Friday, August 28, 2009

I wuz here


Jules and his family joined the rest of the over 32 million tourists to Paris each year. According to Econovista, Paris' promotion department, the city is the world's most popular tourist destination.

We visited many sights in Paris over the past 6 days. We checked in at the necessary attractions: the Eiffel Tower, Lourve museum and palace, Pompidou Centre, Panthéon, Notre-Dame, Jardin des Tuileries. We also went shopping at the famous Galeries Lafayette and admired its beautiful stained glass ceiling. As we strolled through the city, we also saw countless wonderful churches, opera houses, museums and other buildings whose names were too insignificant to feature on our tourist map.

We rested our tired feet at cosy cafés and munched on delectable sandwiches and pastries. There was the organic market where we snacked on fig and nut bread, muffins and even a piece of freshly rotisserie chicken. We headed to Paris' specialty street for crepes and apple cider. Our children savoured steaming bowls of wakame udon. Japanese was one of their favourite cuisine and the last time they had it professionally done was back in March.

I made time for a haircut, having had 6 inches snipped off. Ala Audrey Hepburn in the Roman Holiday, my friend tells me. Why go all the way to Paris? Because it is cheaper in Paris than Helsinki...

HG also had his hair trimmed. I noticed the hairdresser didn't speak English although her colleague helped to translate his requests. What do you think is the result?

Although we had more time this round, there are still sights I wish I could have visited. Like the Musee d'Orsay, the Bastille, Montmartre district and Little Vietnam where another friend has sourced a list of good restaurants. Do you know you can get the nicest baguettes outside France in Vietnam? I can imagine the reverse is true: one can get very good Viet food outside Vietnam in France.

Our lives and resources are too limited. I can't get enough of Paris. I'm thinking of going back already but I also want to visit other parts of France, Sweden, Britain, Japan, Korea... and the list goes on!

Can't wait to go to the next destination to stamp my mark "MZ wuz here".




No comments:

Post a Comment