When the East meets the West!

1 October

It is indeed without doubt a city of love. Before setting foot in France, I didn't understand why it earned this title. Sure, The Eifel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe are great, they got lots of museums, but how do these stone cold buildings and historical artefacts inspire heart to skip faster and the emotions to flow? The answer my friend is as the french says...Paris has a sense of 'je ne sais quoi' about it. It's not one thing that stands out but the entire city together, from the incredible romantic setting borne from a successful marriage of artistic and scientific designs in architecture, to the beautiful fresh flowers of kaleidescope colours strategically displayed by the grocer in the morning at its corner shop at the fringe of the city, the grand parks and gardens, lustrous green acres adorned with the glorious fountains and monuments from ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, right down to the simple joy carved at a young man's face as he cycles down a narrow street with his shy girlfriend sitting behind him, holding on to him and smiling contently to herself. Scenes like these are constantly in abundance, it is no wonder that they cause strolling couples to pause their journey and to turn around gazing into each another's eyes before softly kissing, savouring the moment, the moment when everything feels right...because Paris says so, no, Paris expects love..and the couples lost in its magic were naturally drawn to answer this call.

As I didn't have the fortune to stick my tongue down some poor guy's throat, I settled instead to enjoy the company of friends. Raphy and I were lucky enough to have his 2 year old daughter, Lianne, and French no.1 female badminton player, Pi Hongyan (ranked no.3 in the world) joined us for our exrcursion on my second last day in Paris. As Raphy's a reporter, he'd became good friends with Pi and so our outing doubled as a catch up session for them both.

We went to Montmartre, which in 19th century, used to be the 'hang out' place for the creative types, writers, artists, politicians.. did you just laugh out loud?! Today it is an area of mimes, buskers, tacky souvenir shops and commercial artists.

Talking of souvenirs, if you were previously expecting any, this is the time for you to rid yourself of this utopian delusion. That's right, no lil mini Eifel towers, wooden clogs or teapots shaped in the head of the Queen or Charles..or Camillia for that matter, urgh!
It is hard enough carrying myself across Europe with my turtle shell without the extra weight and dangling sounds from dragging them around. So sorry..you'll just have to make do with this journal :P

Also located on top of a hill in Montmatre is the Basilique du Sacred Coeur, built in 1870's as a result of a vow taken by Parisian Catholics (they don't take their vows lightly those days). From the top of this hill you get a good view of the city too.

It may look like I'm posing, but I'm actually trying to transfer the energy of happiness to the sad looking bars I'm holding on to..yes, that's what I'm doing..

At the centre of the small town, I took a few pictures as you will see. The waiters at any of these restaurants continue to wear the typical waiter type clothing of the 19th century era to create that ambience which inspired the artists in the past.

In front of one of the oldest building in France, going back some centuries ago (yes, I forgot the date, kiss my ass!)

Garcon! His name is Gerard..but for an extra 5 Euro, I could call him anything I wanted..

Then we took a train into town, and got off at the Arc de Triomphe! I finally got what Raphy meant about the ridiculous round-about. Cars tooting and swerving right and left to try to get on to the roundabout! Apparently, if you can drive through this roundabout, you can expect to receive a diploma that says you are now skilled to drive anywhere else in the world...not sure if i want to die trying..

The reason why I looked so stiff is because I was standing in the middle of the road, only inches away from that mad roundabout when the pic was taken, sorry if I look like I was clenching my butt so tight I could crush nuts!

From there, we strolled down the world famous street, the Champ-Elysee, where the creme de la creme of French consumer stores set up their business to rob you blind. Great street to walk on and window shop, and unless you feel like paying NZ$20 for cup of coffee, I wouldn't recommend eating or drinking there either.

We continued walking into town and I took more photos but I'll save them until I get back, so at least I'll have a good excuse to have you guys pay for my meals as I show you my pictures. I must admit while we walked that day for 5 hours, you certainly don't feel the time flew perhaps because there were so many things to see. I did notice that the French do walk around taking oxygen from a higher plane..(aka snobbish) and while I don't think that's a commendable trait, I certainly come to realise then that perhaps it's not so much arrogance that make them walk around with baseball bats stuck up their peverbials, but more the case of pride...pride to be the citizens of country of immense wealth in history, and decendants of pioneers in the advancement and cultivation of knowledge, arts, science and culture to the highest degree. And if you ever pull out a bat from one of their arses, you will see that the bat would have been designed in a greco roman style and had been left behind (excuse the pun) from the previous 7 generations of the family.

2 October

Last day in France. Still haven't had a chance to see the Notre Dame. Had only 5 hours sleep, staying up writing this journal. So half asleep and probably looking like a chinese immigrant that just got let out of the container at the harbour, I made my way to Notre Dame. The night before a celebration was held there in honour of the Brazilian catholics living in France. The cathedral which is normally lit up at night was dark except for the light projection of Jesus against the front wall of the church, this projection being a copy image of the huge statue of Jesus situated at the St Jude Mountain in Brazil (I think...)

During the day, it's still impressive, given that its white ivory like walls look different to many of the buildings built around the same time in the city. The splendour of this building is evident from the craftiness of the design and workmanship, not too surprising perhaps given that it took more than 180 years of hard labour before it was completed in 1345.

View of the front, note the size!

Taken from the inside on one of the stained mirrors. There were at least 14 of them, all beautifully done and the light from the chandaliers hung in the centre illuminates these stained windows fortelling a tale of the past so vividly and beautifully.

View of the southern wall of the church. Look at the intricate design of this holy place of worship.

The end of my Notre Dame tour also marks the end of my visit to Paris. A sense of sadness filled me as I walked back to catch the subway train to take me back to my apartment. It was like an end of a delectable affair..one where you know the conclusion is inevitable but you kept on hoping that perhaps miraculously..the affair would last and it was the same for me..a reluctant farewell..stubbornly and perhaps understandably, I prefer "A bientot" instead of "au revoir".

And my utmost gratitude to Raphy and his family (and Pi) for their time, kindness and patience (plenty of it) in showing me their pride and joy, their land, their home. I'm really humbled by it all.

AO rating: A whirlwind affair taking me by storm, but leaving behind not devastation but cherishable memories to last a lifetime. An affair definitely worth a rekindling...

This is the castle where Mary Antoinette, Queen of France and wife to Louis XVI, was executed during the 3rd French revolution. Past so tragic, Presently so romantic...

30 September

After hearing from Mark that I would at least need a day or two to fully appreciate the Lourve, I decided to dedicate this entire day to visiting it. The weather was gloomy with the heavy black clouds threatening to pour down and so I was glad that I would be spending most of the day inside.

Arrived at the Lourve and managed to buy my ticket without having to stand too long in the queue, still too early for those Japanese tourists I guess, muhahaha! Once inside and armed with my audio guide and detail plan of the museum and its specific exhibits (slowly turning into a seasoned museum tourist I know...), I was ready to be cultured and educated. Beam me up Da Vinci!! That's right, amongst many other things, the priceless Mona Lisa IS IN DA HOUSE!!

Just to give you an idea of what I was up against, the Lourve museum is divided into 3 different sections, namely Sully, Denton and Richelieu. Each section has 4 floors and each floor has different exhibition(s) and there can be up to 20 rooms on each floor. So basically, if you do the maths, we're talking about 240 rooms of history, art, culture and priceless artefacts. I was in heaven! The genre on offer on the day of my visit was Art of Islam, Sculptures, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities and the Medieval Louvre on the ground floor, Oriental and Egyptian Antiquities, more Roman and Greek Antiquities and arts of Africa; Asia, Oceania and Americas on the first floor, Objects d'art, Italian and French paintings and prints & drawings on the 2nd floor and on the 3rd floor, we have German; Flemish and Dutch paintings & drawings and Russian; Belgian, Swiss and Scandinavian paintings & drawings...yeah, that's all, not much :P

Words could not describe all the amazing things I saw, especially the Greek & Roman sculptures. I also confirmed my theory that Greek & Roman men took steroids, that's the only fallible explanation to why they've such muscular and big bodies but with small errr..you know...not that I was looking too closely of course *cough* (sooo glad they're not ice sculptures). It was endless series of facinating piece of history, one after the other..each time you think you've seen the most amazing sculpture, you then walk into the next room and there's the gigantic statue of Diana, Goddess of War that just blew you away.

Also equally impressive was the Crown Diamonds Room filled with the royal crowns and jewellery belonging mostly to Napoleon Bonaparte and his first Queen, Josephine. Talking of which, just like in Versailles, we were treated to Napoleon's apartment which in my humble opinion, was even more opulently and luxuriously decorated than his predecessors' chambers. Like many of the rooms in his apartment, the dining room was probably the most impressionable with 8 grand and large chandaliers lighting it, fully convincing me that the largest French import during that time must have been candles.

Then there were the paintings and drawings. Goodness me, room after room of incredible lifelike paintings by famous Italian and French artists. One of the more notable one was the coronation ceremony of Napoleon Bonaparte as painted by the royal artist to His Highness, David. Nothing obviously though could even come close to the hauntingly beautiful Mona Lisa, the room of which this painting was kept I saved for last...A funny incident took place here too. There was a sign in front of the picture that says no cameras allowed, obviously for fear of what the camera flashes would do to the lighting of this old painting. They have this Morrocan staff worker whose job was to walk around telling ppl off if they do decide to try and take any pictures. So I felt sorry for her when this incident happened. She walked across to one end of the group to tell them off for taking pictures but while she was doing that, at the other end, the flashes were going off as ppl used this opportunity to take some on the other side. This lady would then walked to this group and tell them off for taking the pictures and the other end would then start clicking away. So this poor lady just walked left to right constantly yelling out "excusez-moi, no pictures, s'il vous plait" to no avail.

I must confess towards the 5.5 hour mark of my visit yet to another room full of paintings, I began to lose interest and started to just skim through the paintings and walk out again. I liken this 'overdose of information' to when you see a Bargain Bin during a clothing Sale and there's tonnes of people rummaging through hundreds of clothing. They might be good quality clothing but somehow seeing so many of them in bulk and so easily available seemed to make you appreciate them less, a case of 'less is more' definitely. The wow factor took a hit and I knew then that I've seen enough that day and it was time to call it a day.

Venus/Apphrodite, The Roman/Greek Goddess of Love. Yes I know she pales in comparison when taken next to me...oh woe is her... :P

From the outside, The glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. Took more pictures, but afraid I'm running out of disc space to show all. Maybe when I get back...

That evening, Raphy cooked me dinner, not altogether French but I did try the 'foie gras' which is a goose liver pate, a specialty here in France, an appetizer normally favoured by the high class society, sharing the limelight with other fancy appetizers such as salmon or caviar. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate liver with a passion but for some reason, I really like this but Raphy assured me that I don't want to know how they're made or I'll never eat them again. Once again I opened my mouth and then thought better and kept on eating...

Tomorrow, will be walking to the Arc de Triumphe, Champs-Elyseé and all around the city to take in the general view of the city.

Fashion, Fondue, Fromage, fine wine and flirtatious Frenchmen, oui, oui, I've finally arrived in Paris after 5 hours journey by train from Neustadt. It was rather amusing to note that as soon as we crossed the border into France, the public announcements in the train also changed language accordingly.. I half expected a french soldier to show up with a box of typical french clothing for us to change into as well (you know...buret and thin and skin tight stripe shirt for the boys and 3/4 coats and knee length chic skirts for the girls).

As I walked outside, I was half expecting one of the city's familiar landmark, like the Eiffel Tower or the Arc dé Triumphe to appear before me. Instead, a sight of total traffic chaos greeted me. Vechiles, old and new were emitting black fumes thick enough to smokescreen the low rise old renaissance period buildings nearby. If I thought I was going to hear an accordian music accompanying someone singing a french folk song, I would instead have to make do with all the hoots and toots of the busy Wednesday evening traffic in the city. It is weird (and scary) to see 4 lane traffic in the middle of the city without any road lines separating them. It is nothing short of a miracle that there weren't any accidents from the way cars, motorbikes and pedestrians zigzagged, overtook, cut across one another in heading home from work. I know its a paradox but it was like orderly chaos or something. I remarked as such to Raphy (my badminton french correspondent....yes, from that same geeky badminton website if you must know...) when he picked me up. He gave me a "ahhh, c'est la vie" kinda smile and said "I wonder what you will make of the round-about at the Arc dé Triumphe then"...started to open my mouth to ask and thought better of it...

Raphy (short for Raphael) is a reporter who also runs a french badminton news website. He and his wife have kindly offered to put me up at their spare apartment which so happen to be just across from their own one, so that's handy. Hah! I laugh at the Flying Escargot or whatever the French's backpacker equivallent is. My apartment is located about 15mins subway train ride away from Paris central. As someone who has never been on a subway train before and would be doing so for the first time in a country she has never been in and who do not speak its language, I think it can be classified as a death wish.. Anyway, had a test run that evening when I followed Raphy into town for his badminton practice. It wasn't so bad once you get the hang of it..

Was also keen to practice my French which I studied for one year at University. So started with the usual 'bonjour' and 'bon soir' to the subway ticket seller but he could probably tell from my desperation to sound French that I was but a tourist and he gave me a polite smile before casually muttered in English, 'good evening to you too miss'. Zut!!

29th September

Did a bit of research in the morning as to where to start the sightseeing. Even this in itself was a bit of a mission as there's simply so many things to see! Raphy was working but another French badminton correspondent, Ming offered to meet up and show me around. So took the sub into the city and had a walkaround. In general, you see a good mix of local French ppl and those from Seneagal, North Africa or Morroco. Almost all of them are as you expect in the fashion capital of the world, very well dressed, chic and sophisticated for the adults, and trendy, street style cool for the 'lil adults'.

Like Amsterdam and Neustadt, people here I noticed light up quite a bit, not so much in subway trains, but certainly on the streets and in restaurants /cafés. Talking of which, it's interesting how you can see a café, clothing or shoe store like every 2nd or 3rd shop but you can't hardly see other types of outlets, including a Vodafone store. Also, I noticed there's a few McDonalds but no KFC in sight, which I found to be rather odd.

I've also discovered that in France, there are certain advantages of being a woman. Most French women are nice to you because of the shopping mecca sisterhood ("ohmygawd, where zid you get zhose pair of zelicious shoes?") and as for the men....charming and definitely flirt alert material ladies! Observe: I got lost trying to find Ming's restaurant where I was suppose to meet him and so I asked this taxi driver who happened to be standing outside his taxi, for directions. He said "oh madammoiselle, let me take you there for it would ze such great injustice to zee such a beautiful girl like yourself unhappy because you are lost" Smooooooth.. After realising he wasn't going to take no for an answer, I relented (he was harmless, just flirtatious). I insisted on paying when he dropped me off and he refused saying "ahh madamoiselle, you've already overpaid me with your smile", and without skipping a beat, I replied, "where's my change then?"

Anyway, since Ming has a car and we agreed it would be pointless for him to show me just the inner city as I could walk around for that, he decided to take me to the Versailles, the former Imperial residence to the French monarch. Our drive there was quite pleasant. While it was a cloudy day with the sun breaking through once a while, it was certainly warm. We drove past Champ Elyseé and then on to the motorway before arriving in the outskirts of Paris, less chaos, but still same style of old buildings, smoky air and stylish locals, that was until we pulled over at the entrance to the Versailles, the japanese tourist 'army' were disembarking from the 8 tourist buses, all armed with their favourite weapons of choice, an umbrella and the latest digital camera Japanese yen can buy! Ming took a look at the tourists and said how lucky I was that it's the low season. Upon noticing my disbelief expression, he went on to explain how he once had to queue for more than 3 hours just to get a ticket during the summer months and there were at least 20 busses around then. Have to remind myself I'm not in Kansas anymore, this is Oz!!

Ming advised I would need at least 3 hours, at which point I almost choked on my mint..you're kidding right, 3 hours for one area? He shook his head, pushed me out of the car and drove off. Upon approaching this gigantic palace, I began to take Ming's estimation seriously. The humongous palace is divided into the King's state apartment (more like a castle than an apartment!), the Queen's, the Hall of Mirrors, the Hall of Battles, servant quarters and the Donach (name given to the heir to the throne)'s apartment. To give you and indication of the size of this palace, the King's apartment for example consist of his bed chamber, his drawing room, throne room, dining room, drawing & music room, 8 living rooms named after the Roman Gods and Goddesses, a ballroom and his guardroom. Each size of the room is probably on average, 200 square metres. Now, times that by 3 and you just covered the living quarters for the royals. The interior of the palace can be summed up in two words - Excessive Opulence! Once you have toured through the many gold gilded rooms with renaissance paintings on its ceilings and hand crafted oriental and greek furnitures, you began to understand why the Revolution took place! I took many photos but unfortunately, since I'm only allowed 10mb disc space per month for my pics on this website, I have to limit the number of photos. Don't worry, any photos you don't see here has been saved onto a CD disc.

As I was heading into the last room in the palace, the magnificent Hall of Mirrors, the state ballroom filled with mirrors and crystal chandaliers (trying to picture Louis the XIV dancing to "stayin alive"), my cellphone rang and it was Ming saying the 3 hours were up and whether I was ready to go, already???!!! I haven't even been to the garden yet? Not wanting to hold him up, I said I'd have a quick look at the garden before we go and whether he could give me an extra 20mins or so. His response was a really loud guffaw of laughter. He wisely said that I would need at least an hour for a 'quick look' and I was like, how long does one need to appreciate a garden? Sheesh. Once again, he said he will ring again in an hour and hung up.

Still smarting from the conversation and marching decisively towards the garden, I was muttering to myself thinking Ming probably thought I needed more time because he expected me to be walking slowly and underestimating my fitness. I entered into the garden and thought, yeah...ahah! Just as I thought...no worries to see everything in 20 mins. So I proceeded to walk around leisurely even, taking pictures and then I spotted a fountain and walked towards it to have a closer look when lo and behold! Standing at the end of the fountain and looking down, I saw this...

Garden my ass! Pardon my french..but this is no garden?! it's another country! Ok,ok, exaggeration but at least an estate. Basically from the palace right to the end of the 'grand canal' is a 60 minutes walk! I didn't walk all the way but walked a fair way. The Estate was covered with manicured lawns, purple and pink bougan-villas, lines and lines of well cut hedges tastefully broken only by life size sculptures of Greek and Roman heroes and heroines and to complete this mix of landscape masterpiece and grandeur are the fountains, ranging from the simplistic small round shaped ones to the more sophisticated well designed oval shaped ones. In one, there was a bronze and jade sculpture of several warriors on carriages drawn by the winged horses, poseidons emerging from the waters, half out of the water, half submerged, very impressive.

View of the palace taken in front of one of the fountains.

When Ming rang, I sounded abashed in asking for another 30 mins which he understandably and happily obliged. I was surprised to find that I was truly exhausted by the time we drove off living behind the massive and vast estate of Versailles. Ming then asked, where next? It was only 5pm after all and I wasn't sure so I left it to him to surprise me. He drove back into the city and along the way, we drove through the 'tunnel' where Princess Di crashed her car and died years ago. Before we even arrived, I knew straight away where we were heading. How could I not notice the enchanting and enormously imposing Eiffel Tower looming in front of me. Ming dropped me outside Palais de Chaillot, which is located across the river from the Tower. This place is apparently the best place to take pictures of the Tower. It's funny how prior to getting there, I've told myself I wouldn't be trigger happy with the camera when I see the Tower or any of the other famous landmarks in Paris because we see it so often on TV and those travel shows, surely it was not going to look any different in real life? Boy...talking about being wrong, which I'm beginning to see happened a lot for me since I've been in Paris. It is hard to explain the sense of humility and awe I experienced when coming face to face with this infamous monument. The clouds had cleared, the sun's evening rays bathing over the entire scene of the Sien river, its calm water glistening like jewels, its beauty undeniably dwarved by the stunning and breathtaking sight of the tower, standing erect and proud against the backdrop of a cerulean blue sky....priceless indeed! Ok, 15 shots of the Tower later...(I know, I know..weak!) I slowly joined the queue with the others to go up to the 1st stage of the Tower. There's 3 stage. While I only paid for the 1st stage, I was happy to discover that you could save that extra 3 euros by climbing the stairs to the 2nd stage (instead of catching the lift). My mom had trained me well... As there aren't that many high rise buildings in Paris, the entire city was visible from the viewing platform either on the 1st or 2nd stage. Here you get the 360° view of the city in its entire magnificence! I could see the Arc de Triumphe, the Notre Dame, the course of the Sien river and the mini bronze model of the Statue of Liberty located by the bank of the river. After an hour or so of walking around and the effect of walking all day at the Versailles and climbing the 356 steps from 1st to 2nd stage of the Tower, I was ready to collapse in exhaustion.

Walked most of the way back to the centre of the city before catching the sub back. Had a bit of a mini drama as I forgot the name of the metro station where I was suppose to get off. After getting off 2 wrong stations, I finally and thankfully managed to find my way back to my apartment for a well deserved rest. Tomorrow, I will be dedicating the entire day to the Louvre, le museum extraordinaire. Can't wait....

Voilà!!