Day 14- Paris

We returned to La galleries in the morning to buy the Tivoli bags that our friends want. There's no new stocks but the salesgal was nice enough to inform us that there are still a few at the Champs Elysee area. We splitted into 2 sub groups and W&I ended up at a different store from J&S. J&S ended up at the main store while we accidentally went to another store along Champs Elysee. It's a blessing in disguise as the sales personnel at this store is much nicer than the main store and I was able to help S buy hers as the main store personnel discriminated against her by disallowing her to buy 2 of the same series.

After returning to the hotel to drop the bags, we rushed to the palace of Versailles. We had to pack sandwich and ate it along the way as there was simply no time. We bought 2 audio guides when we were at the palace, but the audio guides ain't fantastic. I like the famous Hall of Mirrors the best. The hall is lined up with many crystal lightings and it's simply gorgeous! The garden looks pretty when we looked out the windows of the palace, but it isn't that beautiful when viewed from ground level. It's a pity that we didn't have enough time to walk around the entire garden and visit the Marie Antonette's apartment.

(Palace of Versailles- Hall of Mirrors)

(The Queen's bedroom which is more grand than the King's)

After dinner at Versailles, we went to the Eiffel again as my friends wanna visit the souvenir shop. After the Eiffel, we took metro back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night packing our luggage as we are leaving the next day.

Day 15- Paris- London- Singapore

We went to the Montmarte area in the morning. We first went to the Sacred Couer Cathedral via a small lift up the hill. Next, we visited the nearby market. This area is different from the usual Paris streets. It's full of artists, and some of them approached us to solicit businesses. The souvenirs sold here tend to be cheaper than the rest of Paris shops. We returned to our hotel at noon time and waited at the hotel lobby for our cab. The cab fare to the CDG airport costs around Euro 48 which is lower than expected. We kept thinking that it would be very expensive to take cab in Paris.  But we had long decided to take cab to the airport on the first day as we didn't want to drag our heavy luggages up and down the metro stairs.

(Montmarte area)

I didn't like the check-in system at the Paris airport. We had to check in using self service machine and then dropped our luggages at a separate counter. Worse still, we couldn't use the self-service machines and had to queue for assistance. The whole procedure is very inefficient. 

When we reached the London airport terminal 5, we had to take a 20 mins bus ride to terminal 4 which is our eventual departing terminal. It's great to see Weatherspoon! We decided to drop our bags here and ordered some drinks and onion rings. We had wanted to order some main courses, but simply couldn't as we were too full then. We shopped around before sitting down to watch the Euros. I feel that there are more shops at the London airport as compared to the Paris airport. Shortly after the 2nd half started, we had to walk to the gate for our flight. W was wide awake when she's on the plane. She appeared excited to go home! It's a long flight, but thank god I actually managed to sleep a bit while I was on the plane.

Thoughts about the entire trip:

I believe I have mentioned in my Iceland posts that I like the Iceland the best. London and Paris are similar cities, but Iceland greatly differs from these 2 European cities. London and Paris is more about architectures, while Iceland is more about the nature. But European cities are definitely different from other cities I have been to. I like to visit the palaces. They are so beautiful.

Paris is a walking City! The metro aka their mrt systems are full of stairs. I seldom see escalators and one has to walk quite far to reach their interchange station. A tip for future tourist to Paris: Don't bring heavy luggages as you have to carry them down the many flights of stairs.

The Parisans truly surprises me. I have read about the arrogance of the French, but I met mostly friendly, warm and helpful Parisans during this trip. They inspired me to approach and help lost tourists in Singapore.

In general, I do not feel any racism in Europe. The Europeans are rather friendly towards us.  Many of them were curious where we came from. This is different from Melbourne where I felt discrimination against the Chinese (or maybe the Asians as a whole).

Things I learn from my trip:

- Never bring along a pair of shoes that you have never worn before! And to buy a good pair of walking shoes for travelling!

- Do not pack each day with too many itinearies. You ended up being too tired.