It was off to the iconic symbol of Paris this morning. If you ask me, I'd get pretty sick of it if I were to live in Paris. ;)
But 1st, a stop at the Luxembourg gardens and its palace. It was pretty and serene with all its statues and old fountains scattered around the trees and shrubbery.Wasn't that much into summer yet..still quite cold and windy..and all the flowers weren't fully bloomed yet..I was so looking forward to that. But there were still a few pretty rose bushes. (Oh..but nothing to compare to all the rose gardens we were to see!!) There was also some modern art 'du Senat' scattered all over the place..and guess what! European old peple practising tai chi in this beautiful garden!! Haha. Who'd have imagined!!
(The palace is now the French Senate. It was built in 1615 by Marie de Mendici- one of the founders of Paris, who wanted to recreate the architecture of her native Florence- the Palazzo Pitti to be specific.)
We walked down to Saint Suplice, which was featured in the Da Vinci Code! There was the Rose Line that was mentioned, leading up to the obilisk. It's actually sortof a sundial. The rays of the sun filter through the glass windows on the opposite side and cast a shadow on the 'Rose-ligne'. The 'place' (square outside was really pretty too, with fountain in the middle.
Next to the Eiffel Tower- worth the queue? i dunno...but it was pretty from below at least. So we queued for an hour for tickets for the lift to the top. We could also have climbed the stairs..but that's only till the 2nd floor..not to the very top. The view from the top I must say, was not very much more spectacular than that from the 2nd floor. :p And it was not as windy as the first time I was on top.. which was pretty much part of all the fun back then. :) But if anything was the same, it was the way my ears popped as we travelled back down in the lift. haha. Btw, the Eiffel Tower was conceived as a monument to engineering and was the centrepiece of the 1889 World Fair.
So after the Eiffel tower, we decided to take a md rushing tour around Paris- which turned out to be very satisfying in the end. First stop- the Arc du Triomph...the most beautiful monument to military prowess, that I can vouch for.. But this time it was absolutely crowded with tourists which marred the view from the way I remembered it! But it was still a monument to behold. Plus, we met our first group of Singaporean tourists!! One could spot them from a million miles away man!! (And we kept on spotting them throughout our trip.) We strolled down the Champs Elysee, stopping in the middle of traffic to photograph the tree-lined avenue.. there were cafes on either side with people...well..people-watching. Basically, all the chair were arranged facing the pedestrain street...that's how u people-watch in cafes throughout Europe! Cool ah. We hopped into a Peugeot showroom with really cool 'bubble' sports cars..cool, but too ugly for me to want to own any. :p Juz kidding. The Louis Vuitton shop was undergoing construction and they had made a facade that looked like one of their luggages to hide the works going on behind...tt was unique!
Then, a short stop at Place de la Concorde for a pretty view of my Trident fountain and the obelisk from Egypt, with a view of the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and the Assemble Nationale in the background. Evil fountain suddenly rained down on me when I was taking pic..but it turned out to be a cool pic! Haha.
Oh, but then what a pity..we reachedmy most favourite place in Paris- the Opera Garnier just 5 minutes after closing time!!! So we couldn't tour its beautifully guilded interior! Damn! P.S. This is the opera house that is said to be home to the Phantom of the Opera!! Well, at least this left us with more time for Montmatre- full of charm on its own. Ooh.
Yes, did most of our Paris shopping in the quait stalls leading up to Sacre Coeur. There were pretty poster replicas of painting and I got one called 'The First Kiss' (oops..I must really go find out who painted it!) it has these two adorable angels kissing..(I'm in love with angels!) and I also fell for another of a nymph called 'Repos de la nuit' but that cost 20 whole euros! Dammit!! (I should have gotten it on hindsight. Bleagh. Hehe..was being all budgety for the first 3 weeks..and then all hell broke loose i tell ya.) (Oh but then again, good I didn't get the 20 euro poster..cos we were all soon to lose our posters, forgetting out poster holder on the train to Lyon..more on that later.)
So this is where we first discovered my bad luck with photo-taking... everytime I wanted to take a pic, a whole tour group of old, slow people/ a big, fat man, would come strolling right past, blocking the shot...but till then everything would be nice and clear. Bleagh. But I still managed to get my pretty pic at the foot of Sacre-Coeur..it's the most amazingly white stoned church against a pretty blue sky background..if u can imagine that, till I post my pics, haha. Yup..Sacre Coeur and the carousel at its foot...the one where they filmed Amelie of cos..(Amelie of Montmatre..duh rite). But no one wanted to go on the carousel with me..sniffles..so sad. :( What I remembered most about Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) was the eerie crypt Nisha and I got so freaked out by the last time. It had vessels containing hearts of popes and god-knows-whos and tombs and all.. unfortunately...or fortunately, this time the crypt was closed..but mass was going on inside, and the atmosphere was really nice with nuns in the choir singing (in French of cos). And I tried my decoding skills..and they din make sense. :p
Then we got slightly lost, but managed to find out way, with angry hungry guys..ok lah..how can they ever get angry :p..to Place de la Terte, with its many artisans peddling watercolours and paintings of the sights in Paris. Some others did live portraits..but after my last experience with a live portrait..I dared not ever try one again. Fake-os! Hah. But I did get my silhouette cut out by this really skilled Chinese man..after he cut the price damn low of cos..he just used scissors and paper and did it totally on the spot. Amazing.
Dinner was a hot banana and chocolate crepe. Yum! Then more shops, and walking past the 'Moulin Radet'..where David took a photo and frekily a moon appeared in the shot when we couldn't see the moon in the sky! Haha. Then we ended up, after getting more lost, at the Absesses Metro station, which was an artwork in its own right with scenes painted in the walls and ceilings down the passageways, which were slightly tarnished by graffiti.
Yup, today was the essence of Paris- a dream come true!