Lourve Garden

The Lourve pyramid

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

The Obelisk of Luxor

Champ Elysees

Laduree. Bukan main Su tunjuk pastries.

Arc de Triomphe

Gallery of Apollo

Mona Lisa

The Lourve. Huge!

The next day, we have our own made breakfast and head out to Eiffel at 6.45 a.m. You can only imagine the temperature - I checked it was 2-3 degC - this time we were prepared with gloves. Berasap mulut kitorg. We head to the Strasbourg Saint Denis Trocadero for the Eiffel.

We were among the first in line. It was freezing and CB managed to buy some crepes from the vendors. While we were waiting, several gpysy girls tried to approached us with some sort of petition, as I have stated in the Tips and Tricks post. We brushed them off several times pretending not to speak English. Not only us, the Korean tourist behind us are also being approached by them.

Queue at the ticket office

At 9 a.m, the ticket counter open and we go through the security before reaching the ticket counter. I managed to get a youth price on mine. We then proceed to the elevator to the second floor. The first floor of Eiffel was closed for some construction.

The wind was blowing while we were up there. The view was just magnificent. You can see the whole Paris from up there. We managed to 'hide' behind the structure to protect ourselves from the wind. Well, Paris is beautiful in its own way.  We then made our way down so we can take pictures from the ground.

A beautiful blue sky

The Seine

We then proceed back to the Pallais de Chaillot or Trocadero for some photos. We then walked to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, passing through the Winston Churchill statue. We crossed the famous Alexander II bridge but we did not went up to the Army Musee.

Trocadero

Eiffel from Trocadero

Grand Palais

Pont Alexander II

After long day of walking, we proceed back to the hotel for lunch and prayers. Afternoon, we take the metro to the Paris Mosque. We intended to pray there. The mosque have different layout than our typical Asian mosques, so we cannot find the place to take our ablution. Thankfully, a Muslim brother help us out. The interior of the Paris mosque is filled with tiny colourful tiles and a water fountain. Beside the mosque, there is a cafe selling sweets and some Turkish delights. Well, it was too sweet for my taste.

Mosque interior

Reminds me of Al Hambra

Sweets at the cafe

Mosque's cafe

After the mosque, we went to the Jardin des Plantes, a walking distant from the mosque. It is a 17th century botanical garden. In the garden, there is a Revolution Gallery. There was different kind of flower in the garden. From roses, lavender to different kind of tulips. Jakun lah kitorang nampak bunga bunga cantik yang tak ada lat malaysia. 



We then proceed to our last stop which is a sunset in Mont-Marte Sacre Coeur. We buy some dinner ahead. Konon nak makan atlas bukit sambil tengok sunset gitu.

This 18th century basilica are still used as a church. It was one of the landmark in Paris. Situated uphill, you can the the whole Paris from up here. Climbing is not easy perhaps because we were out of shape. We managed to go inside the church and sat down for 20 minutes. The congregation has just started.

Inside the church

The Basilica

Being a Muslim and an Asian, we truly respect every place of worship. Sadly, things are not the same here. Youth making noise in and out of the church, youth getting drunk and drinking just mere steps away from the church. Where I come from, every place of worship should be treated with respect.

Going down from the hill, a drunk man grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side. He was trying to tie a friendship bracelet. I was scared to stop, I yank my hand and walk as quickly as possible away from the place. Su was shocked as what has happened. I brushed it off quickly and we went to shop for some souvenir at the market. Memang takut sang at masa tu. Sebab Nadia dengan Su jalan lat belakang. Tapi disebabkan day di warned awal2 oleh CB, kami extra cautious. Masa dis tarik tu, Nadia cepat2 tarik tang an dan jalan laju2.

Face it, the most exciting day is indeed your travel day. Our Emirates Flight was scheduled at 6 p.m MYT and we were thereby 2 p.m to check in our luggage. Check in went smoothly and by 6 p.m we were air borne. We arrived in Dubai as per scheduled to have our 6 hours long of transit. Be noted that if you have transit for more than 4 hours, you are entitled for a free meal coupon from the airport. Please proceed to the transfer counter to get the coupon - you can eat from chain restaurant such as McD, KFC and Texas Chicken.

Our flight to Paris was at 3 a.m Dubai time and we boarded the glorious A380 to Paris. It was huge, spacious, comfortable for an Economy class. For me, Emirates has one of the best airline foods and entertainment system.

We arrived Charles De Gaulle Aeroport at 7.50 a.m. Immigration was a breeze. Risau juga sebab Muslim kan, but Alhamdulillah diorang tak tanya pun. Our 1st hurdle in France was when the luggage collecting bag was stuck for 30 minutes - the space is small people, imagine how crowded. We then proceed to the airport train station to purchase our tickets and our Paris Metro pass. The RER only has 2 trains that serve different zone. CB was unsure which to take but we managed to confirm it with one of the passenger. When we boarded, a couple of ladies - tourist like us was separated because they hesitate to come on board - poor lady.

CB was in charge for Paris, so we just follow! We navigate through the metro system via gate Du Nord to get to the Chateau Rouge station - 50 m from hotel. Okay, this is when we learn the hard way. Metro in Paris are deep underground unlike Malaysian's LRT. Hence no escalators! Me and CB have to lift our 20 kg luggage each down and up the flight of stairs! We hate stairs since then. Berat gila, bayangkan dengan backpack Nadia yang 7 kg kat belakang. We reached the hotel and left our luggage so we can have lunch while checking in.

This is our room at Best Western

We ate kebab at the next block of our hotels - there's a lot of kebab place here. We shop for some food/snacks at the Carrefour next to the hotel. At 2 pm, we checked in, perform prayers and out again.

We proceed to Les Halles station for our 1st visit which is an old church - Paroisse Saint-Eustache. Build in 13th century, the Gothic structure of this church exterior is the same as the infamous Notre Dame. It is beautiful. This church was a huge complex and there are several modern art sculpture outside. We then stopped at Chatelet station to visit the Saint-Jacques tower. This used to be a church in 19th century - now only the tower left.

The Saint-Eustache Church in Les Halles. Look at that fine detail of the church.

Saint Jacques Tower.

We then proceed to Cite station to visit the Marche Aux Fleur - Flower market that is quite near to the Notre Dame. They offer a whole range of flowers and birds here. You can smell the scent of flowers metres away from the market.

The flower market

We walk to the Notre Dame and enters it. Notre Dame is situated by the Seine river and inside the church, you can see the beautiful stained glass of Notre Dame. The crowd was okay and there is no congregation happening there. We sat for a few minutes before coming out to the the Love Lock Bridge. Tak bawak padlock, mampu tengok padlock je. Dari sekecil sampai la sebesar gedabak padlocknya. 

The church facing the Seine

The famous Notre Dame. Quasimodo was not home, sadly.

Love Lock Bridge

We have our first excursion which is the Seine River cruise. We walk from Notre Dame to the other side of Seine to have dinner at a Turkish restaurant. I was planning to use the toilet here but cancelled after founding out it was flooded. We walk at the street where there were many souvenir shops. We stopped to buy few souvenirs. Here I bought 2 tshirts for 2 cousins and buy some magnets.

The river cruise was held at sunset, which is beautiful, unfortunately a little spoiled by the herd of school boys and girls having a field trip. My God, I cannot even here the commentator. Thankfully we can recognise some of the landmarks. We passed Notre Dame, Grand Palais, Lourve and of course the Eiffel Tower. This is our first sight! Of course everyone was excited to take pictures and videos.

The boat

Eiffel Tower during sunset

The weather in Paris is so unforgiving that evening, I think it dropped to below 5 degC. We did not wear gloves or any jumper - it was freezing cold and we soon regret it. I was numb all evening. After that, we walk and board the metro to the hotel so we can rest and have a good sleep for the next day.

Kitorang suka ajuk pronunciation dalam Metro. Yelah, Bahasa French ni, ejaan dia tak sama dengan bunyi. Boleh kata setiap station, mesti kitorg sebut2. Agaknya orang Paris pandang pelik je kan.