Paris, je t’aime!

I’m back again in Vienna, after a fabulous week in Belgium and Holland! As promised, here’s an entry (more like an appetizer, actually) on Paris, one of my favourite cities in Europe :)

The Eurostar train that took Min Dan and me from London to Paris

(picture stolen from Min Dan’s blog)

As the train passed through the undersea Channel Tunnel, I half expected myself to be able to see some sort of an underwater world through the windows of the train, but all we could see was darkness :S  

Paris’ Gare du Nord

As a brief introduction, the city is divided into 20 arrondissements (municipal boroughs), which are arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral, with the 1st in the middle of the city on the north bank of the Seine River.

We stayed in a small hotel in the 11th arrondissement, so our journey naturally began there.

Opéra Bastille, home to the Opéra National de Paris

Colonne de Juillet at Place de la Bastille, where the Bastille Prison used to stand until it was stormed on 14 July 1789, sparking the French Revolution

Place des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris. It was inaugurated in 1612 in celebration of the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. 

A statue of Louis XIII in the centre of the square. This piece is actually a replacement of the original bronze one which was melted down during the French Revolution.

In springtime like this, Parisians and tourists alike love to spend their afternoons lying on the grass, basking in the glory of the sun.

Victor Hugo’s house in Place des Vosges, at no 6

Les Misérables, one of his notable pieces of work -together with Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Such a brilliant novelist/poet/playwright. 

One of his rooms

With a portrait of the master himself

Rue de Rivoli, one of Paris’ most famous streets whose name surfaces frequently in my French lessons and novels. The name of the street came from the battle won by Napoleon against the Austrian army in Rivoli back in 1797.

Hôtel de Ville, a.k.a the cityhall

Centre Georges Pompidou, renowned for its interesting façade and street performers. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974. A very catchy name which Min Dan has fun pronouncing over and over again =D

I love the above two quotes, hanging by the museum’s façade. The first one says, “Beauty is always odd”, and the second, “If the world were clear, the art would not be”.

Forum Les Halles, a modern shopping precinct that replaces an old wholesale market which was demolished in 1971

Palais du Louvre! The former royal palace was the seat of power in France until Louis XIV moved to Versailles in 1682.

My first glimpse of the famous pyramids of Musée du Louvre, which have been immortalized by Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code and its subsequent movie adaptation

A clearer view of the pyramids

Queuing to get into the museum (it was late Friday afternoon so we could enter for free, hurhur). Musée du Louvre is in fact the world’s most visited museum, besides being one of the oldest, largest and most famous.

The view of the outside of the pyramid from the inside

To cut the story short, the museum basically has 3 pavillions: Richelieu, Sully and Denon. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore every single gallery in the museum, ‘cos the place is simply crazy big and we didn’t have enough time, but we managed to check out some of the gorgeous highlights.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Daru staircase, a marble sculpture of Greek Goddess Nike (Victory)

Venus de Milo -believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty. Its arms have been lost, but I think that’s what makes the sculpture beautiful :)

The famous Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, Mona Lisa, is displayed on the 1st floor of the Denon pavillion. It’s rather small, really, and visitors were endlessly crowding around it to get a good look at the painting that it’s impossible to snap a decent picture of it. I would say, though, it’s one of those paintings that you gotta see at least once in your life -and I’m glad I did :) 

A view of the palace from Galerie d’Apollon

The coronation crown of Louis XV -pardon the blur image

Napoleon III’s lavish apartments

Check out the grand dining room!

C’est lui, je crois

Typical in European palaces/royal residence are mirrors that create an illusion of infinity such as this

Part of the French sculpture collection. You think that guy in the middle there is just doing his job? Think again.

The inverted pyramid thingy

Louvre at night -pretty, ain’t it?

Check out my Vodpod sidebar or click here for a short video of Louvre -courtesy of Min Dan.

So that’s the end of Paris Day 1. Virtually the whole of Day 2 was spent in Disneyland, so that’s gonna wait for a while. Most of Day 3 was spent in Versailles, so that also gotta wait. Photos from the rest of Day 3 spent in Paris:

La Seine

Notre Dame de Paris! It’s one of the first Gothic cathedrals, where many historical events took place. The cathedral was where Henry VI of England was crowned King of France and Joan of Arc canonized. Much of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame story is based here, and the cathedral also appears in the movie Amélie. 

The Easter Mass in the cathedral (we were there on Easter Sunday)

And to end yet another great day in Paris, right from the city’s red-light district of Pigalle, Moulin Rouge! 

Next up: Ride with us in Paris Disneyland!

P.S. Yes, I love Paris so much I’m gonna write 4 entries on it :)