So, 2 days in France and I still had yet to see Paris, the city. So I was determined to see the city and so I told Aimee and Kate that I was keen on going for a walking tour. As said previously, I'm a big fan of New Europe Sanderman's walking tours, and no one ever complains about having to go on a free tour unless you hate walking. But free things are never easy, especially in Europe, from what I've experienced so far. Anyhow, pictures are below... and yes... for those who read my facebook status while I was in paris, you will finally get the story on why my status was that.... :P
St Michel fountain in the Latin Quarter....Start of the walking tour... When we met here two nights previously for the pub crawl, we saw drunken men (or not) swimming in the fountain)... but the fountain looked pretty clean that morning...
Notre Dame (Our lady of Paris) in the daytime! This used to be like the seedy area and prostitutes and all the lowlife of Paris used to gather around here, and at one point in time, the cathedral was really run down and falling to pieces. The man who is credited for saving Notre Dame is Victor Hugo who wrote the novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame. However, when the novel was published in 1831, the cathedral was in a sorry state of decay. Even for the crowning of Napoleon in 1804, the crumbling state of the church had to be disguised with wall hangings and ornamentation. Thanks to Victor Hugo it has helped in the restoration and the preservation of the cathedral in what we know it today. His novel has even helped romanticise the cathedral despite it being a shady area in the past. Other famous visitors to Notre Dame include Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scotts, Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle...
Old Nazi headquarters during WW2 which is a French police station today. The holes in the walls are the rare souveniers from WW2 bombing... Paris was not as destroyed as London or Poland, so these are probably the only battle "scars" you can find in the entire city...
One of the few bridges remaining in Paris with Napoleon's emblem on it.
A little bit of interesting trivia for everyone. There's this artist from France who is dedicated to putting space invaders all around the world to "invade it". He started off in Paris so most of the space invaders plaques like the one below can be found here. Apparently if you mark all the space invaders on a map of Paris, it forms one huge giant space invader. We found another one in Montmartre later in the day and James saw one in Amsterdam as well... pretty cool thing!
These iron rings were used to link iron chains to stop the vikings from coming up the river to France... but the vikings still came coz they decided to come by land instead :P. Today it mainly ornamental and serves as a good luck charm.
Statue of Henri of Navarre, who was born a protestant and whose marriage to catholic Marguerite of France resulted in alot of uprisings and protests. In 1589, he converted to catholicism and became the first Bourbon king of France, declaring that "Paris is well worth a mass"
Can't really remember this, but it's some linguistic institution of France that comes up with French words to prevent the triumph of their greatest enemy: English...
Pont Neuf (New bridge) First stone bridge built by Henri IV which links the island to both sides of the river...
An interesting feature of the bridge is that if you go down below, you notice that is decorated with status busts of drunken men, all modelled after the guests who partook in the party after the new bridge was completed...
And of course, one of the most famous buildings in the world and one of the biggest museums in the world, the Louvre Museum where the famous Mona Lisa is held...
Glass Pyramid entrance made famous by Dan Brown's novel
French government building
Arty farty train station entrance meant to symbolise day and night
Eiffel tower from the distance...
Jardin des Tuileries... very well kept garden for people watching with the Louvre museum at one end and the central obelisk at the other end
Closer to the Obelisk. Incidentally, the obelisk was a gift from Egypt and was the site where the guillontine was built during the French Revolution and where Marie Antoinette and her husband were beheaded in 1791. Of course, Marie Antoinette is known for her last words, "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it." to the executioner when she accidentally stepped on his foot on her way on to the guillontine.
Movie Trivia for fans of the Devil of Prada... this is supposedly the fountain where Anne Hathaway drops her fan after refusing to answer the call from Meryl Streep.
The most expensive hotel in Paris. BUT there is a way to stay there for free for 3 nights: WIN THE TOUR DE FRANCE. And as an added bonus, your country's flag will be flown at the top of the hotel for the 3 nights that you were there...
Pont Alexander III and Napoleon's Tomb in the background.
Grand Palais (with the big glass dome roof, left hand side) and the Petite Palais built for the Universal exhibition in 1900
Avenue des Champs-Elysees with the Arc de Triomphe at the end...
The Paris Louis Vuitton story
Ok the wierdest but most interesting story of the Paris trip. We were all walking the Avenue des Champs-Elysees which is like the street where all the branded stores are and where all the rich people shop on our way to see the Arc de Triomphe. Suddenly I get approached by this couple from China who ask if I spoke Chinese. I said yes a bit. And it turns out that they had been shopping in LV for items for themselves and their friends back home in China as it was considerably cheaper here than back home. However, they were not allowed to buy more than 2 of each design, so they asked if I could help them purchase a couple of items for them as they had already promised their friends back home that they would help them get it. Back then, I didn't think too much about it and said ok, but reality hit when about 150m from the LV store, they handed me heaps of Euros (CASH!) to buy the items. For like a few seconds I was stunned as they handed me the money as I had never seen so much money in my life, let alone held it in my hand. So I asked James to accompany me to the store as I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, (and James had the cheek to suggest that we run away with the money haha), but it was the first time I got to shop and spend money like the rich too, and it was like wow, so surreal. I walked in, found the stuff and I got served by this excellent and good looking French salesman who spoke perfect english and was so polite to me and oh so charming :P I think that even James had fun during the whole excursion. After the whole thing, I asked for a picture in front of the store so that I would remember the whole experience... and up till now I still can't believe it.... So like I said on FB, the experience was short, but I could certainly live the life of the rich. Money buys you almost everything, and I saw that for myself in Paris... plus I got to shop in the biggest LV store in Europe... how cool was that!
But a word of caution to those who are interesting in lurking around Paris to find a similar experience.... I was glad I was with a bunch of friends who were looking out for me, and warned me against counterfeit money and to check properly before going into the store... LIke Aimee was so skeptical about the couple that she took a picture of them in case I was brought out of the store handcuffed and the couple ran away! lol. And thinking back , I think that if I was alone I would probably have ignored them and said no.... so it was really just a very random one off thing that happened....
So now, off to our original destination, Arc de Triomphe, built to commemorate Napoleon's victory at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Work began in 1806 but was not completed until 1836 due to Napoleon's fall from grace.
Tomb of the Unknown soldier. Apparently, some crazy Australians decided to roast sausages over the eternal flame and because of that they got a free ticket back to Australia and were forever banned from France...
St Michel fountain in the Latin Quarter....Start of the walking tour... When we met here two nights previously for the pub crawl, we saw drunken men (or not) swimming in the fountain)... but the fountain looked pretty clean that morning...
Notre Dame (Our lady of Paris) in the daytime! This used to be like the seedy area and prostitutes and all the lowlife of Paris used to gather around here, and at one point in time, the cathedral was really run down and falling to pieces. The man who is credited for saving Notre Dame is Victor Hugo who wrote the novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame. However, when the novel was published in 1831, the cathedral was in a sorry state of decay. Even for the crowning of Napoleon in 1804, the crumbling state of the church had to be disguised with wall hangings and ornamentation. Thanks to Victor Hugo it has helped in the restoration and the preservation of the cathedral in what we know it today. His novel has even helped romanticise the cathedral despite it being a shady area in the past. Other famous visitors to Notre Dame include Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scotts, Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle...
Old Nazi headquarters during WW2 which is a French police station today. The holes in the walls are the rare souveniers from WW2 bombing... Paris was not as destroyed as London or Poland, so these are probably the only battle "scars" you can find in the entire city...
One of the few bridges remaining in Paris with Napoleon's emblem on it.
A little bit of interesting trivia for everyone. There's this artist from France who is dedicated to putting space invaders all around the world to "invade it". He started off in Paris so most of the space invaders plaques like the one below can be found here. Apparently if you mark all the space invaders on a map of Paris, it forms one huge giant space invader. We found another one in Montmartre later in the day and James saw one in Amsterdam as well... pretty cool thing!
These iron rings were used to link iron chains to stop the vikings from coming up the river to France... but the vikings still came coz they decided to come by land instead :P. Today it mainly ornamental and serves as a good luck charm.
Statue of Henri of Navarre, who was born a protestant and whose marriage to catholic Marguerite of France resulted in alot of uprisings and protests. In 1589, he converted to catholicism and became the first Bourbon king of France, declaring that "Paris is well worth a mass"
Can't really remember this, but it's some linguistic institution of France that comes up with French words to prevent the triumph of their greatest enemy: English...
Pont Neuf (New bridge) First stone bridge built by Henri IV which links the island to both sides of the river...
An interesting feature of the bridge is that if you go down below, you notice that is decorated with status busts of drunken men, all modelled after the guests who partook in the party after the new bridge was completed...
And of course, one of the most famous buildings in the world and one of the biggest museums in the world, the Louvre Museum where the famous Mona Lisa is held...
Glass Pyramid entrance made famous by Dan Brown's novel
French government building
Arty farty train station entrance meant to symbolise day and night
Eiffel tower from the distance...
Jardin des Tuileries... very well kept garden for people watching with the Louvre museum at one end and the central obelisk at the other end
Closer to the Obelisk. Incidentally, the obelisk was a gift from Egypt and was the site where the guillontine was built during the French Revolution and where Marie Antoinette and her husband were beheaded in 1791. Of course, Marie Antoinette is known for her last words, "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it." to the executioner when she accidentally stepped on his foot on her way on to the guillontine.
Movie Trivia for fans of the Devil of Prada... this is supposedly the fountain where Anne Hathaway drops her fan after refusing to answer the call from Meryl Streep.
The most expensive hotel in Paris. BUT there is a way to stay there for free for 3 nights: WIN THE TOUR DE FRANCE. And as an added bonus, your country's flag will be flown at the top of the hotel for the 3 nights that you were there...
Pont Alexander III and Napoleon's Tomb in the background.
Grand Palais (with the big glass dome roof, left hand side) and the Petite Palais built for the Universal exhibition in 1900
Avenue des Champs-Elysees with the Arc de Triomphe at the end...
The Paris Louis Vuitton story
Ok the wierdest but most interesting story of the Paris trip. We were all walking the Avenue des Champs-Elysees which is like the street where all the branded stores are and where all the rich people shop on our way to see the Arc de Triomphe. Suddenly I get approached by this couple from China who ask if I spoke Chinese. I said yes a bit. And it turns out that they had been shopping in LV for items for themselves and their friends back home in China as it was considerably cheaper here than back home. However, they were not allowed to buy more than 2 of each design, so they asked if I could help them purchase a couple of items for them as they had already promised their friends back home that they would help them get it. Back then, I didn't think too much about it and said ok, but reality hit when about 150m from the LV store, they handed me heaps of Euros (CASH!) to buy the items. For like a few seconds I was stunned as they handed me the money as I had never seen so much money in my life, let alone held it in my hand. So I asked James to accompany me to the store as I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, (and James had the cheek to suggest that we run away with the money haha), but it was the first time I got to shop and spend money like the rich too, and it was like wow, so surreal. I walked in, found the stuff and I got served by this excellent and good looking French salesman who spoke perfect english and was so polite to me and oh so charming :P I think that even James had fun during the whole excursion. After the whole thing, I asked for a picture in front of the store so that I would remember the whole experience... and up till now I still can't believe it.... So like I said on FB, the experience was short, but I could certainly live the life of the rich. Money buys you almost everything, and I saw that for myself in Paris... plus I got to shop in the biggest LV store in Europe... how cool was that!
But a word of caution to those who are interesting in lurking around Paris to find a similar experience.... I was glad I was with a bunch of friends who were looking out for me, and warned me against counterfeit money and to check properly before going into the store... LIke Aimee was so skeptical about the couple that she took a picture of them in case I was brought out of the store handcuffed and the couple ran away! lol. And thinking back , I think that if I was alone I would probably have ignored them and said no.... so it was really just a very random one off thing that happened....
So now, off to our original destination, Arc de Triomphe, built to commemorate Napoleon's victory at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Work began in 1806 but was not completed until 1836 due to Napoleon's fall from grace.
Tomb of the Unknown soldier. Apparently, some crazy Australians decided to roast sausages over the eternal flame and because of that they got a free ticket back to Australia and were forever banned from France...
