Friday (20 Jul 07) - Looking happy before we went onboard the Eurostar from London Waterloo to Paris Gare du Nord. Could be our last time catching the Eurostar from Waterloo. From this November, the Eurostar will be running from Kings Cross.
Caroline all happy after a glass of wine!
Got to Paris - dropped off our bags in the hotel and walked along the Avenue Champs Elysee at midnight. Still heaps of people milling around and queuing up for crepes like us!
In the queue for crepes.
Finally our turn!!!
Back at the hotel at 1.00am. They were supposed to give us two twin rooms but ran out of rooms so gave us four single rooms instead. Tiny single room, reminded us of boarding dormitories. Spot the Burger Rings, all the way from Perth (thanks to Elisa for carting all the Aussie junk food that we miss)!
Early morning start - we were out and about at 9am. Printemps building us. The road was pretty quiet. We were waiting for Printemps and Galerie la Fayette to open at 9.30am.
Close up shot of Printemps.
Decided to have a coffee to wake us up before shops open.
We made sure we were out of the cafe at 9.30am on the dot.
After mad shopping in the morning, we had lunch at the rooftop of Printemps building which has a really nice view of Paris.
Eiffel Tower
Spot Sacre Ceur in the distance.
Group shot - there was a point when the four of us were walking in a row down a strip in Paris which reminded me of the scene in Sex & the City where the four ladies were strutting down a New York St. I can just see Denning shaking his head now and smirking: "oh please lah...you wish!!!"
Rue St Honore Faubourg - a popular shopping strip in Paris with all the designer fashion houses.
Stuck in the middle of Avenue Champs-Elysee, with the Arc de Triomphe in the distance.
On our way to dinner.
Check out the cloudy skies. We were lucky to get only a little bit of rain on Saturday.
Cath took us to a great restaurant, "Cafe de L'esplanade", near the Invalides in the 7th district. Food was great and the restaurant was really smart-looking. Hey Galv, the guy who sat on the table next door reminded us of you - he had the white sophisticated jacket with white pants - the "European look" that you so aspire!
Foie gras entree - we only ordered one but they came out with two serves. We were stuffed by the end of our entree. Goose liver was a first for me!
Very important to take pics of the food before we destroy them!
Check out the green escargot!!! The green is actually just some garnished herbs, it's not the actual colour of the snails, don't worry!
Here we go! Scary-looking stuff but it was surprisingly yummy!
Caroline's sea bass
Elisa and I had the crispy fried duck, came with rice too! Tasted really good. We kept saying how much Galv, Garry and Den would enjoy this!
Walked along the Champs-Elysee again after dinner and walked into the Toyota showroom.
On our way back to our hotel, we passed "Chez Ly" (we call it Tina's Restaurant cause it has the same surname as Tina). Garry and I ate here with Den, Elisa and Caroline the last time we were in Paris, and they trusted me to do the ordering given I was supposedly fluent in Mandarin. I had a rather embarrassing moment here. Couldn't remember how to say "tap water" in Mandarin, instead blurted out the Mandarin words "water that does not need money" (literal translation). I guess I made my point clear.
Sunday (22 Jul 07) - Breakfast at Laduree, famous for their Macaroons (not those coconut macaroons but they are basically two round wafer meringue biscuits with cream sandwiched in between the two biscuits) and rose flavoured pastries.
Rose cream pastry
Really pretty Parisian decor inside Laduree
Along the Champs-Elysee
A shot of the Toyota showroom along Champs-Elysee during the day.
Moulin Rouge
Walking to Montmarte Artists Market.
Food stop - this bakery had the nicest quiche lorraine.
Passed some paintings of cute kittens.
This painting reminded me of Indi!!!!! But Maz, Indi is sooooooo much cuter!!! Indi also has a sparkly neck chain with the diamante I-N-D-I letters!
We passed a cafe selling really nice oil paintings of Paris landscape.
Spot Elisa charging ahead! She was amazing, it was only her second time in Paris, but her general sense of direction was really good. She knew where things were without reading the map!!!
Montmarte Painters Markets
Sculpture inside a gallery
I like this painting of the blonde girl (she is sitting down on the floor). Painter is doing a couple painting.
Now he is painting the blonde girl's boyfriend.
Cath getting a caricature done, whilst Elisa was doing hers too.
Elisa and the finished product! How cute!
Walking to the Metro back to our hotel to pick up our suitcases.
It was definitely a fun filled weekend in Paris without the boys!!! Hopefully we can do this again sometime next year. We'll have to crash at Cath's place in London next year, if we do end up coming again!!!
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