Exploring the World: Honeymoon in Europe : Day 8

Route : Paris

It was a very early start today. I haven't even tossed enough on the big bed with the fluffy pillows and I have to be awake. Due to my always 5-more-minutes in bed, I had to gulp down the sumptous buffet breakfast at the hotel.

We left the hotel at 7.30am for our optional to the Lourve Museum excursion. This is one optional you should join if you do not have an extra day in Paris because you need an entire day to see Lurve Museum as well as figuring out how to go about to view the exhibits. With a guide, it had been all narrowed down and you just follow the group yet not to worry you will miss out any of the important exhibits in the museum.

We arrived and waited at the basement for our guide while he ran off to get our group entrance tickets and we were left to figure out how to use the personal headphone. This is absolutely necessary as the musuem is huge and tends to get very noisy when the crowd came in. This will ensure you can guide the instructions and commentary of the guide in the museum. The inverted glass pyramid, where the huge glass pyramid stands on ground above it.

We were brought through lobbies and lobbies of statue exihibits while the guide gave explanation and pointing out the important or more popular and prized ones.....

And also galleries and galleries of painting exhibits. So of them are really so gigantic that I wonder how those painters of that era managed to paint that.... Well, after some conclusion, during those days....where got shopping centres, where got TV , discos, etc etc..... If they don;t paint or carve, they are going to bored to death right ?

And soon, we were brought into a gallery where the most sought after painting is hanged. Millions and millions of people who braved the weathers and queues to enter to Lourve is to catch a glimpse of her ! Presenting Mona Lisa.......

You can see how different status she was treated from the rest of the exhibits. She got to 'stay' in a huge gallery by herself...sharing with only a few pieces of painting... must be of almost equal status as her.... She has 2 or 3 security guards standing beside her all the time as long as the museum remains open for viewing. She was barricade at least 2 metres away from any human, except her loyalty security guards.....She had this must be bullet proof and camera flash proof galss protecting her from any harm.... Despite all these, she never failed not to smile to anyone who came forward.

As more and more people came into her gallery, we decided it's time to bid farewell to her and move on.... Peering through the window, a caught a glimpse of the famous glass pyramid...eh.....40 minutes ago, I was standing beneath it...

And I peered longers and realised a long queue is forming quickly.... heng mem......I'm already in here !

After a few more lobbies of statues and gallaries of jewels, we arrived back at the basement and I'm standing right below the glass pyramid ......

Next, we were rejoined by the rest of the group members and we toured the city in the comfort of the coach.... We passed by Notre Dame Catherdral (too fast for me to take a picture) ....... the Opera House, the Concorde and the Ritz Hotel..... the hotel Princess Diana stayed and visited just hours before her death..... and on our way to the Effiel Tower, we drive along Champs Elysees and around the Arc de Troimphe......

We were able to ascend to the 2nd level of the tower and everyone was very excited....when we arrived at the bottom of the tower, there were massive crowds everywhere....Snakes and snakes of queues waiting to purchase the tickets, waiting to ascend the tower..... It was really messy if you want to find out which queues is for what purpose.....

Luckily we were in a group and so after waiting for about 15 minutes, we were all packed into the lifts and ascend to the 2nd level........ poof ! And here we are.....

See that yellow architecture there? It's a huge square and something named as Trocedo if my French spelling is correct. I'm going there this evening as we were told you can see and take pictures of the Eiffel Tower in a different perspective.....

The last for Paris included sightseeing is a visit to the Tomb of Napoleon. By now, about 1/3 of the group 'abandoned' us as they had joined a tour to visit the Versailles which it was not offer on our optional due to time constraint.

Statue of Napoleon can be seen at the entrance as we are about to enter.... He looks short....maybe because the statue is placed high up and give people the impression he is short...or maybe he is really short.... Well, usually short people are very powerful .....

By then, I was too history overloaded and didn't really pay attention to the guide who actually did such a good job and share with us all his knowledge of the artefacts, paintings, satutes all the time. And you will not missed the enormous tomb resting in the middle, surround by Romans coluomns and Greek -like statues.

Finally it was the end of the sightseeing and we asked to be drop off Champs Elysees......how can you not walk along the famous area when you are in Paris.

As we walked along, we saw many cafes with their tables and chairs arranged in such a way that faces the street. It is meant for people watching....if you have money and time to spare....why not enjoy a cuppa at one fo these cafes and people watch ?

But for us, we would rather spent the time to walk more and see more....hard work pays off.... the largest Louis Vuitton stands in front of us......

Many many storeys, many many turns, many many people in there...and you spot people from Asia, people from Middle East but no cucasians if you are not careful.....though no $$ to buy, but it's an experience to visit.....no one shopper is given the 'you got $$ to buy or not' look.

At the turn of the building, I caught sight od this crooked building. It was funny ! Walking closer and I soon found out that it was painted on and not real. But it was very real when we saw it outside the LV building.

We decided to retir back to hotel to have a rest before hitting the streets again taking in the sights in the evening again..... Just before dusk, we raced to the Trocedo to see Eiffel Tower again....the square was huge and there were young people performing dance, drums and kiosks selling ice-cream and hot dogs and crepes ! I wanted to try very much but as we just had dinner before we came, I could hardly load my tummy more....are we romantic ?

I zoomed my camera to the max. to show you how chaotic the bottom of the tower is, anytime, any hour, any minute, any second.....

The sky turns dark soon and I went back to Champs Elysees to take pictures of Arc de Troimphe again with glowering lights lined the trees and the lights of vehicles that lined the streets....

We also went back to Lourve Musuem where the glass pyramid is. It was a total difference compared in the day. The crowds were gone....and the glass pyramid sit quietly in the dark surrounded by the old building of galleries and lobbies..... No pictures shown here because my camera flash is not strong enough...but on our way back, caught the hotel instead.....so cool to stay at this hotel and knowing you are sharing the same neighbourhood as Mona Lisa. Hee...