Bonjour Readers!!!
Welcome back to the second part of my Paris trip! In my first post, I mentioned about the Places of Attractions. So in my second post, I will talk about my shopping trip, a little bit on the food and also how I celebrated Valentine Day in Paris ~~
Shopping
La Fayette Shopping
- located at Chaussée d'Antin Station
This is probably one of the best place with a wide variety of designers and branded collections under one roof. In a departmental store concept, they have brands that include but not limited to Louis Vuitton (LV), Chanel, Longchamp, Agnes b... Be prepared to queue for certain popular brands, such as Chanel and Longchamp. LV is designed as a open concept, with long tables and staffs waiting to serve you. As there are many tourists visiting La Fayette, do expect queues and a definite must have a lot of patience. Paris souvenirs can also to be bought here. Overall, I had a pretty fun time shopping :D
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| View from the top! |
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| Queue at Longchamp! |
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| Bags at Agnes b |
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| Cheese found in La Fayette's departmental food stall! |
- located at Chaussée d'Antin Station
Printemps is located near La Fayette. If you want to avoid the crowd at La Fayette and buy branded stuffs, this is probably another place for you to visit. They have products from branded handbags and wallet to designer clothes for men and women. If you are hungry, do try out their macarons from Laduree!
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| LV in Printemps |
As we were wondering in Printemps, I had an urgent need to use the toilet. We followed the directory to the washroom, and ended up at a very posh toilet -.-"' I can't remember the exact price to pay to use their washroom, but if I'm not wrong, it's around 2€, very very expensive >.< Let's see how posh it is...
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| Toilet rolls at 2€ anyone? |
Pizza Nellie
- Address: 96 rue Raymond Losserand 75014 Paris (Tel: 01 45 41 00 12)
Pizza Nellie is located near our hotel. The hotel staffs told us that we could get some dinner nearby. Therefore, as we were wondering around the vicinity of our hotel and we felt like eating pasta, we were quite happy when found this place (many shops were closed already)!
Sirop de Menthe (3€) / Jus de Fruits (3€)
Mint syrup / Fruit juice
Appetizer (FOC)
Salmone (10,50€)
Fresh salmon, shallot, tomato sauce, cream
Noix De St Jacques A La Crème Et Champignons (11,50€)
Scallops, cream and mushrooms - pettine, cream e funghi
L'envie
- Address: Another place to eat near the hotel is L'ENVIE. This is located nearer to our hotel. We took a quick bite here to try out their local food.
Foie Gras (10€)
Raggmunk (11,50€)
Smoked salmon, fish egg roe, cream and red onions
- Address: 20 rue du Cloitre Notre Dame 75004 Paris (Tel: 01 43 54 34 67)
Located just opposite Notre Dame Cathedral, Ombre de Notre Dame had a cozy ambience in the cold harsh weather. When we were there, there was only one server, hence the food was served quite slow. I do like their Ham and Cheese Crepe... yumz...
Soupe A L Oignon (7€)
French Onion Soup
Jambon Fromage, Salade (8,50€)
Ham and cheese, palade
Caramel Banane (7€)
Caramel Banana
- Address: 32 bis rue Sainte Anne 75001 Paris (Tel: 01 47 03 38 59)
Tired of eating French food? Craving for some Asian Food? Try Higuma Lamen. Their Lamen soup base is different from those in Singapore, so it's worth a try :) A little sad that they don't have vinegar for the Gyoza.
Miso Set (10€)
Miso Lamen + Gyoza (7 pieces)
Champon Set (10€)
Champon Lamen + Gyoza (5 pieces)
Overall, I find that the food in Paris are very expensive compared Singapore. We hardly see any locals dining out. It's usually the tourists that are eating out. So if you are intending to visiting Paris, do set aside more money for food...
How did I celebrate my Valentine Day? We did not plan anything whilst in Singapore. It was only when we arrived at the Hotel, then we asked the staffs for recommendation who thus recommended......... date on a cruise :D So yes, we booked and did the arrangement with the friendly staffs. We were pretty excited about celebrating in Paris as Paris is well-known for their "city for lovers".
On 14 February 2013, the staff gave us a piece of paper indicating the place where we will board the boat. We were informed by the hotel staffs that our boat's name is "Marina de Paris". Being typical "kaisu" Singaporeans, we arrived earlier that evening to locate the meeting place as well as to walk around in the vicinity.
Guess what we saw while walking around? Yes yes! The Lovers Bridge! For those who have not heard of the Lovers Bridge, it's a bridge where couples lock padlock (usually with their names on the padlock or a short and sweet message) on the grills and toss the key into the river.
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| More padlocks found in the middle of the bridge |
We saw the sign with the boat name but.... no sign of the boat :(
We waited at the lovers bridge for a while as that was supposedly the meeting place until we started to have panic attack as there was still no sign of the boat and time was approaching to the arranged time to board the boat. And then we saw it. The boat bearing the name "Marina de Paris" was cruising along the river until it reached near the Lovers Bridge and made a huge U Turn back to where it arrived -.-"'
We hurried along the river, following the boat (it went quite a long way) until it stopped at the dock.
We approached "Marina de Paris" and from afar, we could see the inside was decorated with tables and chairs. It had a romantic ambience and there were singers serenading couples with their songs. Yes it's Valentine Day, but even girls came as a couple (so it's not only a boy and a girl who made up a couple) and when the boat was about to go, a group of tourists came -.-"' thankfully, they were not very noisy.
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| Look at the beautifully decorated table <3 |
And here comes the food!!!!
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| The chocolate on the cake had the word "je t'aime" which means I love you in french |
And while we were eating, the boat cruised along the river. The view was extraordinarily beautiful. Appended below are some pictures of the night scene in Paris :D unfortunately the pictures did not come out as nice as what we saw due to the reflection from the glass :(
Snippets of Paris
Here are some other pictures which I took in Paris...
Overall, I liked Paris. Their buildings are all beautifully designed. No wonder people like to take pre-wedding pictures in Paris. Hotels are small... really small... but well, we managed. One of the best moments was that I saw Eiffel Tower! *Jumping with joy* Valentine Day was romantic, the ambience on the cruise was really sweet. However, nothing much to boast about their food. A lot of arty farty museum, and since I do not really appreciate art, it was quite a waste on me.
And so... that's the end of my Paris trip. We headed to Rome next... so stay tune :P Merci!
Tiny Pea
