Paris - A walk with Art (30 December 2007)

5:09 PM


Our last day in Paris. We started our day with Jardin du Luxembourg. It was just a few blocks away from our hotel in Latin Quarter. It is the largest public park in the city.
The garden is famous for its calm atmosphere. I guessed many people will come here to relax during summer as there were many chairs similar to Jardin du Tuilleries.
There was a pond, Luxembourg Palace when we came in. I think it was winter time, so, not much people was around except a few jogging around the garden. We strolled around the garden, relaxing and freezing. The garden did instead give us sense of calmness as we felt that it is more like a normal local garden.

We went back to our hotel, packed our stuffs and proceed to checkout before we continued to explore Paris. We left our luggage in the hotel after checkout.

University Sorbonne is just a few steps way from our hotel. We passed by almost everyday. Today, we purposely took some time to take some pictures of it. It is not a tourist spot, but I just think I should mentioned about it.

Before I forgot, there is a supermarket nearby too. Monoprix was our supply of water in Paris.
The shop was kind of different and special as compared to other supermarket. When we first entered the shop, it was like a bread shop with small sitting place for you to enjoy your bread. Further inside, it was like normal supermarket. And there was even an underground level, a wine/champagne specialty corner promoting french red/white wine and champagne. It was very tempting, but I am not a good drinker and my wife is not a drinker either, I had to give up buying. But we did buy some red wine as souvenir.

We replenished our water supply and proceed to Metro station.

One thing I like about Paris Metro was, the train looked old, but it still able to run at high speed. There was time when a few street performers will board the train to sing a song or two with his guitar, soliciting for money.

We boarded at Saint-Michel again, going towards Anvers. We changed at Gare du Nord towards Anvers.

We were going to Sacre Coeur. We alighted at Anvers, follow the crowds, we came to a street with many stalls selling souvenir. We were so excited, the shopowners were mostly very friendly. We hopped from one shop to another till almost lost among the shops and forgotten about Sacre Coeur.

After we manged to pull ourselves out from the shops, it was an uphill task to Sacre Coeur. Yes, you need to walk up the hill, walk up the staircase. It was worth it as every step you took, and when you put your head up, the white church with blue sky was very motivating.
There were many tourists and locals climbing up the stairs. There were also many merchants selling souvenirs trying to talk to us. Do be more careful when there are many people around.
We were so lucky that the sky was so blue, it really made Sacre Coeur stand out.

Sacre Coeur was closed. It was sunday. We just had a walk round the building to the back. We continued our journey to Montmartre.


Montmartre is an artists heaven. Many artists lived or worked here such as Salvador Dali, Claude Money, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh.

Indeed, there were many artists gathered at a square and drawing there. They were very concentrate on drawing. They were selling their painting too. The paintings were really great. We don't know how to appreciate painting, but we liked the atmosphere there, and managed to see so many artists gathered here.

Along the streets, there were many shops selling reproduction of famous paintings. Each of the painting was very attracting and it was selling at EUR1 or EUR2, very cheap. We bought some to decorate our house. :)


Following the crowds, we were planning to go to Moulin Rouge. Again, we lost our way. The map we had was not comprehensive enough.. hehee.. So, we stopped for lunch.

After lunch, we found Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889. It offers musical dance entertainment for adult visitors. The most famous dance in Mouline Rouge is the traditional French Can-Can dance.
There were topless dancing too.

The area was famous as red light district too, which is near Pigalle. We boarded metro in Pigalle station to go back hotel, to end our Paris trip.
Our Paris was memorable one. Paris is indeed a City of Light. The city is well planned, developed and maintained. Every bridge on Seine River also has its own uniqueness.
Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Versailles Palace, Sacre Couer, Champs-Elysees, Jardin de Tuileries definitely make our trip worthwhile. Going up to the top of Eiffel Tower is definitely eye-opening. If you have the time and money, you can try to have a cup of coffee at the Level 1 of Eiffel Tower while admiring the scene. There are of course many more attractions, activities that can be done in Paris.
France is famous for French food and their wine. Don't miss to try out their duck meat, Froi Gras, Pate, escargot and many other cuisines.
Hotel Cluny-Sorbonne overall was satisfactory. It was a bit expensive compare to other hotels in Italy, that's Paris.
We had a good time in Paris.

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