Paris, City of Lights

travelling to Paris is really convenient by Eurostar.
no need to check in 2 hours before,
no need to remove shoes etc for security checks,
no need to make sure all liquids are in 100ml bottles
after checking into the hotel, first item on the itinerary was the illuminations tour, including a guided tour around the city, entrance to Eiffel tower, and a cruise down the river Seine 

Champs-Élysées towards Arc de Triomphe

first thing we noticed is how terrible the traffic is.
certain stretches have no lane markings, even at roundabouts. best part is at the arc de triomphe, with like 9 lanes turning into a roundabout AND NO LANE MARKINGS!!

i was telling my aunty about it, and she told us the first time she was at Paris and naively decided to rent a car. in the end she just went round and round the arc because she just didn't know how to get out. no cars would ever give way.

very very scary. i consider myself an excellent driver, but i wouldn't dare to drive in Paris.
we almost had several heart attacks just sitting in the bus.

Eiffel Tower

next was the Eiffel tower, which hardly needs further introduction. it was cold.
we REALLY should stop going for holidays during winter period. -.-

2nd floor of Eiffel Tower

the view was spectacular. reminded us of being on top of Empire State building.
i honestly hadn't held high hopes cos i imagine it is easy to expect too much of an attraction we see so often in movies and over-romanticize, but i didn't know it was quite so big until we were standing at the base.

View of Seine from Eiffel Tower

the cruise down Seine was slightly disappointing cos it was so cold we had to stay in the sheltered area of the boat which means no photos were taken.

we had tickets on board the hop-on hop-off bus for the next 2 days, so we went round Paris just sitting on the bus

River Seine

Pont des Arts

for us, another highlight was walking along Champs-Élysées cos we heard it mentioned a couple of times on Running Man. =X
i insisted on pronouncing it as Champs Ee Lee Sees,
she pronounced it as Shorm Ger Lee Jay, the way the cast did in the show,
turned out, we were both wrong, and the (apparently) correct pronunciation is Shorm Zer Lee Zey
=.="

Champs-Élysées at night

they sell super branded stuff. so we didn't even walk into any shop.
and LV has an entire building, which looks like it is made out of gold.

in the end, we spent most of our money on food along Champs-Élysées.
=) warm soup in a cold day is very shiok.
even if the tiny bowl of soup costs €5.

soup along Champs-Élysées

it was so shiok that we went back the next day and bought more.

1 good thing about Paris is that it is hard to get lost, cos there are landmarks at every corner. 
a statue here, an arc there. Napoleon must love statues. 


so after our bus pass expired, we walked everywhere.
and everywhere we walked, we ate.

Eiffel tower can be seen from everywhere

there was this bakery right outside our hotel, and in total, we must have eaten about 5, 6 croissants, each. it was just so soft and fluffy!!!

and of course we had to visit the Eiffel tower again during the day.

product placement under Eiffel Tower

which reminds me, it was not here, but there was this place that sold a small bottle of coke for €4!!!!! 
daylight robbery lo.

it had been raining the whole day, so the place wasn't too crowded.. so i could do this!

where is Eiffel tower? THERE!!

the last day we went to the La Vallée Village for factory outlet shopping.
we were hoping it would be like US outlets, but it was similar to the London outlets we visited.

she bought a packet of socks from Nike,
i bought a Longchamps bag for my mother,
and within minutes of posting a photo on instagram, a friend got us to buy a Longchamp bag for her.

it was very cheap, like €40 for 1 of those typical Longchamp foldable bags?


the same night was the visit to the Louvre

cos of the camera settings, none of my images taken inside the Louvre would do justice to the place, so i won't upload them.

although neither of us are art-y people, we still enjoyed the tour of the Louvre.
it is just not quite the same thing meeting Mona face to face. 
plus we saw Jesus from a baby till He grew up.

so that is our Paris trip.
it was an eye opener and for the most part, we had a lot of fun. i think 5 days 4 night is just about the right time to spend there. long enough that we didn't have to rush from place to place, and not too long that we didn't know what else to do.

however, i don't think it'll be a place we visit again. this kinda place, experience once in a lifetime enough le. =)

Next up, London from 24th to 27th for their Boxing Day Sales, 
and then HOME SWEET HOME!!!!!