Berets and Baguettes: day1&2

Day 1
took a hike from the train station in search of the hostel and found it about 20 min later (sleep deprived and all)... checked in, dumped bags and went off to our first touristy spot of the day - the Eiffel tower

super teenage ninja turtle u-glen

my first impression of Paris -- crap it's as gloomy as london... and so i asked Daddy God for some blue sky... just for a while to take photos with.. guess what happened =)
we went up the tower (climbed... and earned our lunch), came down and spotted this cute kid! btw i think the previous photo looks kinda obscene for some reason -.- maybe cos it's the 'iron lady'

ray of hope

and then came my blue sky! which lasted for about 5 min while we took the photos =D

went on to see Invalids, then walked to (and through) Champs-Élysées... found the famous macaroons from Laduree (yum. and really ex! 1.30 a piece!) and ended the day at Arc de Triomphe where we happened upon some commemorative ceremony... right place at the right time man... though glen probably disagrees cos we couldn't take nice photos - the place was just barricaded and the nice angles taken by camera crew =.=

Day 2
started off bright and early (with not enough sleep on my part) and headed down to Notre Dame de Paris. honestly. it looked like just another church on the inside (perhaps i've seen too many 'empty' buildings) but the gargoyles on the outside were amazingly lifelike. and the stairs to get to them were amazing too... painfully so.
next up was Musée d'Orsay with some funky (and kinky - but i didn't take photos) exhibits... and then a hike to The Panthéon where we didn't go in cos it was late, entrance fees disgusting and we were falling asleep on our feet. headed back to the hostel after that with much anticipation for dinner =)

hellooooooo anybody homeeee?oh i would so love to have this in my living room
tri-colour galore
tired travellers

we ended up nua-ing in the hotel instead of leaving to take a peek at the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on Montmarte (where we were staying)... which resulted in an interestingly stressful experience for me navigating down the hill to the dinner restaurant in as short a time as possible and finding that about 50% of the roads that were on the hill weren't marked on the tourist map. fun.

view from the hill

Dinner was an atas 3 course 31 euro affair at Bistrot des Vignes... well worth the money...

kir and wine
through a looking wine glass
1st course: Rabbit pate with prune and porto jelly
2nd course: Duck fillet in calvados sauce and mashed potatoes
3rd course: Homemade baba with St James rum
and dessert coffee =)

On the walk back to the hostel to work off the calories, we walked through the montmarte district proper. Paris wins the London red-light-district hands down... sex shops on a main road? no problem... gosh. and so we ended the touristy part of the day with glen using rach's head as a tripod - awesome innit?