Day 3 - Full day in Paris

Next morning, woke up to breakfast being delivered in our room!

 The croissants were really really good. I haven't ate one in Singapore that tastes THIS good. I didn't even have to add butter. We were all prepared and ready to head out when we saw this dog sitting by the lift. SO CUTE

Needless to say we spend 10 minutes petting and playing with the dog. It's the breed from the hush puppies innit? It's quite an old dog i think. It ran up the stairs to another floor after a while. Later on we realised that it belongs to the hotel owner. The Parisans have a more open concept about pets i think, especially dogs. They are free to roam around and it's normal for guests to bring pets.

This was the maximum amount of people the lift could contain. Yep, what you are seeing in this picture is the exact size of the lift. I think all 3 of us tried squeezing in and thankfully the lift didn't spoil. But it was super stuffy and uncomfortable we were all laughing inside lol

My sister took a close up shot of the hotel owner's hair. LOOK AT HOW PONG IT IS!!!!!!!! 

FINALLY WENT OUT TO THE STREETS

We took photos of street signs to also help remind ourselves where places were, since we can't pronounce/spell them..

Look at this small 2 seater car! It's super common to see it around the area, and it looks so cute!

A chinese temple (?)

Went to the Petit-Dejewners breakfast cafe and we just drank hot chocolate while dad ate.. again.

Btw our hotel is located at Boulevard Haussmann street, which is like a popular street for branded goods and stuff. As a result we didn't have to take a metro (YAY) and we could just walk to get there! (THANK YOU LW)

Unfortunately though, we kinda walked the wrong way in the beginning, but thank god we managed to get there! Shopping shopping~ Window shopping~

 Bally!

 Sephora! It's super huge inside btw!!!! MEGA BIG

Mercedes Benz

And finally... we managed to see..

Arc du Triomphe~ There were a lot of tourists there and some were telling us to be careful.. well because there were a lot of gypsies there. Gypsies as in not those with crystal balls, more like hustlers i suppose.. anyway they have this tactic whereby they try to distract you to sign some idiot petition (totally fake btw, they were photocopies), and they surround you and stick super close to you to get to your bag. Some had newspapers under their arms which im guessing, are hidden knives to cut your bag. Seriously on broad daylight, and done by a couple of 12-16 year old girls? Luckily we managed to shake them off. Didn't lose anything either *phew*

LW... is waiting for something

Waiting for my dad to finish taking photos so we can cross the road LOL *points*

HUGE ASS BUILDING OF LOUIS VUITTON!!!

Seriously i envy how they use their space so liberally. Like 'oh pshhh let's just build a random building here~' and KABOOM. 

 Trying to get to Printemps Departmental Store, which is like a mega mall but retailing branded goods. But we were kinda lost + hungry along the way so we stopped for lunch!

Settled for some quick fast food before continue exploring. Anyway a lot of people mistook us as japanese instead (ikr, WHY). Since Parisans are super friendly, whenever we walk pass they will try to greet us with 'Konichiwa' lol.

Headed to this plaza(?) accidentally, and start to walk and shop around here too. My sister (HL) saw this statue and start taking photos! 

 Many of the tourists were also there, taking photos with this conventional pose.. so she followed suit!

 But she is super funny and took this pose, which got thetourists laughing! Look at the one behind! HAHA

I asked my HL why she took this photo. She said 'Because the 2 ah ma so small size and hold hand walk together very cute'

 At this point we were really quite lost, so dear LW started to ask passerbys and one of them managed to walk us there cos he was also heading towards that direction too!

 Street art~

AND FINALLY!!!!!!!!

This is their toilet! They call it WC point. Anyway gotta pay about $2-$4 to get in there *sob so expensive* Look at the different coloured toilet paper!!!!

Anyway the toilets are really special, each cubicle has a theme! 

HL got a pink striped one. CUTE!!

Went to queue for the tax refund thing after finish shopping. It's super important you don't wanna waste 12-16% of your money on tax right????? GET IT BACK

Got on a metro back to the hotel to put our things..

 Found a chinese restaurant so we had chinese food like FINALLY.  Dad was super happy we got to eat rice. Me too actually, eating spaghetti/vongole/aglio olio can be a bit sian. Anyway dad drank 2 pots of Pu Er all by himself hahahaha

Thereafter, we went to see EIFFEL TOWER! Kinda easier to navigate cos the station name had the name on it. Plus all we had to do was to follow big crowds of people.. and the tower so damn big can spot it far away!

Getting closer..

It's super chio~ Anyway we were lucky enough to catch the sparkling tower, which is only for 5 minutes every hour. YAY

Can't take self shots as you can see, the tower just looks like a ball of light!

After that we just headed back and concussed. Tiring leh as you can see!!!!

Anyway on the way back we had a interesting/sort of scary encounter. It was around 1030-11 at night and it was considered unsafe to be out at this time. Saw this group of young boys shouting vulgarities loudly, holding a bottle of coke and rolling up weed and smoking pot on the open. They were obviously high from pot + sugar rush so they were acting inappropriately, shouting, screaming. When we got on the train, they were on a cabin next to us (there were windows so we could see each other) and they keep coming up to the windows. When the train stopped at a station they came inside our cabin and sat beside us!!!!! Quite terrifying cos it's our first time to paris and we didn't know what they were gonna do so we alighted the train and took the next one instead. Thinking back now, i think they are quite harmless, but i guess they didn't really know what they were doing/seeing, which i guess is the scary part. I wouldn't be that scared if they were stoned though.. okay maybe ill still be scared.

PHEW. Look out for Day 4~

Day 2 Part 2 - Paris by Night

(Continuing Day 2 post of my Europe trip)

So... after that we went back to the hotel, collected our luggage and took a train to St Pancras Train Station where we would be going to Paris via Eurostar!

Sigh did i mention that we really have it a lot better in terms of the MRT/Tube compared to UK? Although it gives off a very rustic feel to it, its super old and dirty. There are also NO lifts, just flights of stairs. Can you imagine we had to carry our heavy luggage up and down? Super tiring! We should just appreciate our MRT services some times and not complain sooo much about it.

King's Cross! I feel closer to Harry Potter now LOL but we were not going in there so.. oh well. 擦肩而過 is good enough for me yay!

We had so much stuff to carry so it was super lucky of us to spot a trolley and yes.. abuse it like hell lol

St Pancras Train Station! This one is for the locals though, we gotta go to the international one.

Since we are only gonna be in Paris for a day or so we kept some of our luggage there. No point carrying so much.

All the relevant departure/arrival details. COME AT ME BRO (Yes it was a candid shot my sister just took it while i was behaving like this......lol i 无地自容

All the platforms and stuff. We had to enter the boarding area using QR codes on the Eurostar confirmation slips that we printed and carried along. I think it's just super efficient cos no one needs to go queue or whatever to get the tickets. Weeeeeeeeee~

We on Platform 9, heading to Gare Du Nord train station in Paris! Btw the time difference between UK and France is 1 hour..

Managed to squeeze in this one shot of us and the Eurostar before boarding cos the gate was closing pretty soon. Phew luckily we made it.

Went to the buy food at the end of the cabin. The lady serving us was pretty meh. Quite rude i should say. Food was alright though.

The train ride was around 2-3 hours i think, during which we got to see nice views such as grape vineyards, farms, cows and sheeps nomming on grass. My sister took this view and she was like 'EH THE VIEW LOOK LIKE MICROSOFT WINDOWS DEFAULT BACKGROUND LOLLOL cant help but to agree!

Finally, arrived in Paris, Gare Du Nord Train Station! But we had to take the Metro to our hotel though. The train stations are very confusing because their pronunciation is TOTALLY different from how they are spelt. Prolly cos we don't know french and all. Bonjour and Bonsoir is all I've got.

 If im not wrong we had to alight at Montparnasse - Bienvenue and take line 6. Can't remember. Their Metro stations are different because at certain timings of the day they will not stop at certain stations. It's also quite unhygenic, you can smell pee and spot liter all over the place. And yes it isn't handicapped friendly too, only on certain stations. My first impression was that it wasn't as glitz and glam as i thought it would be... but of course Paris had their glamorous side to them too, and it was fabulous~

Their metro gantries. The bigger ones on the left are used for passengers who are carrying bulky objects.. like luggage. Yep we used them.

 

The interesting thing is that the doors aren't automated, you have to open it yourself if you wanna get out/get in the cabin. 

 The 2 french kids keep staring at us. Like literally kept staring. Even when you stare back they STILL keep staring. It's so awkward..

Yes we are staring at the map with no clue how to get to our hotel. Sortie means exit.. but i have no idea about the rest lol! Our hotel was located along Boulevard Haussmann street but the trick is that we don't know where were we. WHERE IS THE 'YOU ARE HERE' SPOT WHEN WE NEED YOU????

Luckily LW managed to find the way. Phew.

REACHED OUR HOTEL FINALLY - Hotel D'Argenson

The hotel was small and quaint, but so romantic and classy looking.

THE KEY. I think out of us sisters i am the only one who fully knows how to open our hotel room door with this ancient key. It's quite complicated and need time to figure it out. It's like insert half turn left, insert whole turn right, turn again door open. HAHA as you can see i am quite proud of myself... hmm

Their lift. Their only lift. As you can see it's super small. Enough to accomodate 2 people max. It's kinda scary the first time up but after that.. ABUSED IT LIKE HELL

Flowers and mirrors everywhere

 Finally! I went up first to open the door so yeah. Look a bit stupid hahaha

 One of the first things me and my sister did was to open the creaking windows and check out the view. Turns out dad did the same because we were talking to each other over the window.

LW asking the hotel owner on recommendations for good dinner places. The hotel owner was so nice and kind!

Streets in Paris!

Went to Michel Angelo. 

The price of a glass of wine is cheaper than a glass of water! I should not surprised i suppose. But the wine was really good. Like super light and all.

The food servings were HUGE. I can't finish my serving. Yes, ME!!!!!! Anyway hot choco was awesome :)

Went back to the hotel and KO for the day. It was a pretty long day for me. Had to wear blindfolds from the Qatar because i can only sleep in total darkness lol.

OKAY GOOD NIGHT