Paris-London Trip - Day 5

The 5th day is Wednesday, on Wednesday and Friday, Louvre Museum will open until 9pm and for other day, it will only open until 5pm. So, today is our museum day. If you are museum maniac, you can get museum pass and enter to almost all the museum in Paris for free. If I’m not mistaken, the two days museum pass cost €32. You may check the detail here. Well, it definitely save some entrance fees if you plan to visit other museums in Paris. However, my target is Louvre Museum and the entrance fee is only €9, so not worth for me to get the pass. Anyway, it is very much depend on how you plan your Paris visit.

Actually we plan to visit Rodin museum, but I know I’m going to take few hours if I went there and I may miss the Louvre Museum. So, I told my wife that we go to visit Picasso before go to Louvre Museum because I heard they can allow you to visit the corridor for only €1, but I’m not sure how true is that cause I can’t found the detail at the office website.

We went to Picasso Museum and it requires some walking since it is located in the residence area. When we reached there, we found that the museum is closed for renovation and will only open on year 2012. Too bad.

:(

So, we went back to the metro and went to Louvre Museum.

It’s a huge place and lots of people. We took almost ½ hours to get our tickets. The ticket didn’t include audio guide and you can rent an audio guide from the counter for €6. As usual, I don’t like those guides because it’s like reading a long history book and taking lots of time to tell you the story behind those collections.

I try to search the web about those famous collections in the Louvre Museum, hope it can give some explanations on the photos I’d took.

Milo of Croton

I believe you know this, I remember that when I'm at form 3, I study about the world history and one of the most famous subject is the Code of Hammurabi and I finally saw it with my bare eyes.

 Law Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon

Don't ask me, I don't know what is this also :p

Sarcophagus box of Ramesses III

One of the most famous collections in Louvre

Aphrodite, known as the Venus de Milo

Imperial group as Mars and Venus

Fighting Warrior

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

Mercury and Psyche

Dying Slave by Michelangelo

The Slave by Michelangelo

I can't remember what is this also :p

The Death of Sardanapalus

The Intervention of the Sabine Women

The Meal at the House of Simon

The Wedding Feast at Cana

This is another most famous collections in Louvre

Winged Victory of Samothrace

The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Joséphine in Notre-Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804

If you read my blog, you will remember this drawing, I love it so much. Empress Josephine is a very beautiful lady, too bad is that the story about Napoleon and Josephine is not a happy ending.

Again, the most famous drawing

Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo (Used to known as Mona Lisa)

My wife ^^, she is my tour guide also

We “finished” the museum around 8pm and after took some photos outside with the pyramid.

After resting in the park, we decided to go to have a look on the Eiffel Tower at night. You maybe surprise that I didn’t took much of night photo in this trip. Well, in April, the sun come out very early, even on 6am, it’s look like noon, and the sun start to go down around 9pm. So, if I want to take night photo, I may need to wait until 9pm and to get a really dark night shot, its start around 10pm.

Eiffel at night

Paris-London Trip - Day 4

Day 4 is a very excited day for us, cause we doing to Eiffel, the icon of Paris. We wake up early in the morning to prevent jam with those crazy tourists. There are four escalator going up to Eiffel, but trust me, it is much faster going up using staircase. It’s not much people when we reach Eiffel, but not much doesn’t mean very little. We bought a ticket to going up to 1st and 2nd platform thru staircase. If you think it’s free to use the staircase, then you are wrong, because nothing is free in Paris. It cost me around €4 to use their staircase.

The Eiffel Tower

While climbing up to the tower, you can see some nice view around the Eiffel. Pity my wife, she got acrophobia :)

View from the Eiffel Tower

Talking about Eiffel, according to the wiki, it is the most visited paid monument in the world. It’s a pure steel structure tower, built from 18,038 pieces of puddle iron and 2.5 million rivets. Salute to the engineer who designs it, Gustave Eiffel. Well, he also designs the other world icon of New York, the armature for the Statue of Liberty.

Going up to the top platform can only thru the life which cost around €5. I need to pull my wife to going up there :p

After the Eiffel, we walk around the Seine River because we want to see another great statue, the Statue of Liberty. It’s replicas of the New York Statue of Liberty and located at Île des Cygnes on Seine River. Very quiet place and not much people knew that there is a Statue of Liberty on this “island”.

Statue of Liberty, opps... my wife :p

Status of Liberty and my wife ^^

The next stop is La Concorde. It’s a public square in Paris, and its full name is call Place de la Concorde, mean the harmonic square. The original name of this place is Place Louis XV. During the French revolution, it was called Place de la Revolution, and King Louis XVI was executed using guillotine at this place.

The Obelisk of Luxor is one standing on the middle of the square, and you can see the Arc de Triomphe clearly from the square. My wife notices a black shadow behind the Arc de Triomphe and ask me what is that. After looking at the map, I suddenly hate Napoleon. It’s the Grande Arche located at La Defense, which is about 7km from la Concorde.

You can see the Arc de Triomphe and the black shadow behind it is the Grande Arche 

The Luxor Obelisk and Eiffel Tower

Luxor Obelisk is a gift from Egypt by Muhammad Ali pasha, the Wali and self-proclaimed Khedive of Egypt. It is originally standing at the entrance of Luxor Temple. Muhammad Ali was offering two obelisks to King Louis-Philippe, but due to the limit of technology that time, only one obelisk is moving to Paris, leaving the other obelisk at Egypt due to too huge to move. Hope, some day I can go to Egypt and capture the second obelisk.

Next to la Concorde is the park call Jardin des Tuileries, the Tuileries Garden. It’s a huge garden and next to the garden is the one of the most famous museum, the Louvre Musuem.

The Kiss by Rodin

We walk along the Seine River and reached Pont Alexandre III, there are two sculptures located at two side of the bridge. Next to the bridge is the Grand Palais (Big Palace) and Petit Palais (Small Palace). Grand Palais is an exhibition hall and Petit Palais is a museum. Didn’t enter to both of the building because it’s already 5pm and most of the Paris museums close at 5pm.

The sculpture at Pont Alexandre III

The another sculpture at Pont Alexandre III

The Petit Palais

Further walking down the street, we reached to Avenue des Champs Elysees, where LV building is located. Better use some excuse to divert wife’s eyeing. So, I suggest to my wife that we going to look for China town in Paris.

Maybe I should call it Asian town, because that area is basically mixed of Chinese and Islamic shops. The area is near Belleville. There is not significant demarcation of the China town but you can see lots of Chinese writing shop lot around the area, and also lots of halal food, Indian food around that area. At that area, we discovered the sister of Statue of Liberty, the Statue of Democracy.

We bought a box of strawberry and it’s so cheap. The only food that I think worth to buy in Paris is the strawberry, for only €1.50 , you can enjoy 500g of fresh strawberry, much much much cheaper that those strawberry at Cameron highland.

It's Friday

Today is Friday and I'm 6000km away from my home. Ya, I'm back to the desert after almost a year since last summer. The weather is hot but everyone still doing their best to get the job done, at least those sohai still struggle to end this stupid project. Will be here for sometime, definitely will miss my wife and the food in Bolehland.

Paris-London Trip - Day 3

We wake up quite early today to go to the very famous cathedral – the Notre Dame. Notre dame means our lady in French. You can follow the wiki to know more about this beautiful cathedral. The beautiful painting of coronation of Napoleon and his beautiful wife Josephine by Jacques-Louis David took place in this cathedral.

The entry to the cathedral is free; however you need to pay for the audio guide if you want to know about the building. Like other cathedral, the interior is beautiful and spacious. The area is quite dime and no tripod is allowed in the building, therefore it become very difficult to take photo. Flash light is not allowed in most of the building although some peoples still pretend do not know how to read.

After visit the cathedral. We went to the outside to take some photo. The weather is so chill until I can’t hold my camera.

At the left hand of the building, you can climb up to the Notre Dame tower and have a nice bird’s eye view. The fee to climb up to the tower is €6.50 and there are lots of people queuing. Due to my injured legs :_( I can only see people queuing to go up.

After the Notre Dame we walk around the area. There are few famous building around the area. The Hotel de Ville is the city hall of Paris. La Conciergerie, the royal palace and prison in Paris. The most famous prisoner is the Queen Marie Antoinette (the one that we visited at Versailles). The La Sainte-Chapelle, the holy chapel. All those places need entry fees between €6 and €10. Due to time limit and we are not a history mania, so we didn’t enter to those places.

After walking around the Notre Dame area, we went to Pantheon. Pantheon mean Every god. Marie Curie is buried at Pantheon.

After walking around the Pantheon area, we decided to visit Disneyland because I can’t walk anymore. So we rest in the train that go to Disneyland.

Disneyland is located at east Paris at zone 5, and there is a Eurostar stop. Lots of European brings their family to have day trip. We only took some photo in front the Disneyland Park since my wife already being to Disneyland at USA and I’m not Disney fan, but most important is that the ticket is around €60 per person :s. I heard that their Disneyland is worst than Sunway Lagoon theme park. I still not yet went to Sunway Lagoon before although it is so near to me :p, maybe I will find one day bring my wife to have some fun while my heart still can take those challenges.

So, after Disney, we went to a mall nearby. There got a factory outlet, but the price only allow me doing window shopping.

The next stop, we went to La Defense, La Defense was build to commemorate the soldiers had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian war. But now, it is a business district. You can see all tall buildings around this area. One of the most beautiful buildings that you wouldn’t miss is the Grande Arche. As an engineer, I hate this building, but as a tourist I love it.

After visit the Grande Arche, we went to visit one of the must visit icon of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe. It was builds on a 12-ways roundabout. It’s a great building.

Next to the Arc de Triomphe is the very famous street called Avenue des Champs-Elysees. You can found almost all luxury brands along this street. One of the wouldn’t miss brand is the LV. It has its own building. For those who going to visit to Paris, remember to bring more money or get a higher credit limit credit card.

We went to Hard Rock Paris to get t-shirt for my wife and have a dinner there before went back to hotel.

The unwritten facts about Bolehland

Very funny joke, shall able to cheer your day.

NATIONAL EXCUSE FOR HAIR LOSS:
Ajinomoto

NATIONAL INSTANT FOOD:
Maggi Mee.

NATIONAL BREAKFAST:
Nasi Lemak

NATIONAL LUNCH:
Nasi Ayam

NATIONAL SUPPER:
Roti Canai & Teh Tarik

NATIONAL EXCUSE FOR BEING LATE:
Traffic Jam.

NATIONAL CONDOM:
None. Most Malaysians still feel embarrassed buying condoms.
So they rushed into a 7-11, hurriedly grab the nearest pack, any pack, pay and leave before the cashier can even blink an eye

NATIONAL FRUIT FOR INDUCING MENSTRUATION:
Pineapple.

NATIONAL APHRODISIAC DRINK:
Stout. Many Malaysian men swear by it. But then after a few pints they start swearing at everything...

NATIONAL FAKE ILLNESS FOR GETTING MC (MEN):
Food Poisoning.

NATIONAL FAKE ILLNESS FOR GETTING MC (WOMEN):
Menstrual Pain

NATIONAL EXCUSES GIVEN BY WOMEN WHEN REFUSING SEX:
Headache, kids not asleep, maid not asleep, mother-in-law around, early appointment, food not digested yet, aircond not cold enough, aircond too cold, nail polish not dry yet, forgot to take the pill, sleepy, stomach cramps, period, haven't remove make-up, haven't shower, no water supply, going to watch ' Santa Barbara ', depress, no mood, etc...

NATIONAL EXCUSES GIVEN BY MEN WHEN REFUSING SEX:
None. Malaysian men never refuse sex.

NATIONAL CURE FOR DIARRHEA:
Cap Kaki Tiga. Down one bottle with warm water and you are all
'dried up'.

NATIONAL CURE FOR HEADACHES:
Panadol. The 'cure for all'. If it fails we have another secret weapon
: Tiger Balm.

NATIONAL CURE FOR NAUSEA:
Moh Fah Kor.

NATIONAL CURE FOR DIZZINESS:
Minyak Angin Cap Kapak.

NATIONAL CAUSE OF DIZZINESS (FOR YUPPIES):
Happy Hours.

NATIONAL INSTANT CURE FOR DIZZINESS (FOR YUPPIES):
The sight of a police road block.

NATIONAL WATCH:
Petaling Street 'boutique' watches

NATIONAL WATCH FOR YUPPIES:
Petaling Street 'boutique' Rolex

NATIONAL RICE COOKER:
'NATIONAL' Rice Cooker

NATIONAL RUBBISH DUMP:
Anywhere. As long as it is not your house.

NATIONAL MOST MIS-PRONOUNCED NAME:
Carrefour. Sometimes even pronounced as Carry 4!
On second thoughts, why bother pronouncing those French brands like Peugeot, Renault or Citroen correctly.

I think it sounds better, when the local mechanics say 'Pew Jeot'.
When I was in school, Milo was always 'Mee Lo', now that I'm sophisticated, I say 'My Lo'.
So don't be embarrassed saying 'Carry 4' when the Mat Sallehs shamelessly pronounce orang utan as ‘renguten’.

Paris-London Trip - Day 2

Day 2 is Sunday, so we went to one of the must visit place in Paris, Chateau de Versailles, or in English, the palace of Versailles. Going to this area is very easy, just taking the RER line C until the last stop and there are very clear road signs lead you to the palace. If you plan to visit this palace, few things you should take note.

1. Only Saturday and Sunday the park will have fountain show. Therefore, on weekend, the palace will charge you if you want to go in to their park.
2. There are three areas in this palace; the main palace, the palace’s park and the queen’s park. You need three different tickets to enter these areas, or you can purchase the full ticket which cost €25.
3. Go there early, because it may take up to 1 hour to purchase the ticket if you go there late. You can pre-purchase the ticket in Paris tourist center, or the tourist center near to the palace to prevent jam with people in the palace’s ticket hall. Trust me, go there as early as you can.
4. Prepare your energy.

Once we reach there, we went to the ticket hall immediately, and lucky enough I manage to get my ticket around 20 minutes and once I look back the Q, I believe those people going to wait for another hour to get their ticket :p

So, we went to collect the audio guide and proceed to the palace. Well, if you love art, you will love this palace. Lots of drawing, status, art piece in this palace. The audio guide will explain every single corner of the palace and you may spend 1 whole day if you plan to listen to all the guides. So choose those interesting item and listen cause I think the guide is too long :s like reading the whole history book.

Can't remember the name of this painting, but it's very famous. Will try to recall, old man poor memory :_(

I love mirror trick :p

I love this painting, you will see this painting again in Louvre museum.

I'm tired of listening to the audio guide, photograph my pretty wife more fun :)

Again mirror trick.

^.^ my lovely wife

Once finish visits the palace, the second part of the visit is to enter their park and once I enter I start to hate the king. The stupid Louis XIV build suck a huge park in his palace and unfortunately, my leg is not yet recovered from the 21km marathon run. I don’t know how I finish the park, but I just hate the king for building this stupid huge park.

I start to hate the king after I see the map :(

The park.

^.^ my lovely also my pretty model

There are lots of fountain in the park and there got timing for the fountain show. If I’m not mistaken, morning section is between 11am to 12.30pm and the afternoon section is from 3.30pm until 5pm. So plan your visit.

One of the most famous fountain in the palace's park.

At the other corner end of the park is the road to the queen park, Le Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. It is around 1km away from the park :s and you can choose to take the train which will cost you few euro or you can rent the bicycle which also cost you few euro. Nothing is free here.

The Queen, Marie-Antoinette, is wife of Loius XVI, and she builds a small palace near to the main palace. The palace is slightly small as compare to the main palace, but the stupid garden is again, very very huge :s. We can’t finish going round the park because time is not enough and we can’t walk any more. If you went there on summer, try to take bicycle and cycle around the area (no in the queen’s park :p)

Taken at the queen's park.

There are some food stalls in the main palace’s park and on the way to the queen palace. You can try to bring your lunch box and enjoy your meal in the park with your love one and enjoy the beautiful scenery and imaging you are the king and she is the queen. A must visit place if you visit to Paris.

^.^ me and my wife

So, we went back to Paris city with very tired body and my injured leg :_(