I always begin with hostels/hotels. Cuz a good night's rest determines to some extent how the day unfolds =) This is Hotel des Olympiades. hehe it's just weird to me to have a washroom with a sink and a butt washing equipment but not the toilet... and the shared toilet along the corridor doesnt have a sink... Bed creaks a triffle more than usual. Walls are thin so you hear your neighbours. Not the best I've seen, but reasonable for basic accomodations.
Random shots of interest to myself along the Parisian streets. =)
The metro system in Paris is particularly efficient with 12 lines linking you to practically everywhere... Being good tourists for a change, we dutifully bought metro tix for almost all our trips. And transport isn't all that cheap, mind you.
Cafes bustle with life during opening hours as we wondered aloud every so often, where do these idle, rich people come from... Tourists flock to these cafes for a taste of Parisian life - afternoon teas/coffees people-watching along the streets; and seriously.. I think it isn't too far-fetched to think that majority of the tea-sipping crowd consists of tourists alone. =P
They say children are most adorable when they are not yours. hehe I don't know that for sure. But they do catch my attention rather often in Europe. An entertaining hour passed seeing us parked across the fence from a playground, me getting insights into kids' minds, as perceived by my dearest.
Their chatter fills the air even before they make their appearances. Each hugging a round cushion, I stared - forgetting for a moment that staring is rude - and wondered why they were each holding such an odd object. The mystery dissolved as they happily dumped the cushions and sat around their teacher on the museum floor. Well... there's more than 1 who's posing in front of the little semi-circle of school children. =)
Round faced with soft curls, he toddles towards to a street busker, clapping his hands in gleeful delight.
"One day I'll fly away... Leave all these to yesterday.."
The all famous Moulin Rouge and the red-light district at Pigalle. Are you thinking about some over-sexed, sleezy area? Nahs... the queue for Moulin Rouge consisted mostly of well-dressed people, fit to be loosely categorized into 'upper class'.
Heh I felt rather ignored by the bouncers who urged dearest repeatedly to experience the wilder side of Paris. grin Until a female bouncer (ach... what's e right term? haha my vocabulary in this area is sorely lacking) came and said - 10 Euros to enter, your girlfriend gets to go in for free.
ha Sad to disappoint, but Sher didn't get to see what's behind those dark curtains and dimmed lights. hehe Maybe next time.. =)
Grande palais. I'm rather taken by the sculptures of the tussling kids. =P Classical style architecture. Not too elaborate, plenty of motifs.
And the Petite Palais across the road housing the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.. =) Hehs 3 random pictures are in the collage. See if you can see which do not belong. =P
Loved the winged angel at the entrance, and the many painted ceilings scattered around the palais. If you squint hard enough, you'll see a little duckling by the pond. hee It has a little ramp which it teeters up and skim the circumference of the pond before plopping back in. So cute!
The world-acclaimed Lourve. I think it was free on Sundays? heh Can't remember.. but this museum seriously requires your entire day and all your energy. haha Absorbing the art and the description zaps life very quickly.. unless of course, you're an enthusiast who gets energized by exposure to art forms. haha that's be a different story. In any case... most of the visitors are simply clamouring to see the Mona Lisa - made extra famous by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.. there's even a 10 Euro Da Vinci tour in the museum. heh Meetin Alvi there is one of the little things I hadnt expect. grin I think this is totally off but I just felt like putting down sth from an anime I was watching "There are no coincidences, only inevitability".
Hotel de Ville - contrary to my beliefs, is not a hotel.. but the town hall. Like many other town halls, it's witnessed lots of destruction, including a fire and tearing down and rebuilding in its time. The square it stands on is the Place de Greve - where most executions in Paris took place until 1830.
Well.. We werent exactly looking for Hotel de Ville though when we stumbled upon it... We were tracking the elusive Pompidou Centre - described to have been built with its insides turned out. heh I think I threw in its photo somewhere in the 1st collage in the previous post. I'm sure you'll have no problems locating it. =)
We meant to relax of course. But cafes are pricey. We settled on next best - or better. hehe sitting on chairs left lying around huge grass patches in parks. This one was probably Jardin du Tuilleries. hehs I know you can see Eiffel Tower in picture 3 - I threw it in by mistake. haha and there it shall stay =P
Arc de Triomph. ahaa Silly us had problems crossing the busy road to the little 'human island' the arc was on.
Eiffel in all its glory.. from many weird angles. haha by the time we were done with the photos, we had some 20 or 30 shots of Eiffel.. we got quite sick of it soon. oh! You can actually climb all the way to level 2 - which would be cheaper than taking the lift. But any higher - you'd have to pay more for the lift. The queue was formidable..
Grin, we decided that seeing the legendary tower was sufficient. =) haha Like many famous things in life, some love it, others hate it. To me, it's just another landmark in Paris. =)
I confess... to forget what this place is. heh At least I do recognize that this series of pictures are of the same place.. and recall how the exorbitant entrance fees sent us reeling backwards in mock horror... where we sidled into a corner and started snapping pictures of what interior we could glimpse from our vantage point. Heh that includes the gruesome painting you see next to the ice-cream cone.
And then... another series of photo-whoring took place as Herm suddenly found the space between two columns very cosy. =)
hm.. I always end with food. Cuz no matter how many wrong turns had been made, food makes things right. Tending to the aching belly.. soothing ruffled feathers. =)
I don't think I'm keen on French Columbian food though. I like my soup warm. hehs
No comments:
Post a Comment