Un week-end à Paris.

Un week-end à Paris.

The weekend's come and gone, but everyday does feel like a holiday. After my skeptical first impressions of the city, I'm happy to report that I've gotten over the culture shock, and am slowly learning to appreciate this world so different from mine.

It helped that I had Ziliang's girlfriend, Huiyu, as my tourist-khaki for the past 3.5 days. We've just come back from exploring one of the food markets, and she should be boarding the train back to London right now. The rain held while we were strolling the food streets, but is now pouring down in sheets. Excellent for lazing away the afternoon in the apartment in my monkey pyjamas and catching up on emails and module-planning.



On Saturday morning, B and I took the uphill stroll to Montmarte, and climbed the million steps to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur for a gorgeous view of Paris. It was the first of several days of sunshine, at least in the early afternoon.


After an unsuccessful search of the famed cafe in which the movie Amélie was filmed, we headed to Mouffetard Market and roamed the streets lined with chocolatiers, pâttisiers, gourmet cheese shops, rotisseries, and fruit stalls bearing the lushest produce. We shared a chocolate eclair, then stopped at a tucked-away cafe for nutella and banana crepes. Oddly, we were exhausted when we got back, and slept for five whole hours before we got up for a supper of tossed salad, toast, cheese and pork sausages while watching Paris Je t'aime. I lasted barely 30 minutes before I was asleep before the laptop, haha.


I believe our Sunday epitomized the term 'lazy Sunday'. Brunch was nutella toast with the strawberries we bought at the Mouffetard Market, and we spent the next four hours or so on the couch watching a football match, before finally going out into the sunshine towards Champs de Mars (that's the grassy area in the picture).


It was there that I had my first few of the Eiffel Tower.


And it's reflection from the building across the street.



We trudged along gorgeous old estates with flowers in the balconies before arriving at the Champs-Élysées, the largest avenue in Paris lined with luxury boutiques and upmarket brands. This was the avenue in the song Marine taught me when we were in Dasada in India. "Oooh Champs-Élysées, padapadapa..." It's surreal to be singing about the street in January while in India, and actually strolling along it five months later.


Here we are at the Concorde, having walked the entire Champs-Élysées.


If you've seen The Devil Wears Prada, you'll recognize that this was the fountain in which Anne Hathaway threw her cellphone towards the end of the movie.


This is the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon.


There's always the row of luxury cars if you weren't already convinced of the hotel's exclusivity.


And I do think that the evening sunshine here is beautiful.


And here's our Japanese dinner to cap off our weekend. I've decided to stop converting euros to Singapore dollars, because my heart breaks a little each time. S$25 for three sticks of yakitori, rice and eight salmon maki in a takeaway box. Scotch tape for my wallet anyone...