*This is the second part of a two-part travel log. If you have not read the read the first part, please click here.*

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Ah, where were we? Yes, number five.

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#5 – Notre Dame Cathedral

At almost 900 years old and kids around the world know about it, the Notre Dame cathedral absolutely deserves its reputation of one of the most remarkable cathedrals in Europe!

The cathedral is extremely famous for many other aspects e.g. architecture, culture and religion etc but I, along with many other younger people I’m sure, got to know about the Notre Dame through Victor Hugo, or more accurately… Disney!

 

Who doesn’t know Quasimodo, the dear Hunchback of Notre Dame?

So anyway here’s us visiting his home.

 

It is interesting to find out that the row of statues above the ‘portals’ (entrances) in the photo above were originally intended to represent the 28 kings of Judah in the Bible’s Old Testament from whom Jesus was directly descended.

The Gallery of Kings – as it is named – however, was ‘attacked’ during the French Revolution when the then French king was overthrown. The revolutionists apparently mistook the 28 kings as the ancestors of the king of France instead and beheaded them all – literally.

The statues that we see now are, of course, restored later on and some of their ‘original’ heads were recovered and displayed in the Musée de Cluny.

The interior was extremely huge and while there was a sermon going on and worshippers were sitting and praying, tourists were allowed to walk at the side and observe.

The building architecture was absolutely amazing and there were many shrines and exhibits that we could feast our eyes on. Impossible to cover all in a blog entry… so let’s move on.

Oh, before that, we saw what looked like a statue of the King of the Dead from Lord of the Rings at the entrance! Him and the Dead Men of Dunharrow!

Haha of course it isn’t. Middle Earth is very, very far from France… I think.

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#4 – Avenue des Champs Elysees

Don’t be fooled by the old signboard, this is one of the most famous (and most expensive) street address in the world.

Home to the biggest and most lavish French specialty shops, cinemas and restaurants, no tourist (or filthy rich lady) will ever want to miss this avenue of extravagant expenditure.

Not only is this street sandwiched by two ultra-famous Parisian landmarks (the Luxor Obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe) at each end, it is also home to flagship stores of ultra-luxurious fashion brands like Hugo Boss and LV.

I’ll face the facts. I only came here to marvel at the building, walk in, and declare that I have just visited LV’s flagship store in Paris. (and left empty-handed)

Apparently, because it is cheaper to buy stuff like LV handbags here (no need for import tax, perhaps?), there is a restriction on how many items a person can buy per visit.

Apparently a person can only buy like two items of the same kind. I’m not sure if this is just a rumour or if it applies only to the Champs Elysees store or something. But it doesn’t really matter to me… even without tax, the smallest wallets cost like 2,000 to 10,000 euros and I can literally finance a four year degree course in Malaysia with 10k euros…

But not to worry! I promise I’ll be back within 10 years with millions to spend!

… hopefully.  

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#3 – Louvre Museum

Probably nobody knew about the Louvre before The Da Vinci Code.

Haha of course not!! The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world! … As well as one of the largest.

But The Da Vinci Code really made the museum like 10 times more famous than its original already-extreme international fame.

The museum is so extremely huge, divided into god-knows how many sections, that it is absolutely impossible for anybody to finish touring the museum in one day with reasonable attention paid to the artwork.

In fact, we were in there like for five hours and with our feet sore and tired, only went through like one-sixth of the galleries. It was that huge.

Here’s us in the famous glass-pyramid entrance to the Louvre:

 

Two things to note when visiting museums in Paris:

1) Bring your student card (if you have one) – Shuyi’s entrance ticket for all museums (and many other tourist destinations as well) were significantly cheaper than mine because she could produce a student visa. In fact her ticket was free at Musee d’Orsay. I think this is valid in the entire European Union, not just in France.

2) Buy a damn English multimedia guide

The French have no pity on anybody who does not understand their language – ALMOST ALL art descriptions displayed beside the paintings and exhibits are in French and absolutely French only. If you can’t read French, that’s too bad.

An example is this 2nd centure B.C. sculpture of Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory, which has an incredible story behind it. (I can’t tell the story here due to the length of this post)…

… However, I would not possibly have not what this headless winged figure was all about if I had just depended on the description panel next to it.

100% French. Even when this is one of Paris’ top tourist destination!

Anyway, here’s the Grand Gallery:

Some famous stuff: Madonna of the Rocks:

Venus de Milo:

Aaaaaaand, literally the most famous painting in the world – the Mona Lisa… imprisoned behind a no-entry barrier and protective bulletproof glass.

Besides the ultra-famous stuff, there were also many other interesting stuff as well! Such as the magnificent ceiling:

This painting of David and Goliath that has – literally three dimensions. The front:

… and the back!

A truly HUGE painting of the Coronation of Napoleon at the Notre Dame. This painting is almost 10 metres wide and is the second largest painting in the Louvre.

 

… and many, many nude men paintings:

Why do people fight battles without any clothes on?

More nude men.

Ahaha I know art lovers will be cursing my ignorance in art appreciation. Therefore I shall stop commenting on the artworks now.

Oh but before we move on, here’s the inverted pyramid underneath which, according to The Da Vinci Code, cryptically contains the secret tomb of Mary Magdelene.

  

Scary, huh?

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#2 – River Seine

I believe many tourists flock to Paris’ glamorous attractions and museums without paying adequate attention to the great river Seine.

Gracefully flowing through the heart of Paris, the 776KM-long river flows from as far as Burgundy in the east, into the English Channel in the west.

Just like the Thames is to London, the Seine has been the lifeblood of Paris since a long time ago. Together, the Thames and the Seine are some of the most famous rivers in Europe.

And great rivers within great cities are always a great scene to behold.

Many important buildings such as the Louvre Palace and Notre Dame Cathedral are built along the northern bank of the Seine, and tourist boats and ferries regularly cruise along the river.

The famous French Martyr Joan of Arc’s ashes were thrown into the Seine after she had been burned at the stake. Napoleon had also requested in his will to be buried on the banks of the river.

But to us tourists, Paris is the City of Love. And couples arriving at Paris simply cannot leave without leaving some kind of trace or ‘footsteps’ in the Romantic City.

And so some ‘geniuses’ started carving the names of themselves and their partners on padlocks and securing them over the fence of the many bridges across the Seine.

This, apparently, symbolizes the couple’s undying love being ‘locked’ and secured forever in the City of Love. The keys to the padlock, naturally, is to be buried forever in the waters of the legendary river below.

Romantic as it may be, this practice has, of course, annoyed the Parisian authorities for years. And rumour has it that the lovelocks on this bridge were removed on 2010, although the authorities denied involvement.

Check out some very creative lovelock designs:

‘Safer-than-others’ lock:

Probably a law enforcement couple:

And finally, this is my hand with a pair of keys – over the Seine.

I did not ‘expressly’ admit that we polluted the Seine with one extra pair of metal keys. My hands were merely hovering over the river and I may not have released it.

Of course, I may also have done so but I the photo does not constitute as an confession. So please don’t sue me – this was Paris, for heaven’s sake.

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#1 – Eiffel Tower

What were you expecting, the Paris airport? Haha of course the Eiffel Tower reigns as the #1 place in my list.

Paris would not be the Paris it is today without the Eiffel Tower.

At the same height as an 81-storey building, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris, and was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1889.

Shuyi and I vowed that we would make it onto the tower before evening to watch the sunset. At at one hour before sunset, we were still at the Arc de Triomphe, and so we literally ran our way to Champ de Mars, where the Eiffel tower was located.

We could easily see it from afar. But although it may seem that it is right in front of you (the pic above), the tower is still a 20-minute walk away.

Finally, we made it.

The sun had started setting when we reached the base of the tower. Quickly, we queued for the tickets and got ourselves on the first tram headed to the tip of the tower.

There were three levels on the Eiffel Tower, the first and second were located less than halfway up the tower, and the third was near the very tip of the structure. 

It was a Sunday evening and there were quite a number of visitors, but not too many. We could easily find spots to view the scenery and take pictures.

Here’s a picture of the Seine from the second level:

There were also two gastronomical fine-dining restaurants on the first and second levels of the Eiffel Tower which, naturally, also charge astronomical prices and require reservations.

I’ll be back for that, next time… Hehe.

Anyway, here’s us on the very highest level of the Eiffel Tower, looking down at the magnificent river and surrounding city of Paris at night.

 

We also managed to capture a deadly alien laser beam fired directly from Mars to destroy the city of Paris and all mankind.

According to the official Eiffel Tower distance display on the third level, Kuala Lumpur is 10,433KM away so we’re quite safe!

Anyway, back to reality, there was a really small apartment built on the tip of the Eiffel Tower by its designer, Engineer Gustave Eiffel.

Can you even imagine living so extremely high up – alone – on the Eiffel Tower BEFORE it was opened up to hoards of tourists?

Here’s the apartment itself, in its original location looking in from the protective glass windows:

The two figures depicted inside are Mr. Eiffel himself and Thomas Edison, who visited the apartment to discuss some scientific stuff on 10 September 1889.

Anyway, it was insanely cold that night (1-3°C) and you can imagine the freezing wind on the tip of the tallest building in Paris. So after some camwhoring and looking around, we descended to have our dinner.

We went across the street and had dinner in a nice little restaurant. This was to be our replacement Valentine’s dinner, which we had missed a few weeks ago.

The most awesome thing about this restaurant is that right beside our table – is a direct view of the entire, glittering, magnificent Eiffel Tower, which glitters brilliantly at the strike of every hour, constantly reminding you that you made it to the great City of Lights!

Our meal was incredibly tasty. I have no idea how to blog about them so I’ll just post photos:

To complete the French dining experience, we were also served bread and champagne for starters, and wine with the dishes.

The waiter who served us must be complimented and absolutely deserved to be tipped. Not only was he extremely pleasant and patiently explained the menu to us in English, along with personal recommendations, he was also very entertaining when he would come around and ask whether we liked the food and taught us some random French phrases.

All in all, his French accent and jolly attitude reminded me of Lumière from Beauty and the Beast… when he is performing the song ‘Be Our Guest’.

Lovely chap!

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Well I guess the top-10 list concludes my visit to Paris as most of the good places have been covered. Yay!

Bottom line – While the actual Paris may not live up to everybody’s wildest expectations (thanks to the media), it definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the must-go destinations in the world.

For some unknown, stereotypical reason, us East Asians totally idolize the City of Lights.

We see it daily in Korean dramas and Taiwan soap operas… A pretty female character whose life’s dream is to travel to Paris to pursue art or music or something, and this handsome male character comes back from studying/working in Paris and all the girls in the show would drool over him.

And I, being East Asian, am naturally no different.

Since young Paris has captured my imagination. The magical city, the romantic city, oh… the City of Love!

So when Shuyi and I had the opportunity to choose a European city to visit in March, we had no difficulty deciding!

Nonetheless, much effort had to be put in to plan the trip. Since both of us were students, our spending money comprised of many months of savings plus a generous donation from the Mum and Dad Charity Foundation (MDCF), and even so our budget was tight!

One thing that we had spent lots of time researching into was accommodation.

Hotels in downtown Paris are notoriously expensive. After nights of painstaking research and stingy comparisons, we got ourselves this nice little 3-star hotel at a very reasonable price!

 

It is considered cheap for Parisian standards, but still with the money spent you could stay in a deluxe 5-star hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.

Besides accommodation, there was another compulsary area of research – “EVERYTHING”.

From Metro MRT lines to places to visit, and food and currency exchange, everything had to be carefully thought-of beforehand… thanks to the grisly warning given to us by our friends who had been to Paris:

“French people DO NOT like Tourists, least of all English-speaking ones!” 

We were told that apparently the French were very proud of their language, and any tourist that does not even try to speak their language has no business in their country.

Well, it’s kinda hard to blame the French. If Kuala Lumpur had 42 million tourists flocking in every year, I would damn well hate tourists as well! *evil laugh*

So we brushed up our bonjour’s, s’il vous plaît’s, and merci’s and bulked up to face the scary legion of dark-faced, unwelcoming French people…

… only to find them to be extremely friendly and helpful!

Although they were visibly happier when you spoke to them in French, most of them were glad to help or serve you in English.

And while there were people in smaller shops and restaurants who did not understand English at all, we successfully communicated with them using an impromptu mixture of hand gestures, body movements, and wildly invented Eng-French-ish phrases…

… Bottom Line – we didn’t starve in Paris! A cause for celebration!

Unlike some other of my travel logs, I intend to keep this entry simple and sweet – no parts 2 or 3 – just one single entry.

So instead of writing down every food I eat and every corner I turn, I’m just gonna do a top-10 list of what I feel are the ten most awesome places that I’ve visited in Paris.

So here we go!

Disclaimer: This top-10 list does not represent the best ten attractions Paris has to offer, but merely the best ten that I have visited in this trip.

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#10 – Luxor Obelisk at Place de la Concorde

This 3,300-year-old gigantic structure is one of the two original obelisks marking the entrance of the Luxor Temple, founded in 1400BC in ancient Thebes.

Because it is so old, you will wonder if there is some kind of magic locked in its ancient inscriptions… Perhaps it can warp in alien ships? Communicate with evil pharaohs of the past? Shoot lasers or… glow in the dark, at least?

It is simply too big (75ft tall) and grand to do nothing more than just decorate that old temple in Egypt. Trust me, I know these things.

Given as a gift to France by Egypt almost two centuries ago and since then placed at the eastern end of the world-famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Luxor Obelisk is indeed something not to be missed!

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#9 – Luxembourg Gardens

The Luxembourg Gardens is the garden of French Senate, as well as the second largest public park in Paris.

The park wasn’t so nice as it was filled with leafless trees when we visited it in March. But it absolutely deserves mention here as it is (apparently) extremely beautiful in spring and summer!

Many local people bring their own foldable chairs and simply sit around the huge pond right in front of the senate building, reading a book or just chatting away.

Besides very beautiful just-planted flowers and blankets of grass that had been freshly rolled onto the soil, the garden is also home to numerous marble statues…

… monuments…

… and bird houses!

It is perfect to schedule a visit to the Luxembourg Gardens during lunchtime (as we did) for a peaceful and beautiful picnic place in downtown Paris. Just grab some fluffy French pastry from across the street and just enjoy the surroundings as you rest your tired feet!

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#8 – Basilique du Sacré Cœur

The shining white Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the hill of Montmartre is the highest point in the city of Paris.

We don’t see domed cathedrals everyday, do we? In fact, coming from a Muslim country I would easily mistake this building as a mosque if not for the three mini crosses on top of the domes…

… and now that I think about it, the building kinda resembles the Taj Mahal… (Look ONLY at the three domes from the front)

Anyway, the surrounding district of Montmartre is something of a nightclub / red light district. Coupled with the popularity of the Sacre Coeur among tourists, security in the region is super tight!

Check out the rifles…

The white statue standing near the armed officer on the right is NOT a statue! I’m sure most people have seen this before, but this is my first time seeing a real-life statue!

These ‘statues’ are people who’ve had themselves painted chalk white and would pose for a picture with you if, err… given some financial incentive.

Besides the statue-people, there were many other street performances as well, such as this gentleman playing a harp.

That’s really something, isn’t it? Have you EVER seen anybody playing a harp near Pasar Seni or anywhere?

Located at a height of 130 metres, the cathedral grounds offer a hazy, dreamlike view of the city below.

Having a cathedral on top of a hill is awesome. But wouldn’t it be extremely tiring for worshippers to hike the hill every Sunday?

I’d imagine a family of young and elderly huffing and puffing up the slope just to reach the great wooden doors of the cathedral.

But it doesn’t matter. Once you step inside the cathedral doors, Jesus himself greets you with open arms… Literally.

Haha technically nobody is allowed to take photos inside the cathedral, but there’s always somebody who managed to flout the rule.

The painting on the central dome ceiling is HUGE! Just compare it to the miniscule people sitting beneath it.

The interior was very beautiful and there were lots of mini-exhibits around the main worship area. But since I have no other photos to talk about we’ll just leave it here.

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#7 – Musée d’Orsay

This is arguably the second most popular museum in Paris, after you-know-which museum (thanks to Dan Brown and his The Da Vinci Code).

Housing the spectacular station clock (above) on one side of the building, the Musée d’Orsay is proud of its century-old history as a railway station, before being converted to one of Paris’ premier art museum.

The Musée d’Orsay is extremely famous for its impressionist–styled paintings on display. Being trained in engineering, the only thing that I know about impressionist paintings is that they do not come fitted with loud electrical motors.

Ah, and yes, one more thing that I know of is that Vincent van Gogh is one of the master titans in impressionist painting.

I bet those who study art totally thinks he’s god.

Because whenever there is a Van Gogh painting, people with thick glasses and sketch papers always surround and stare at it for ages…

I mean, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! I think people with an artistic background would benefit so much from this museum. Even I, without a thread of knowledge in art, found some paintings so beautiful and absorbing that you can’t help but stare.

There were hundreds of wonderful artwork on display at the Musée d’Orsay and I ignorantly knew only three of them: van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone, Édouard Manet’s Olympia, and James McNeill Whistler’s Whistler’s Mother (above), which I knew from Mr. Bean’s destruction of the painting in the 1997 Mr. Bean movie.

They did not allow any form of photography in the museum halls but we managed to sneak a snapshot of the main exhibition hall (although the angle is slightly tilted lol):

A little caution note though: Most artwork on display at the Musée d’Orsay have descriptions written in French – only. Well actually almost everything everywhere in Paris are in French only. No English translation. So I would recommend anybody who plans to go there (and do not understand French) to get a guided tour.

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#6 – Arc de Triomphe

The Arc is probably the second most iconic structure in Paris.

It is interesting how somebody could come up with this idea of building a gigantic arch that has no obvious practical use in the middle of a busy (probably busiest) junction in town, isn’t it?

Looking at it always reminds me of a scene in a movie (forgot which one) in which a huge meteor from outer space crashes through the arc and utterly destroys it.

Haha that is why I have such a strong impression towards this monument!

Did you know that there is another (identically named) Arch of Triumph in, of all places, Pyongyang, North Korea?

And that the one is North Korea is actually the largest in the world, making the (significantly more famous) twin in Paris only second largest!

That is actually what infuriated Liberty (winged figure below) to heroically call the French to defend their nation…

… No lah…! Haha but that is indeed a sculpture of Liberty calling the French to defend their nation… against her European enemies, not Kim Jong-Il.

In fact, the entire arch was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon to commemorate the victory of France and the soldiers who fought and died during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is laid beneath the arc to, along with an eternal flame, forever remember the countless unknown soldiers who died for France. 

I’m not sure how they picked which soldier’s body (perhaps by random?) to be buried here but this is sure one lucky guy!

Waaaaayyy too long of an entry! Gonna have continue in Part 2.