After our last class ever for the semester on Friday (which was for Financial Management), the sky was a dazzling blue and cold as it may have been, we felt the urge to be outdoors. So following class, instead of our usual trek back home and staying home… we ended up going to Paris for the afternoon after lunch!
L’hiver à Paris
On the agenda also, was to visit the airline office for Air China to change our return dates for the flight home since we couldn’t pick them originally as we bought them too early. Unfortunately, the last leg of the return trip we wanted was not available and nor were the days around it - bummer! So we had to make do with moving everything forward a few days and shortening others, arriving at the following:
25 June 2010: Paris - Beijing
2 July: Beijing - Shanghai
8 July: Shanghai - Sydney (arriving the morning of 9 July)
Following our successful flight amendments, we embarked on our way to Parc Monceau nearby, although unfortunately the sky had mostly clouded over! Regardless, it was still a wintery beautiful atmosphere and we strolled around the park taking in the grandeur of the trees, the colours and also the sounds of youth (packs of young school children playing and screaming).
One of my favourites - notice the contrast in size between the tree and the little girl that ran across to it seconds before we took the photo!
Just like in Harry Potter - a weeping willow! But in the middle of a pond @ Parc Monceau
As Parc Monceau was close to the quartier of Ternes (specifically the Place des Ternes, 8 & 17e arrond.) our plan was to head there after our park adventure to browse around the FNAC. A Fnac is the french version of a department store stocking all things electronic, games and books etc - sort of a mixture of JB Hi-Fi and Borders. The thing we loved most about the one located at Ternes was because it was the largest one = more range and browsing! On our way, we passed by a street market just around the corner from it, so we checked it out. It was full of quality produce and food, but we thought 8€ for a roast chicken…. or 5€ /kg of tomatoes weren’t worth the expenditure.
Fortunately however, there was a Paul (delicious french bakery/patisserie) in between the markets and Fnac, unable to control our taste buds and to escape from the cold - we decided to sit in and have a scrumptious late afternoon dessert. With so many delicacies to choose from, we ultimately ended up with the following (see below) and a café-crème to share.
Quiche aux 3 fromages - 3 cheeses including blue and goat’s (couldn’t taste distinctly the third). Interestingly, I (normally a hater of blue & goat’s cheese) didn’t find it that strong, so it turned out to be quite nice!
La Framboise nougat - a sweet cakey gourmet piece consisting of raspberry, coconut, nougat, nuts, cream and more! Delicious…
Anyway, coming back to reality from food heaven, we ultimately visited the Fnac and spent some time there browsing the e-games department (as G continues to fantasise owning a Wii or PS3 here in France…. good idea - we don’t have a TV!) and the books department. Unfortunately for some reason, this Fnac always seems to get really stuffy and uncomfortable after a while, making us get a headache/queasy so we eventually left in a huff like last time - but not without a purchase!!
Now, two weeks to Xmas (slightly less in fact) and getting pumped! Exams over by Friday this upcoming week, and completely exhausted today (Sunday). Yesterday, we had our last ‘culture-themed’ party at Cergy Les Hauts. With this time, being an Anglo-saxon (american/mexican, british, irish, aussie, canadian) party. Had a great time and learnt how to play Beer Pong - requires much skill in fact. And also, Flip Cup (with 2 teams of 4, where we KICKED G’s ass!) and of course, taught others the magical fun of Kings :) !
On the first full day, we set out on the very typical tourist track and visited mainly 3 attractions: the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Vatican Museums.
The Trevi Fountain was definitely beautiful and huge. You just turn the corner from a side street and BAM! Huge crowds, tourists and children all trying to get a sight of this massive fountain in the middle of the town. We threw coins into the fountain for good luck too (according to G). There was also a great shoe store right next door to the Fountain, being a shoe-lover… we had to go in of course, and I came out with dark navy blue suede flats with detail on the top made from the same material designed in a way to look like petals of a sunflower. Weren’t too expensive, classic and cute!
Close-up of a part of the Trevi Fountain
Happy with a successful shopping experience, we then went to check out the Pantheon. The shock of this gigantesque monument being in the middle of the city and surrounded by such modern shops and architecture was a shocking contrast - particularly as it’s essentially the first thing you see after you leave the station and walk out into the open area of the city. The intricate construction of the pillars inside and out, the ceiling décor and particularly the technical structure of the dome and rotunda was breathtaking. I will say no more and you can admire the photos for yourself :)
Inner dome of the Pantheon
Pillars within the Pantheon
After what was already quite a busy day walking around under the heat, eating gelato, shoe-shopping (!) and site-seeing, one last thing still eluded us… the Vatican and its museums! This was the most epic part of the day, as when we finally got there the line to the Vatican itself was so ridiculously long, that it would have been a complete waste of time standing, waiting and getting burnt for at least 30 mins, that we decided to skip it and head to the Vatican museums instead (that we had fortunately booked online for - definitely recommended!! We skipped quite a long queue here as well!) Having never experienced the Vatican museums (unlike G), I was definitely not prepared for what was in front of me. Stairs and stairs leading you from left to right, up to down, whilst all along seeing thousands of Roman sculptural heads people, hallways of paintings and animal sculptures, even an ancient Egyptian area… and then finally, arriving at the Sistine Chapel. Where photographs were disallowed, noise was kept to a very low minimum (or at least they tried to make it so…) and the magic of Michelangelo surrounded you. Massive would be an understatement, most definitely something that one needs to go see for themselves. Wikipedia would surely not do the artwork or Chapel any justice! We managed to find a ledge within the Chapel to sit on to admire its beauty, which took at least 20 mins. Eventually, we left due to the heat and made our way slowly back for a scrumptious Asian dinner ;)
Within the Vatican Museum
1. Outside the Cergy les Hauts résidence
2. Tulips from G for my 21st
3. Strawberry macaron
4. Outside the Cergy les Hauts résidence
5. Raspberry & custard macaron
