..
Then its time to take our coach back to London!! Sleep all the way till it reaches the ferry. This time the ferry has a duty free shop in it… not so boring; we can at least have a walk during the border crossing… Mum bought her Estee Lauder Essence here at a real bargain price…
The UK border crossing again as we expected is tough… me being ask many question before they stamp the entry visa for me…. Thank god!!!
