After this it was time to let my mum do her shopping!
Paris is well known for all the branded goods and things I do not understand so erm sorry I don’t have much to say except:
1) it is crowded and I heard that for some places you have to book days in advance to even see bags at the particular flagship store? Like whut? Why?! So if you walk in like us there wouldn’t be any person available to serve you or bother about you. Not the most pleasant experience.
2) there are a lot of smaller brands near our hotel area which we didn’t realise existed. Wandering around and entering any store we wished was a much more pleasant experience for shopping. We saw brands like Longchamp, Beruti etc.
3) the Chanel store I must admit is one of the stores that seemed more friendly? Maybe that’s why many people like to go there. And the iconic one is the one with Coco Chanel’s famous glass staircase so that was pretty cool too. Address: 31 Rue Cambon, 75001 Paris, France
In the midst of our shopping, we stopped by this restaurant that was nearby called Aux Delices de Manon (Address: 400 Rue Saint Honore, 75001 Paris France). We walked by and were attracted by the pastries although we were looking for lunch. It wasn't all that memorable to be honest, which was most of my paris trip anyway. Finding good food that satisfies was hard. Cup Noodle count has soared through the roof for just the past 4 days weeps.
Paris is well known for all the branded goods and things I do not understand so erm sorry I don’t have much to say except:
1) it is crowded and I heard that for some places you have to book days in advance to even see bags at the particular flagship store? Like whut? Why?! So if you walk in like us there wouldn’t be any person available to serve you or bother about you. Not the most pleasant experience.
2) there are a lot of smaller brands near our hotel area which we didn’t realise existed. Wandering around and entering any store we wished was a much more pleasant experience for shopping. We saw brands like Longchamp, Beruti etc.
3) the Chanel store I must admit is one of the stores that seemed more friendly? Maybe that’s why many people like to go there. And the iconic one is the one with Coco Chanel’s famous glass staircase so that was pretty cool too. Address: 31 Rue Cambon, 75001 Paris, France
In the midst of our shopping, we stopped by this restaurant that was nearby called Aux Delices de Manon (Address: 400 Rue Saint Honore, 75001 Paris France). We walked by and were attracted by the pastries although we were looking for lunch. It wasn't all that memorable to be honest, which was most of my paris trip anyway. Finding good food that satisfies was hard. Cup Noodle count has soared through the roof for just the past 4 days weeps.
Some pictures of lunch
Along the way I passed by Lauduree as well and I bought this huge salted caramel macaron and two smaller ones. Wah it was the best I regret should have bought more salted caramel ones T_T. It was as big as half my face and it tasted amazing T.T
We took a quick rest at the hotel before taking an uber down to the Arc de Triomphe to take pictures. Wah last warning the lack of toilets is gonna kill me one day. And the cost of using the toilet is 1 Euro. Heart break. I will never complain about paying 20 cents in Singapore for a public toilet ever again.
In case you are also in need of the toilet I went to the one at the Publicis Drugstore, 133 Av. des Champs-Elysee, 75008 Paris
Some pictures at the Arc
We then took a walk along Champ Elysee's but it was. B O R I N G. I HAVEN'T BEEN SO BORED IN MY ENTIRE TRIP.
Okay so as I did the virtual walk on google maps and already I thought to myself.... this looks boring. But because it was our first time in Paris it wasn't my right to claim some place is boring just based on google maps so we went ahead but.... all of us were bored.
My mum had this image in her mind of us chilling at a cafe along the road and drinking coffee while watching the world go by. Well... when we were there and we saw how crowded the road was and how dusty it was given the high volume of traffic. No go man. The stores weren't attractive either and there was no motivation to go in and explore. Nothing caught our eye.
We walked through the entire stretch of champ elysses (minus the stretch that was the park) in a short span of an hour and we really didn't see anything interesting save for this one disney shop :/ Which interestingly enough had the famous Chip cup that was completely missing at Disneyland T_T But no I bought another cup already I cannot get this too.
We went to Le Relais de L'Entrecote which was recommended to us for their famous steak and fries (address: 15 Rue Marbeuf, 75008 accessible from Champ Elysse). However when we reached there... the queue was way too long and if we joined in we would have to wait for almost 20 people ahead of us to get in and finish their meal.
Mission aborted!
So we took an uber to Trocadero Garden area, particularly to this restaurant Cafe Kleber which was a place Joan (youtube: Joanday) visited while in Paris and was a backup restaurant on my itinerary. As you can see from the pictures below the food was okay la. But the service was really not bad the staff were very efficient and hard working (in comparison to other places in Paris).
Amongst the food the french onion soup and creme brulee and fries were good. The mixed platter was not nice. the meat didn't taste good imo.
Amongst the food the french onion soup and creme brulee and fries were good. The mixed platter was not nice. the meat didn't taste good imo.
Same issue about dusty roads if you wanna have a view of the Eiffel tower you should walk around this stretch until you find a restaurant with an empty table outside where you can sit, eat and enjoy the view. Er but since the outside was really dusty we sat inside Cafe Kleber. My dad went around scouting after we ordered our food and said the next time we come we should visit other restaurants which had a view of the Eiffel Tower, which Cafe Kleber didn't have.
And then the highlight of my entire trip. Standing at this platform near Place du Trocadero and taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower from dusk till dark. I also caught it glittering with the lights but the sky was the most pretty. We didn't walk down the garden to go to the foot of the Eiffel Tower since we didn't have enough time. I explored taking a lift up and all but looking at all the youtube videos of people who did... the view from the top isn't really all that breath-taking as compared to looking at the Eiffel Tower itself.
Look at the crowd! But it is still possible to get a nice picture coz by the time it gets darker you can barely see the crowd. Also there were a ton of crazy people jumping past the barracade to stand on the ledge in order to take a picture of themselves leaning against or pushing the Eiffel tower. To be honest they just endangered their own lives and spoiled the landscape soooooooo. hmm
There were also a lot of people so do be careful of your own belongings, stay close to your family and take care of each other. There were also a lot of people selling merchandise and roses etc but as long as you ignore them and not make eye contact you would be fine.
Ah yes timing. the light up happens at 10pm (at least, when we visited in late May) and 9.30pm was sundown so I stood there for about an hour to take all the pictures I wanted before we took an uber back to our hotel.
Ah yes timing. the light up happens at 10pm (at least, when we visited in late May) and 9.30pm was sundown so I stood there for about an hour to take all the pictures I wanted before we took an uber back to our hotel.