Second trip to Paris

Photos

Last sunday I made my second trip to Paris, this time I had the whole day to explore the city. Me, Stefan (Canadian), Micheal, Konrad, and Martin (German) woke up at 6:30 AM in the morning to catch the first train from Compiegne to Paris.

We were fortunately blessed with good weather for the whole day. The first stop was Chateau Versailles, which was south-west of Paris. It is the cheateau that Louis 14 lived at, and where the Versailles treaty was signed. Pretty significant place.

It was a cheateau surrounded by a giant garden. We didn't really go into the Chateau, just walked around the park. Personally, after seeing the royal Chateau in Belgium, this one is just not as impressive. Perhaps it's more for historical reasons that it's popular.

We went back to center town and tried to decide what to do. We then went to Notre Dame church (I didn't see the hunchback though!) The archtitecture of this building is extremely symetric, even the graphic designs on stained glass are paired up through out the church.

Next we went to Le Sacré Coeur, one of the place in Paris that has the highest elevation in the city. It was the first time that I got a chance to see Paris from a higher ground and the view of the city itself is just breath taking. It's hard to imaging how many houses are actually in the city until you see it. You can of course see the Eiffel Tower from a distance, spotting Notre Dame, and the Arc of Triumph.

It was also the place where a scene of "Amelie" (I corrected it for you Richard) was filmed, when Emily kept on giving Nino hints to find her. It's just felt really unreal that you keep on hearing about this place, keep on seeing this place, and now you are physically at that place. Indeed, moments like that are not easy to find.

We also visited the Moulin Rouge. Crazy prices though, 70 euros for a bottle of wine. Not our kinds of entertainment!

At the end of the day, we found out that going up the Arc of Triumph was free for the day! So we went up there to see the sunset. The best part was The Eiffel tower was flashing like a piece of jewel for about 3 mins. The Champs-Elysees was also very beautiful, extending its way up to the Lourve.

After the second visit to Paris, I still haven't see anything yet. Still need to go visit the museums. But I guess that is just Paris, always makes you want to come back for more.