PART 2 - Paris

After Easter Sunday, I took a train down to Paris. If you ever are considering Paris as a holiday destination, be prepared to do lots and lots of walking.


One of the many bridges across the River Seine

Of course, a trip to Paris is incomplete without a visit to their famous tower.



If you want to go up, however, it's a completely different story. Be prepared to shell out 12.70 euros (1 euro = RM4.60) per person, and wait in line for about two hours(!).



Queues

I only went up to the second floor; that's the second big 'platform' on the tower. Wanted to go right to the top but it cost an additional 5 euros and was temporarily closed due to 'overcrowding'. Wait time: another hour. Not really worth the trouble, when you can get some really superb shots from the second floor. The wind is quite strong and chilly though. Unfortunately shivering hands and slow shutter speeds don't go really well.




Paris by night


The Eiffel Tower, all lit up nice and pretty

Unfortunately all the French sports channels were showing the Chelsea-Valencia match, so I missed the 7-1 drubbing of AS Roma, sigh... Anyway, I also took a walk down the long, long, long Champs Elysees in search of the Virgin Megastore which sells tickets to the Louvre. It didn't help that it was as hot is Kuching that day. At one end of the Champs Elysees is the famous Arc de Trioumphe:



And at the other end is the Obelisk of Luxor:



In between? Lots of traffic.



Other famous 'must-see' sights include the Notre Dame. No, my camera does not have a wide-angle lens; no matter how hard I tried I could not fit the whole building into one shot.




Notre Dame: Outside and Inside

Last stop before returning to London:


The Louvre Museum

The French really know how to make money out of tourists. You have to pay an entrance fee at virtually every museum, and the Louvre is no exception. Heck, they even have a special 'Da Vinci Code' tour! I managed to get a shot of that famous picture...



But I had barely taken my finger of the shutter button when I was surrounded by museum security shouting 'NO PHOTOGRAPH, NO PHOTOGRAPH SIR!!!' Actually, I HAD seen their sign:



But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... Credit to their security though, who spotted the illegal photographer with amazing speed, considering the gallery was crowded full. Apparently you are not allowed to photograph their most prized exhibits; the French crown jewels were in a no-photos zone as well. That aside, there are many other significant artefacts in the museum:


Venus de Milo


Hammurabi's Code (come to think of it, it does look like something else... But lets not go into that.)


Napoleon III's dining room

One thing about European countries, there are pigeons everywhere, sometimes in compromising positions.





They have lots of ducks and gulls too, right in the centre of town.





Spent the rest of the day wandering along the riverbank, eating 3 euro ice cream, then took the evening train back to London.