Paris

Better start blogging about the grand tour soon... before all the memories start fading... scary how one forgets the past... ha...

Okie... so we departed Copenhagen to reach our first destination Paris. Hmm.. was kinda looking forward to Paris cos we've all heard many stories abt how romantic this city is... romantic == beautiful... no?? haha.... i soon realised tt that is not so true.... =p

Day One:
Louvre



Find this place familiar?? haha... tt's where the story of Da Vinci's Code took off.

Hmm.... the plan was to spend a day at Louvre cos we were told tt Ed and Jennifer took 2 days, so we guessed tt there must be smth interesting abt this place tt is worth their 2 days. But i guessed the interest wore off after we saw "Mona Lisa" which was rather small and disappointing. I wanted to spend more time exploring other parts of the museum but it was not to be as the rest soon had other plans.... sadz... made me miss Cezanne and Pissaro... kao




(Above) Familiar art pieces like "Raft of Medusa".... any AEP students reading this would find them familiar as well eh?? ha.....

So plan B was..... yes.... the Eiffel Tower.



Well.... we all took turns to take pics with the only gal in our grp... so here's mine with her.

Views from the top of the tower.... we stayed there for like 3 hrs to catch the sunset.... apparently many other tourists had the same thing in mind... so it was kinda crowded as night approached. hmm.... kinda worrying to see everyone flocking over to the side of the tower where the sunset was.... wondered if the tower would lean over tt side in time.... leaning tower of Paris?? heh



Beautiful sunset..... awesome

Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées



Managed to pass by the famous Arc as well.... heard it was meant for Napolean to march pass after battle victories... hmm.... the first of many arcs tt we would soon get to see in other parts of Europe.. Anyway, if you've been observant enough... many of the french world cup scenes shown on tv was caught here.

Day Two:
Roland Garros, French Open



Guess this is the next "big" thing after the live premiership match at Old Trafford. Damn cool lar.. imagine urself at one of the major Tennis Tournaments.



There were 2 ladies semis on that day.... first one was Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Nicole Vaidisova (pic above, right). the next one featured heavyweights Henin Hardenne and Kim Clijsters... Kim was crowd favourite so i had to support Henin quietly... well the lady in front of me was quite an ardent supporter of Kim and earnestly told me tat Kim is popular cos she's friendlier and less arrogant. Eh... din really occur to me tt Henin was arrogant... hmm.. wateva



Well... an entire day of summer sunshine laid the foundation for our tanned complexion for the rest of the trip... =p

Day Three:

Birth of the brotherhood...

Sacré Coeur

Well well.... I'm sure this place brings back some vivid memories in Paris... and i shan't tok more abt it in case any one of us 3 guys sinks into any post-paris depression... but we sure know why Paris is such a cosmopolitan city.

Chilled out for a while at this grass patch (bottom left) before heading to our next destination ::

Hotel des Invalides

(top) Xuefen, Grace, and Abel against Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

Xuefen brought us to this rare English bookstore called "Shakespeare and Company"... seems like a gd idea to have a place selling English books in this patriotic country. The night ended with a visit to a Jazz club highly recommended in travel books.... look how much Grace was enjoying herself!! wahahhahha.......

Day Four:

Shocked by the "brotherhood" experience the day before.... we only went shopping before rewarding ourselves with a Spring Chicken from Champion each...yumz

Day Five:

Versailles

The Château de Versailles

The Hall of Mirrors

Look at the mystical SY looking up into the light.... woah.... enlightenment lei..... lol

And it was at Versailles where we met a handful of Sporeans... hmm... *count*count*.... i think got 5... Clarence, Pj, Wb, etc.... for a moment, the Macs seem so full of Singaporeans.... majiam throw one stone can get one... ha.... but it was purely coincidental and certainly a pleasant suprise... homely feeling lei... =)

Versailles only took us half a day cos we din't want to pay for the full entrance fees to visit every museum... so we decided to spend wateva time + metro tics we had to cover other parts of Paris...

Statue of Liberty, Paris

oops... make no mistake... we are still in Paris... omg, i didn't even know there's a smaller version elsewhere in this world.... ha... well... so which one is the original one?? aye.... don ask me.... surf internet to find out.... haha

La Defense Paris