After two months of intense research and excitement, the day was finally here!! I was bound for Paris by Eurostar! Yay.... my taxi arrived 15 minutes early but being a Hiing (a hybrid of Hii and Ting) I was ready anyway. So I got to King's Cross St Pancras with oodles of time to spare. My train was leaving at 6.18 am and I was there by 5 am.
The station was very quiet for once.
The train ride was uneventful and I got to Paris just before 10 am local time. I had done my research and booked a hotel that was relatively cheap for Parisian standards but also on a direct route from Gare du Nord the Eurostar station.
Say hello to Hotel Des Trois Gares. It had the word "3" in its name which is probably why I kept thinking it's 3 stars. I don't think it is hehe. But it is in a good location being close to Notre Dame, but eons away from the glamorous Champs Elysées.
Quiet street that my hotel is on.
I was very early but thankfully they had a room available already for me to check into. There was the cutest elevator in the hotel. It was seriously just enough to fit me and my little cabin luggage and even then, it was a tight squeeze. It was pink and you have to open what looked like a normal door to get in, press the floor you wanted and a security barrier will close before it ricketted slowly to the floor.
My room... the bed was so short that my feet hung off it sometimes..... but still, I think it was larger than the room I once had in Hong Kong... you definitely couldn't swing a dead cat in THAT room.
I dumped my bags in my room and went wandering. I had my winter jacket and layers of clothing since I came from London but Paris had beautiful weather for the 3 days that I was there and I got away with a singlet and a thin cardigan. Parisians on the other hand, were all dressed in fashionable layers with smart jackets and a chic scarf - men and women.
I decided to just wander around aimlessly for my first day so I followed the waters for a bit. This was coming up to ile Saint Louis, one of two little islands on the Seine. The shop that sells the best ice cream in Paris is on this island so i decided to go looking for it... yes at 10 in the morning. But alas, I didn't see it because I forgot the name of the place and there were so many darn ice cream and sweets shops everywhere.
I ended up at the Latin Quarter which was charming and full of colour.
There were loads of these little kebab shops all along the streets of the Quarter.
That was two whole hogs being roasted in a shop front.
I went with a kebab in a baguette... the baguette because I was in Paris and the kebab because I was starving and well, I wanted chips. Alas, the baguette was hard. Why do the French like it so much?
Even diet coke was chic in Paris.
After my lunch, I continued my walk and ended up on Saint Germain Boulevard. I spotted a Sephora which I had been looking forward to. Unfortunately, it was disappointing and no where near as good as the Americans ones even though Sephora is a french company. Booooo!
St Germain was boring but it was mainly because I couldn't for the life of me find the pocket of shops that the guidebook mentioned. I was very very bad with a conventional map after being used to my Iphone map!!! So I gave up and jumped on the very efficient Metro, bound for Saint Lazare where Paris's premier department stores were located. It was also only two metro stops from Champs Elysées so I thought I could continue on to there.
I was desperate for a bathroom break and couldn't find a freebie so had to pay Euro 1.50 to use this luxurious one in Printemps, one of the huge department store. It was not worth it heheh.
Then I had to wander into Lafayette to have a look at the famous domed ceiling and it was gorgeous but very hard to photograph!
The place was crawling with tourists and every designer boutique in the department stores had a queue made up of Asian tourists *shakes fist* so I couldn't go in. My bestie (hi bestie) retorted "Aren't you one of them???' when I whined about this to her. Touché!
I then carried on to Rue Cambon because I wanted to perve at the original store Coco Chanel set up .. got lost a million times on the way obviously so I had a crepe break in one of the many many many creperies. I had a nutella crepe with stratecialla ice cream. Yes, I finished it all.
I chanced upon the Pantheon on my walk.
But more importantly, Laduree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course, with the omnipresent touristy queue. Darn it. I didn't bother waiting since I've had it in London.
One of the display windows had Hello Kitty on its packaging. Darn cat is everywhere.
I think this was Galerie Vivienne maybe and something was obviously happening because there were huge crowds just hanging around and paparazzi with their long lens cameras. I knew it was something fashion-related as it was Fashion Week in Paris.
Some dude being interviewed.
Some fashionable young things waiting for the show to start.
It was the Vivienne Westwood show which ironically, is a British designer.
I continued on and walked past the Palais Royal. I didn't realise what was coming up and just happened to cross the street to the side it was on. All of a sudden I heard a "Madam, please move back"... wow security was so tight that you weren't allowed on the same side of the street in case you were a loony wanting to assassinate the President.
Equivalent of the British guards at their sentry boxes.
I got to the crossroads where Champs Elysées was and it looked ordinary... apart from being huge. I saw no Chanel or Louis Vuitton? So I picked the road that looked the most exciting, thinking that must be the right one... it wasn't haha..
See the tiny white dress? That was a bride and groom getting their wedding photos taken. I saw sooo many pairs of newly weds doing that over the weekend. I mocked them in my head for being completely cliched of course.
I kept wandering around aimlessly and happened upon a parade of some sorts. I still have no idea what it was about.
Group of African (?) people dancing tribally.
I spotted La Tour Eiffel for the first time!!!!!!!!
Dude djing and the ladies in red tops were skipping on a rope.
Ladies in colourful ethnic gear.
A long row of people beating drums.
After that, I wandered back to the hotel and fell into an exhausted sleep by about 9 pm. I had walked for an astonishing 8 hours or so !!!!!!! Day two coming right up.
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