Saturday, October 1, 2011

Another Summer Trip Day 3 - Paris, City Tour

Today was our last day in Paris. The not-so-good thing was we had to travel with our backpacks. You know how aching it could be. We left the hotel around 8 am after having a simple breakfast in our room (buns & mineral water). We had a lot of place to visit today, mainly focussing in the city centre. All places are reachable by metro, so it was very convenient and easy to travel around the city.

Here, I've listed the places that I visited with my friends during the travel.


Arc de Triumph (Arc de Triomphe)

This was our first stop for today. We took the metro to Champs de Elysees and the arc is located very near to the station exit. This arc is very huge! We actually could climb the arc by using stairs but I didn't think we had enough time. Wanji said the spiral stairs is very long, akan semput bila sampai atas tu. It's not free by the way, had to pay fee to enter the stairs.

This historical monument is situated in the middle of traffic roundabout. So it's quite impossible to cross the road and took photos under it. We just did it from a distance but the view was already great.





Grand Palace (Grand Palais)

I'm not sure where this is a real palace or just a historical building. From the source I read, it is actually a historical site consisting of exhibition hall and museums. We didn't enter the building though. We walked until we saw a bridge with many poles which have golden statues on them. Across the bridge, there's another big building. Since the building looks nice, we walked there without knowing what it is. Then we saw a signboard. It's a hotel. So we made a u-turn back to the river. We were going to take Batobus from here.

Batobus is a chartered boat service which stops at many tourists attraction. The price is €9 for students (one day pass).





Trocadero & Eiffel Tower

We took the boat to Eiffel Tower stop. Then we walked to Trocadero to snap photos with Eiffel Tower from far. Trocadero is located at a higher place than the ground, so the view was great! There's a lot of souvenir sellers there selling them at a cheap price. It's already cheap, but could go cheaper than that. A lot of doves here as well because there were people feeding them with breads.





Musee de Orsay

When the Batobus stopped here, we didn't know whether we need to get off or not since we didn't know what was this place. We just gambled and got off the boat to walk around this place. Musee de Orsay is actually a museum. There are a lot of museum in Paris, but we didn't enter any of it. Saving gitu..

Few statues could be observed here. There are horse, hippo and a row of female warriors statues. Anis bought a few paintings here. They are quite nice although it's a printing, not a real painting. The oil painting ones cost a bit expensive.





St-Germain-des-pres

Another place that we didn't know what's around here. We found out that there is a France Institute building located here. There's a bridge full of padlocks as well. People here believes that the padlocks symbolises eternal love because I could see names on the padlocks. The view from the bridge was great with the river split into two routes.





Notre Dame

Well, I believe most of us used to watch Hunchback cartoon back in 90's. Well, here we are! There's a massive amount of gargoyle statues on top of the Notre Dame, only that they are not alive like in the cartoon. Notre Dame is actually a big church. We entered the church and it is very big and spacious. Need to walk in silence to respect the people inside. There were lots of candles inside this building and could be purchased for €2 each.




Welcome to Istanbul Restaurant

We had our lunch here. Since we couldn't find other Halal restaurant near Notre Dame, we just entered this restaurant even though the food price was kinda expensive. But not too expensive like an exclusive restaurant. We had sandwiches like usual for €5.50-6.00 each. Since we took a long time to decide what to eat, the waiter was feeling emo towards us. Benci kau!




Souvenir Shops

For cheap souvenirs, please shop at Notre Dame area. Other souvenir shops in other area were not very cheap. There are tonnes of souvenir shops here, just go inside any shop. We shopped at a row of shops along the main road and the price was okay. It's still reasonable for me to buy a lot of souvenirs. =)

I bought one more t-shirt, miniature, keyrings and magnets. Oh yea, and I lost my Batobus ticket here. What a bad moment! I had to travel by metro on my own without Anis, Cipak & Fariz.



Musee de Louvre

Alright, now I travelled alone. The other three took the Batobus while I took metro. I reached Louvre in about 10 minute while they arrived about 30 minutes later. The metro stopped inside a shopping mall. There is a mini Arc de Triumph around here, just near the Louvre Museum. We took photos with the huge glass pyramid surrounded by pretty buildings.



Jardin des Tuileries

Uhuh, while waiting for my friends to arrive, I took a quick stroll in this garden. It's located in the opposite of the Louvre Museum. The plants and trees are arranged beautifully and there are several naked statues as well. There are a few fountains here where people gather around them, sat back and relax.


We prayed at the garden and then hurried to the metro station. We had to catch bus to Beauvais Airport because it's time to go home.



2 comments:

willg said...

Great pictures, it looks like you had a great time. I'm going this summer and I'm trying to figure out whether or not a Paris City Pass would be a worthwhile investment, did you have one?

Hazwan Samian said...

Thanks! I didn't have that Paris City Pass. We didn't enter any museums and we just visited the recommended places only because we only had one day to tour aound the city. We took Metro most of the times because it's quite efficient. Usually we bought 10 Metro tickets for 12 Euros and I think it's quite worthy.

I hope you will your trip this summer. Paris is really a great place. :)

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