Bonne Année once again!
This post is a little late to go up, but heck, who’s ever on time with things these days?
Very frosty, as well as a hard landing at Zurich Airport for a short stopover, after a thirteen hour flight from hectic Hong Kong.
Honestly, I thought I’d have more photos from Paris, but no… Some of these were taken by my friends. (Above, my group of friends in Paris)
Then it’s onwards to celebrate the coming of the New Year in the beautiful city of Paris!
Our chosen vantage point; Champ de Mars, where fellow celbrators were a-plenty.
Sadly, there were no fireworks this year, (which served an incentive for others to bring plenty of their own) but the ever sparkly ‘Tour Eiffel’ is always a nice sight
A much later on view of the Tower in the night when there are traffic jams and broken bottles scattered throughout the streets.
But NYE is just a small part for why I’m here…
FOOD (particualarly patisseries) was a huge pull for me coming to Europe. (apart from the fact a number of friends are here)
And yes, food from corner bakeries, and for the most part, in supermarkets are quality and delicious. (Except for milk… It seems rather hard to buy just ‘fresh’ milk, whether full-cream, 2% or skim…)
This Niscose from a small cafe vaguely around the site of Notre Dame, was absolutely munch-alicious. Anchovy, tuna, potato, egg, lettuce, green beans, tomato, olive and peppers. If memory serves, about 10 Euros? Which I’d delightedly pay for again.
Being the holiday season, Paris, along with almost every other major European city (so it seems) has large ice skating rinks in their city centres, often in front of Town Halls or bustling market places.
Down the Champs Elysee, the Christmas markets sell tons of various mulled wines, soups and other french-style street food, along with random books and jewleries.
The avenues and boulevards that are the life-blood of Paris are lined with foliage and shrubbery along the sides.
In between boutique shops and the creperies, Paris being pretty much the arts capital of the world; Street art can be found on walls, signs and generally wherever there’s space throughout the city.
Along one of the major boulevards that direct into Bastille, camera stores can be found selling digital, film, vintage and enthusiasts from the many generations image capturing technology has been around.
The large pole that is Bastille.
One of the most contraversial pieces of mordern arhcitecture, the pompE2 (as I like to call it, because it’s such a post-modern name) is one of my favourite buildings in Paris, for having the insides on the outsides.
Much later on my Parisian week long excursion, a daytime trip to the Eiffel. (well, late evening)
What immortal hand or eye. Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
After a lot of stairs, (yes we chose the stairs over elevator) the view from the first floor observation deck and just a small part of Paris below. (For some reason, this bit looks like Canberra to me)
The same area, at night, from the top level observation deck. (Top of the tower pretty much)
One of the things about Europe is the lack of skyscrapers. In some ways it’s kind of nicer as you have the Eifel Tower centrepiece (though it’s not in the centre) provides an amazing view of the low-rise metropolis below.
The Lourve’s iconic square glass-pyramid. I wonder if Professor Langdon is around…?
The Lourve is an amazing piece of interior architecture, and personally, it is so much more mesmerising than the thousands of items throughout the mueseum.
Especially the hall where the Mona Lisa is kept and the Mona Lisa itself.
But really, I’m sure all the designs were stolen from Apple. =P
Walk like an Egyptian!
The apartment where we were staying was located near the Piere Lechaise cemetery, which when we went, was appropriately cold, overcast, leave-less and crow nested.
Above is “Chopin’s Medalion”.
And last but not least, the Notre Dame, which is by far the fanciest looking church I have ever seen.
Not far from the Notre Dame, is a bridge, where somehow, a trend has started, and people place padlocks alongh the fence. (One of my friends placed her own)
Turns out that you can live reasonably decently on a budget while on holiday, as we (so far) are well under-budget. (Although, I am a little tired of baguettes every morning XD)
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