if you're wondering why im blogging on facebook, I'm not! This is appearing in facebook because I just linked it to 'notes in facebook'. amazing facebook!
So now I'm blogging after a 16 hour nap and a great day with Si, but my journey to the City of lights (very gorgeous) was not smooth sailing. NOT smooth sailing at all.
It all started with a 45 minute delay for the New York - Washington flight from La Garbage that decided to morph into a full fledged 4 hour wait (fog here, fog that, fog whatever) and ultimately ended with the murdering of my connecting flight from Washington Dulles to Paris CDG. So that saw me heading back to Manhattan, crashing at Yihan's place for one night, and returning to La Garbage at 8 am in the morning. Alot of $ and alot of time wasted. Ho hum.
The good thing about that rescheduled flight was that I was definitely going to get a connecting flight from Washington to Paris. No fog, no godzilla, no nothing could beat a 6 hour lay over in between. But hmmm. 6 hour lay over you say. Ho hum hum.
So when I reached Paris, I was greeted with 1) a half hour wait to the customs, and 2) a 50 min wait for the CDG-Paris shuttle. Ho hum hum hum. In all honesty, that wasn't too bad considering what I had been through actually.
So anyways, my nerves aside, I arrived in Paree safe and sound. :)
Paris is gorgeous, both in the day and in the night. Just really quite absolutely stunning. It's clean, nice, and the roads, surprise surprise, have NO POTHOLES! whee. The first thing that strikes you is that the architecture is all really quite similar and just very pretty. The second thing is that the buildings are all not taller than 6 storeys! The third is that there's alot of art in this city. The shuttle to Si's place saw me pass by 2 roundabouts (dunno what they are) with gorgeous sculptures in the middle. Really nice to have such fantastic art dotted all around the city.
The city of Paris is in erm, zone 1 and the concentric circles around paris are like zone 2, 3, so on and so forth. It's like zone 1 and 2 are Manhattan, zone 3 onwards is Brookyln/Queens sort of. Or in Singapore, then well, maybe erm, the whole of Singapore is Zone 1 , 2 and 3. ha. I don't really quite get it, but yes thats how it is. I'm like, "Isn't zone 4 Paris?" but no, its not really. hmmm.
So upon reaching Si's place, she decided to bring me out of Paris, to its suburbs in zone 5 for a BBQ held by a Singaporean family. Though the trip there took like 1.5 hours (a trauma considering that I just had a 7 hour flight), it was real worth it because the company was great, the food was awesome, and well, I got to see more of Grande-Paris (thats what si says all the zones are called together)!
Train out to the suburbs.
Si and I.
introducing my new friends, the trains Vick and Sara. Lara is bitchy so she's not my friend.
Ok, I know what you're thinking but no, the suburbs are not like rural. This is just one way to get to a great gorgeous lake near the place of the Singaporean couple's place. In fact, the suburb we went to was really quite gorgeous. Clean and neat, think of Wisteria lane in despo housewives. haha.
Sara, Lara, Hara, Fara and Zara.
Some Architecture by a famous architect in the middle of the lake.
The man in the black jacket in the middle is Mr Chandran Nair, one of the hosts of the gathering.
As I rip from online: Chandran Nair is a Singaporean poet and retired Director and Mediator of UNESCO in Paris. Impressive huh. and he paints as well. amazing. The Lady on the right is Aurora's Mom and she works at the Singaporean Embassy in France.
Mr Chandran Nair's daughter on the left, Rika. She's been born and raised in Paris though, so I think she's more Parisian than Singaporean!
Mr Nair's wife, Ivy. She had cooked and prepared the whole sumptuous feast. That above is just the desserts. AMAZZZZINGGGGGGG.
Jevon and Si having a good laugh.
This was the next day, after a 16 hour nap. YUMMMM.
One of the unis in Paris.
BY THE WAY.
I STRONGLY ADVOCATE FOR A SINGAPOREAN TRAM SERVICE!!! it would be GREAT if singapore had a tram service plying the down town area. They should get trams and have as few buses as possible. The trams in Paris are cute, airconditioned, and make futuristic whirring noises. There's this tram thing called the 'worm' and in between the tracks is GRASS! A brilliant touch there. It looks great (grass looks so MUCH better than concrete/gravel) and is environmentally friendly!
Singapore really should have a tram service. I heard rumours that LTA is looking into having one downtown and I really hope that plan materializes.
Talking about environmental friendliness, there's this bicycle renting system in Paris where u can get a bike and ride it all around Paris and then park it at any of the designated spots.
Louvre.
Man dunno picking what at the Louvre (coins i suppose)
You can see the L'arc the triomphe within that nearer arc. SEE IT? If you don't see it, don't fret. You're just far sighted.
This is the entrance to Sorbonne- the Uni that Si goes to. It's the oldest Uni in France (think like 800 freaking years old!!!!!!!!!!) and very prestigious. There's like a strike going on now so notice the board at the bottom? they're posters FOR the strike and AGAINST the strike. haha. funny.
More bicycles glowing eerily green outside Sorbonne.
And now for my masterpiece, NOTRE DAME PHOTOSHOP STITCHED TOGETHER!!:
Because I did not have a DSLR I could not capture the whole of the Notre Dame with my cam, so I took a few pics and stitched it together using photoshop. Just had to capture the beauty of that place for you guys.
Hmmmmm. yes.
So anyways, tomorrow I should be headed to the museums and then if everything goes well, on Tuesday I should be going for a SEGWAY TOUR OF PARIS!
G'night!
