On the first morning, our journey started around 8.30am. Luckily it was a small tour group, consist of only 18 people, mostly young cheena couples. Thus, we are able to get very comfy in the bus. Comfy in terms of plenty of space, nothing hanky panky, ok. Managed to capture photos of the city along the way.
Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph). This arch was ordered by Napoleon to commemorate the victories of his French armies. Actually, I didn't do any homework or read much before I go on this trip. So most of the time, I was blur and do not know anything about the French history. I do not trust anything that the Dao You (tour guide) says as they always just bullshit whenever they can.
See... me so happy. And it was nice weather in Paris. Thank God no rain!
Names of the armies are beng crafted on the walls of the arch.
Beneath this arch is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I do not know who are the unknown soldiers... as they are unknown soldiers... hahaha. Sorry... I am still blur now.
Took some pictures along the roadside. Nice scenery of falling tree leaves... autumn in Paris. So romantic.
Next, we visited the Notre Dame cathedral. According to the write ups, this is not the largest cathedral, but probably one of the most famous ones in the world. Well, I got to know Notre Dame through the cartoon 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. :) Now I get to see the real thing, and it is HUGE! But I find it a bit scary. The roof top is black, scary. And inside the cathedral is very dark.. like those eerie and horror story we see in movies.
For respect, I didn't take a lot of pictures inside the cathedral and just took a few without using flash. But I still see a lot of people taking photos with flash, which I think is not a good thing to do in a sacred place like this.
Facing the main entrance of Notre Dame is the point-zero for France. Point zero is the center of France, 'kilometer zero'. Our lousy Dao You didn't tell us about it. I saw people standing in the middle and turning in circles. I do not know what is that for, but I just follow suit. So I stood in the middle and turn around as well. Haha!
Then we went to the main attraction of France – the Eiffel Tower of Paris!! This is really beautiful! I love it! So happy to be seeing this tower right in front of my eyes. Amazing!
This structure is amazing! We took the elevator up to the second floor (115 meters). The view from here is spectacular. I realised that I have phobia of heights. I didn't dare to go near the edges to take pictures.
Then we went to the Palace of Versailles. This Palace is said to be one of the largest castle in the world, with more than 2,000 windows, 700 rooms, 1250 fireplaces, 67 staircases and most amazingly, more than 1,800 acres of park.!! In terms of built up, it is still smaller than Beijing's Frobidden City. But in terms of land area, it is much, much larger than the Forbidden City.
Take a look at it's amazingly HUGE garden. This is crazy!! Abso-fucking-lutely gigantic!!! I think they can build several golf courses in this park itself.
We went for dinner after the visit to the palace. Lousy dinner and lunch at the same chinese restaurant. 5 dishes and 1 soup plus fruits for dessert. Nothing to complain... it's normal for tour to have such lousy food.
After dinner, we went to watch the world’s most famous cabaret, the Moulin Rouge.
This show is darn expensive. Cost us a whopping 130euro per person. That’s equivalent to RM650 per person for a 1 hr and 45 mins show. Since we are already in Paris, why not? The show was nice, but to me, it was a bit too lengthy as I was falling asleep after an hour. Too tired. Expensive but it was worth the experience. The girls are topless most of the time. Damn great body... all slim and fit. We are not allowed to take photographs, so no photos of naked cabaret girls for posting.
After Moulin Rouge, back to our lousy hotel. I was darn tired on the first day.
On day 2, we started off the tour by visiting the Louvre. This is one of the largest museums in the world, and it displays about 300,000 works, among them some world-famous like the Monna Lisa from Leonardo da Vinci, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory.
This is the ever famous sculpture, Venus de Milo. Don't know she is so famous. A woman with a manly body. Yulks.
Below, the 'headless' Winged Victory. The Winged Victory has a historical background as old as the Teracotta Warriors of China. Thats about 2000 years of history. Geng!
I saw the much talked about paintings of all time; the Monna Lisa. I was pretty dissappointed as I didn't expect it to be so small. Many people surrounded this painting and took photos. I can't really see it close up because it was too far away and they do not allow visitors to go near it.
This is as close as I can get... zooming in using my camera. Again, I am not sure why this painting is so famous. They say something about her smile.
Next, we took a cruise down the Seine River. This is the perfect way to discover most of the famous attractions in this romantic city. I don't know the names of the monuments or buildings and statues that I can see from here, so... don't ask. Haha.
Notre Dame behind the scene.
This is the original Statue of Liberty. Some called it the prototype. Yes, Statue of Liberty was built by the French and the bigger one was a gift from the French government to the US.
After this cruise, it was almost the end of our tour in Paris. Dao You brought us to the famous duty free store, La Fayette. I can't believe how rich those cheenas are. They bought darn a lot of Louis Vuitton and Feragammo and Gucci etc. Bags and bags of these branded goods like they are free of charge. I didn't buy anything in Paris. Waiting for Milan to get my Gucci bags. Hehe.
After shopping and dinner, it was the end of our day 2 in Paris. Time to move on to the next city. Paris is truly an amazing and romantic city. I will definitely go there again for a free and easy stay.
*B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L*
Next place we visited in France is a small city called Annecy. On the way to Annecy, we passed by Mont Blanc, Chamonix and took the cable car ride up to the peak of the snow mountain called Aiguille Du Midi. The cable car took us up to 3842m for a stunning view of the French, Swiss and Italian alps. The ride to the top was a bit scary and the view was spectacular.
At the peak of Aiguille Du Midi. 3842 meter or 12602 feet. It was snowing up there! Darn cold and lack of oxygen. One lady from our tour got sick up there due to lack of oxygen. I can see her face turned pale and her lips were purple.
After the alps, we continue with the journey to Annecy. We finally reach the final stop in France, Annecy, which is a very beautiful, Swiss like and very peaceful small city. Love the atmosphere and we stayed at a great hotel there.
The next morning, we started the journey off to Italy. On the way, the view of the Alps was amazing. Simple breathtaking!
We finally reached the border of France-Italy where its was separated by the Tunnel du Mont Blanc. This is the 11.6km tunnel in the Alps under the Mont Blanc mountain, linking the 2 countries. Once we enter this tunnel, it was bye-bye France, and Hello Italy on the other end.
