See The World: Paris-London (Part I)

This year turned out to be a pretty exciting year for KU and I cos we went on our second Europe trip in 2 years. We spent almost 2 months just planning the itinerary and checking out the directions to the places we wanted to go, and I gotta admit it was pretty tedious and tiring. But thank God for KU, cos he's a really wonderful travel companion - good map-reader, tireless tourist, and very enthusiastic about everything (except shopping).

Our route was Paris -> London -> Paris and then back to Singapore. We spent 5 nights in Paris and 5 nights in London in total, though on highsight, we should have spent more time in London because we liked it better there.

Like all holidays, especially to faraway countries, the travelling took a day, what with our 3-hour layover in Dubai (cos we took Emirates). Upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle Aeroport, we proceeded to Hotel Libertel Gare de l’Est Francais (13 Rue Du 8 Mai 1945, Paris, 75010), where we put up for the first 3 nights in Paris. The hotel was just opposite the Gare de l'Est METRO station, literally just a stone's throw away, and I personally liked it for its accessibility to most of the major tourist spots in Paris.

The next day, we woke up bright and early to make our way to the Palace of Versailles. It was a really long train ride, about 1.5 hours, with a couple of transits at different stations in between. Personally, I thought the easiest way to get to the Palace was to take the RER/METRO to either the Saint-Michel or Champ de Mars station and then transit to the RER C line and take the train all the way to the end to Versailles Rive Gauche. From there, we just followed the crowd in front of us and the Palace was about a 5-minute walk away.

Versailles was really really breathtaking...and tiring to tour. The Palace itself was HUGE and the outdoor areas were sprawling. But to walk the corridors which Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV used to walk, and to enter the halls which the Cabinet used to assemble in - just knowing that we were seeing for ourselves a significant part of history was amazing.

That being said though, I personally preferred touring the outdoor areas cos the weather was beautiful - the sun was shining and the air was still cool - and there was so much to see!

After Versailles, we made our way to Marne-la-Vallee, where the famous shopping outlet was. But it turned out to be a total waste of time, cos not only did the journey take us more than 2 hours, I left the outlets empty handed. :'(


You are a shopping disappointment! >:(

On the third day, we went to the Museum of Natural History (57 Rue Cuvier). I love going to museums of this sort cos I have an obsession with dinosaurs, and animal skeletons. *cue weirdo music* When we entered the museum, I felt really excited cos there were bones and skeletons EVERYWHERE. Too bad the descriptions on the displays were mostly in French, so we couldn't understand a single word and had to guess which skeleton belonged to which animal.

The La Defense Grande Arche and Louvre Museum was next on our itinerary! The Louvre was really easy to find cos there's a METRO station named after it. And the La Defense arch is just across the road from the museum.

We didn't bother to go into the Louvre to look at the art pieces cos the queue was crazy long even though it was late afternoon and close to the museum's closing time. Besides, I'm not one who knows how to appreciate fine art, hence paying the rather expensive entrance fee would have been a waste of money for me.

Anyhoo, Paris is really lovely in Spring (though it got abit too cold at times) and walking long distances did not seem as tiring as it would have been if it was say, Summer or Winter.