Au Revior Paris!

I couldn't sleep much last night for some odd reason and was up at 7:45a this morning to get ready to go home! We checked out of our hotel at 8.30a and decided to take a taxi to the airport. We thought since our Paris transit passes expired yesterday, we'd split the taxi cost amongst us and the difference was for our peace of mind of not having to fuss about not getting there on time. Plus, we had asked the hotel reception the night before how much it'll cost us approximately and were told about 15€. OMFG, the taxi ride was f'n expensive! I mean, did I mention it was *^$#*&$#*^$ EXPENSIVE?? Like, with a capital F? Instead of our anticipated 15€, it was more like 52€!! Like FML!! After 3 disgruntled passengers got off the taxi, I whipped out my ipod and read the freaking Frommer's guidebook for the umteenth time to see if I've missed their "taxi tips" anywhere. Nope, no where to be seen. Apparently, there are 3 "zones" and depending on time of day of travel, there are also a 3 different rates. Little did we know, we were classified in RATE C (which of course is the most expensive rate at something outrageous like 1,31€ per click or something like that, being the rate for travel on a Sunday to the airport). On top of which we were charged 2€ for the use of the trunk for our luggage, a "customary" 15% gratuity, AND a freaking pick up fee!!! So our supposedly $22.50 CAD taxi ride became a raping $78.00 CAD!!! I'm sure you can tell we were NOT happy campers at that point.

We checked ourselves in, grabbed a bit of a bite to eat (I only had a croissant because now I'm broke from the taxi ride, LOL), and browsed the duty free shop for good buys. My spirits lifted a bit when I noticed the really cheap wines and champagnes! I picked up a bottle of Moet Brut while Meishan happily snatched up a "heavily discounted" bottle of Dom Perignon. At 41€ and 119€ respectively, how can we go wrong? Well, actually we can. We didn't realize we were both allowed two bottles each so we only bought one. I wanted a bottle of Dom too!! Oh well, better safe than sorry I suppose. We lined up at 10:30a to board what we thought was a plane only to find out that it was a shuttle bus that took us from the gate to the middle of a runway. We had to board the plane from outside. Talk about tacky. At least the plane took off on time. Sigh, our last day is rainy and miserable too! Bye bye Paris!

Nov.14.10 12:21p (Toronto time)

Almost home la! I'm just having a sweet potato salsa wrap and listening to the pod. Earlier I took a quick nap after having a lunch of spinach fettuccine with chicken in gravy and watching Karate Kid. My, Jaden Smith is pretty good.

Parapluie Lacking

What a yucky day today!! Les Miserables we were for the entire wet, rainy Saturday. Running on almost no sleep, we all got up at 11:00a to tackle our final drippy, touristy filled day. Despite looking out the hotel window and declaring that it is incredibly windy and wet out, I took the chance and brought along my camera. Good thing the camera bag comes with a "rain coat".

We took the Métro (subway) out to Opéra and found ourselves with lunch (or brunch or whatever) at a cafe chain called Brioche Dorée where for the first time since I've step foot onto French soil, was "forced" to carry a conversation entirely in French. Yes! and they understood it! Hah! I enjoyed my pain au chocolat, tartlette framboise and moyen latte machiato that much more. =)

After lunch, we walked around the area for a bit, then headed off to the Place de la Concorde, an Egyptian obelisk that's supposed to be the oldest manmade object in Paris. With the rain coming down much harder, it was pretty much a "oh look, take photo, let's leave" kind of thingy. Sigh. Stupid rain.

We then proceeded with our "spectacular" 3.2km walk down toward Champs-Elysées, where we did a bit of "shopping" (it was more like window shopping although Tinlop did manage to pick something up at H&M). At the end of the Yorkville of Paris was the Arc de Triomphe, the greatest triumphal arch in the world. Mind you, it looks much like any other damned arches I've seen elsewhere (ie Rome, Paris, CNE - lol!) but then again, what do I know?

As suggested by the Frommer's guide to Paris, we then dripped our way over to La Tour Eiffel to see it in daylight where of course, Tinlop would just not stop singing 失落於巴黎鐵塔下. That song is soooo 上腦.



By then, the wind and rain really started to bother me and the three of us didn't care to do much but rest up and perhaps grab dinner so back to Le Carrousel (at Louvre, yes again) we went for a Parisien McD combo, a macaron, and most importantly, to the Apple Store to charge ma pod!! Did I mention the washrooms are free to use there? Free washrooms FTW!!

After devouring my last potato wedge from my McD combo, we walked around the Virgin store (which is very much like our Indigo) and bought the Pierre Hermé Macaron book. It's entirely in French, but I couldn't resist getting it for 30€ after finding out it costs $104 on amazon.ca. Mmm, can't wait to try the recipes!

We made a stop at the local supermarket to buy some pate, ham and crackers to snack on before getting back to the hotel, shortly after 9:00p to pack and get ready to bid adieu to Paris!

Un Jour Dans La Ville Romantique de Paris

Nov.13.10 4:57a

Just about to go to sleep after 6+hrs of girl talk and gossip! Still jet lagged? Or is it the tea at dinnertime? Maybe has something to do with the fact that we didn't get up until after 11am today!

Our first full day in the romantic city of Paris started kinda late. Funny how this trip is entirely "un" frantic. I'm pretty positive that the weather has everything to do with that! We were lucky to just have a slight drizzle here and there today so I was able to bring out the camera. I suppose that is a win. Not being able to take photos while away on vacation in a city worth using 12375124383 rolls of film really sucks, you know?

We stopped off first at Musee de Louvre at about 12:30p. Seeing we were hungry, we decided to eat lunch before heading in to see Ms. Mona. We walked a good half hour, trying not to get lost and went to La Pied de Cochon for our 3hr lunch. Omg, 3 hrs !! Had their famous oh so yummy yet oh so salty soupe d'oignon, pig feet platter equipped with tail, snout & ear, oh so fat but oh so yummy bone marrow straight from the big bone, 3 types of fresh sorbet (apple, lime, strawberry) and a huge creme brulee. Very different from the Montreal version of the eatery but definitely good onion soup! Very expensive lunch though. At that point we decided we'd be frugal for dinner, lol.

After lunch we went to check out the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame. Nothing compared to the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, but it's the same idea. We strolled along the streets a bit before we decided to head back to Louvre for the evening admission special of 6€! That's a wonderful savings of 3€ per person! Although it's still not enough to cover the bottle of water we had for lunch :(

At the entrance to Louvre, we stopped at the Apple Store (how conveniently located) to charge my pod, which was running very low on juice, since we weren't prepared to come to Paris!! LOL!

Spent a few hours at Louvre and damn, Ms. Mona is not that impressive... I still think she's fake. By the time we got to the sculptures area of the museum, Tinlop and I were so tired, we left Meishan to go off by herself to take photos of what seem like every naked 16 feet tall man and woman portrayed in a sculpture. Sigh, I'm so not artsy...

Dinner time rolled along and we ended up at a Chinese food restaurant (called Auberge du something, LOL) since the cafe we wanted to try only opened for tea. We were definitely happy to be able to communicate freely with the servers there as they all spoke Cantonese! Win! What's even better is that it wasn't totally chop suey, we actually had 菜心! Only thing we couldn't get over was that Meishan's hot water cost 3.2€. Yikes!!

We got back to the hotel by 11:30p and after hours and hours of chatting, I'm now off to bed. (5:18a)

Evening stroll along the streets of Paris

La Tour Eiffel, La Tour Eiffel ...

La Tour Eiffel, La Tour Eiffel 沒法抵償的心, 已失落於巴黎鐵塔下

Nov.10.10 - 7:58p

How 擺烏龍 is this? Our original last minute Vegas trip just turned into a Paris vacation! Our plan was to head to sunny Las Vegas for the weekend and catch a few shows and soak in some sunshine. Since we "couldn't get on the Vegas flight", Meishan, Tinlop and I decided last minute to fly to Paris and 食個 lunch. Tee hee. This flight is pretty empty, with Mei and I each hogging an entire row of seats to ourselves. Boarding was supposed to have started at 7:15p but for some reason, we were just let on. Now we're patiently waiting for the plane to take off. (8:04p)

Nov. 10.10 - 10:48p

Wah wah wah! 細V wasn't kidding when she said she was crying watching Toy Story 3. I was bawling! Dinner was served shortly after I woke up from a nap at around 9ish, and since 電視撈飯 is the only way to go on a flight, I decided to watch Toy Story 3. Great movie.

Dinner was a really boring penne with chicken. Can't complain I guess, since it was actually semi palatable. It's actually going to be quite a while before we land so I might as well try and sleep. (10:56pm)

Nov.12.10 - 1:21am Paris time

We're now back at the hotel after a bit of wet Paris goodness.

To recap the rest of the day, I threw up twice before landing because I actually thought I could get away with not taking any Gravol. That was a stupid idea. Landed at Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle pretty much on time at 10a-ish and walked a very, very long walk before getting out of airport. OMG, it's cold!!! and wet...eeek! Bought our subway passes and took the subway out to our hotel, which we didn't have much difficulty finding. Enroute, we encountered our first "subway performer" and got suckered into giving him money. We had no clue, LOL~! Mind you, we had no euro either, so we gave him US change. He wasn't too pleased with that, haha! They're everywhere though. After the first encounter, we knew better and didn't bother giving out any more money. In one day, we saw 2 singers, 1 clarinet player and 1 accordion duet. These "performers" are pretty aggressive! I wonder if they have real jobs.

Had McD's for lunch after getting some euro at freaking 1.5. Much better than Rome I guess...so expensive! Especially when I know the exchange rate is only 1.38. Ripped off once again, but at least I wasn't raped. We saw the Arc de Triomph and la Tour Eiffel in the dark and in the rain. We'll go back tomorrow to see it in daylight after we visit the Louvre.

Ate dinner at a cafe (Cafe Kleber) for 18euro (tomato & cheese salad and onion soup only...) but really wanna try Au Pied de Cochon tomorrow!

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at a "convenience store" that they called a marche to grab a very yummy (and relatively inexpensive) peach flavoured Schwepps! Yum! Chor'd some dee to kill time and laughed hysterically at Meishan's attempt to put on body lotion but later found out it was actually Dove body wash. LOL~!

Now I'm exhausted. (1:52a)

Another 細V Moment

I had another 細V moment this morning as I rummaged through my bottles amongst bottles of stuffs underneath my bathroom sink trying to find a new bottle of shampoo. Guess what I found?? Yep, 4 bottles of conditioner. No where near V's 9 bottles, but the idea is...no shampoo to match those bottles. Geez. Talk about 細V精神: 與你生活息息相關. LOL~! 好在係間唔中啫. =D

On a Cold November Night...

I crave poutine.

Again.