Faces, Pages and Places

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DAY 1

So the 5 of us left London early Friday and reached Paris at about 8:30 in the morning. As soon as we arrived, we headed straight for the Village Hostel near Montmartre to dump our luggage and begin our 3-day tour of the city. Our hostel was pretty standard, but was in good, clean condition. I had booked an en-suite room for 6, so we had 2 different Japanese dudes bunking in with us on the 2 nights that we were there. I did NOT practise conversing with either.

The first tourist attraction we visited once we’d had our sad and desperate McDonald’s breakfast was Cathédrale Notre-Dame. To be completely honest, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Nice and all, but no St. Peter’s. I think once you’ve seen the Vatican, you’d have seen the best of it.

En route to Notre-Dame, we crossed the Seine River and decided then not to take the proposed cruise that Sunday. Needless to say, it was blah.

Our first proper meal was supposed to be at the Le Caveau du Palais restaurant in Ile de la Cité, but without realising, we mistakenly walked into its bar-cum-cafe next door. As a consequence, we had to order salads for lunch. Luckily for us, the servings were huge and we discovered that having a salad on its own as a meal was actually quite the norm in Paris.

A quick stop by Berthillon for ice-cream (where I indulged myself with an inebriating rum & raisin) and we were off to Musée du Louvre, which houses some of the world’s most famous artifacts, sculptures and paintings, including the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa aside, we weren’t particularly interested in any of the other paintings that were on exhibition at the Louvre, most likely due to the fact that we simply don’t/can’t appreciate art of that kind (or of any kind, for that matter). Immediately after, we went straight for the Egyptian collection, which I thought might be a bit more fascinating. Since all written descriptions were in French, we loaned one of those audio guide thingamajigs and I played parrot by listening and reiterating (word-by-word, mind you) anecdotes detailing a few of the Egyptian artifacts on display. At the end of our short visit to the Louvre, our feet were aching, my voice was hoarse and we were painfully bored.

Later in the afternoon, we took the Metropolitan back to our hostel for some much needed rest before meeting up with Allan’s friend, Jennifer, in the evening. She took us to a local bar near her place for dinner, after which we walked to the Eiffel Tower a mere 10 minutes away.

Again, I was slightly disappointed, although I can’t point out why it was exactly. It just seemed a lot shorter than I’d imagined it would be, and if it weren’t for the lights that lit it up at night, I really can’t see how it is one of the world’s great wonders. Perhaps it is more of an architectural miracle? Lance, May and I decided not to go all the way to the top and got off instead at the 2nd tier as it was a chilly night. We reasoned that we’d be able to get a good view from that height anyway. I guess, in the end, we made the right decision, ’cause the view wasn’t as spectacular as I’d initially anticipated (I’ve definitely seen better). Save for the Seine River, Palais de Chaillot and Champ de Mars, everywhere else around the vicinity looked rather plain and uninspiring.

Tired and dismayed, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night (well, some of us stayed up playing board games till the wee hours in the morning).

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DAY 2

Lance, May and I started our second day in Paris window shopping at Galeries Lafayette. I don’t think we had anything particular in mind that we wanted to buy there, so it was pretty much a leisurely stroll more than anything. May had wandered off on her own to look at women’s clothing, and as I stopped by the majestic foyer to take a couple of pictures, Lance went on ahead and left me hanging. Serves him right that he wasn’t able to locate the men’s department afterwards (it was in the adjacent building) and it bored him out of his wits. I, on the other hand, found my way there, but was, ironically, equally weary with my disinterest for fashion.

From Galeries Lafayette, we walked to Jardin des Tuileries, a garden that lead us from the Louvre area to Place de la Concord and the start of Champs-Elysées. Despite the wintry atmosphere at the garden, I must say, it made quite a beautiful place for people-watching or a casual afternoon siesta. We took our time ambling along on the wide sand paths past limestone sculptures and fountains, families and fellow tourists. The setting felt just about right for some poser-maut photos such as these:

and nice non-offensive ones such as these:

At the middle span of Champs-Elysées, we met up with the other 2 who had slept in that morning, still reeling from the heavy (and totally unnecessary, might I add) board gaming session the night before. While we waited for Jennifer and May’s coursemate, Yuyong, to arrive at our rendezvous place, we walked in a couple of nearby shops including the main Adidas chain store in Paris. Lance showed me this awesome contraption they had with which they’re able to custom make shoes tailored in painstaking detail to every possible aspect of your feet – from their physical measure to the way they fall to the ground and so forth. Really cool stuff.

Not long after, when Jennifer and Yuyong had arrived, we made our way to our last destination before lunch: Arc de Triomphe. But, not before stopping by the Loius Vuitton headquarters for more vanity-filled camera action.

Because we walked the whole long stretch of Champs-Elysées, it was quite late and we wound up rather beat when we had our lunch at a restaurant in some random area I can’t recall. We were pretty stoned, lapsing in and out of consciousness after a heavy meal that included an over-breaded and much too sour Soupe a L’Oignon, the French Onion Soup (according to Yew Vern, the one he had the night before was many times better).

Post-lunch, we split up into 2 groups as some of the rest wanted to go visit some other sites while Lance, May, Yuyong and I went for a promenade around Les Halles (rue Etienne-Marcel, rue Tiquetonne and Marché Montorgueil). Walking around that area FINALLY made me feel like I was on a real vacation. With their narrow streets and quaint little shops to the left and right, I know for a fact that May loved it there as well. We didn’t take many pictures, as we were busy soaking in the lively atmosphere and savouring our large scoops of delicious French gelati.

Yuyong also took us to Boulevard St-Germain for some last minute shopping before the shops closed for the weekend (Sundays). We didn’t manage to get anything, but were content with how we’d spent a nice, relaxing evening.

After that, it was back to the hotel for a short respite and then to the district of Pigalle, infamous for the Bal du Moulin Rouge and its naughty shops. We didn’t catch a show at the Moulin Rouge, but entered one of the many sex stores for some souvenirs and perverse humour.

A good portion of the rest of the night was spent commuting to and from Franc Pinot, a jazz club May found online, which we found to be closed upon arrival. Disappointed yet once more, we searched for a bar to have some late night dinner in the neighbouring arrondissement before setting our way back to the hostel for a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.

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DAY 3

We woke up late on the last day. After checking out of our hostel and leaving our bags in storage, we hiked up to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica that stood on a small hill a couple of blocks behind our hostel. Knowing better, we didn’t bother entering the basilica, but the view from outside was splendid and the cascading steps were perfect for a little basking on a lazy Sunday morning. Who would’ve thought that one of the nicest sights in Paris was right in our own backyard (so to speak)?

For our last proper meal in Paris, we had “the best beef steaks in town” or, according to Allan, “the best beef steaks he’s ever had”. And that says a lot because he’s had enough in this lifetime to warrant being reincarnated as a cow in his next. I myself have not eaten any for the past 5 to 6 years, but was somewhat glad that I didn’t deprive my friends of it (the restaurant served only beef). On a side note, I thought the meat was excellent, but what do I know?

And lastly, our final 2 destinations for the trip were Canal St-Martin and Place des Vosges. The former is where Amélie was filmed, to which I say, “well, it must’ve been one pretty crappy movie”; the latter is a local favourite picnic spot, and to that I say, “how sad”. Here’s the justification:

Canal St-Martin’s murky waters reminded me of the polluted rivers of Penang and the shops that lined it were only remotely interesting. It also didn’t help that most of them were closed on Sundays. Place des Vosges seemed like it used to be one of the few parks made solely for the Parisian community, but has since become infested with tourists like myself who didn’t know any better than to rob them of their last remaining refuge. It’s almost as if its modesty was intended to discourage us, and yet somehow, there we were sitting amidst joggers and parents with their toddlers. I felt bad for them, guilty even.

Like Yuyong pointed out, ending our trip with these last 2 places was like a bad conclusion to an otherwise good cover letter. Forgive him for the horrible analogy, he’s in the midst of some job applications and it’s all he could think of at that very instant.

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All in all, it was an OK trip, a bit too tiring than was intended (and badly estimated). Some of the more famous places we didn’t find exceptionally enthralling. Nonetheless, we did enjoy those that were less of a “must see”, but gave off a much better vacation-relaxation vibe. It’s good though, ’cause now I’ve got a good sense of the kinds of places I would love to go to next when Spring break comes around. Heh.

Thinking back, I can’t help but wonder whether the reason I had been so unimpressed throughout most of the trip is the fact that the places we visited simply paled in comparison to some of the amazing sights I’ve seen (in Italy especially), or if it’s just that, subconsciously, I wasn’t in the right state of mind/mood for a holiday in the middle of term. Nonetheless, the company was shit loads of fun, as the other people I went with are a couple of my closest friends here in London.

PS: Many thanks to our guides during the trip, Yuyong and Jennifer.