partying in paris

And then there were three. Yep, after a 15 year hiatus, the original trio met up again, this time for an Eurotrip! Travelling with mom and aunt Helen certainly brought back (maybe not so fond) memories of our Australian trip when I was in primary 2. =P

After the initial scare, both of them still managed to spend a couple of fun filled days here in Grenoble, which included an excursion to the Vercors with the Morels and the Tans.

at Pont en Royans

So anyway we left for Paris on a wet and dreary Thursday morning. Reached there on an equally wet and dreary mid-morning. Nevertheless we still managed to amble around town, going up the Eiffel Tower and then strolling down the Champs Élysées, where we (or rather, my mom) headed straight for the jugular at the LV store. Met up with Jianhui as well for dinner and it was about then when the two ladies started to lose the plot. Poor things must have not been used to the cold and the walking, and after a quick dinner at Hippopotamus they had to head back to the hotel.

Which was really a pity, for Paris at night is a completely different creature from its daytime counterpart. Down comes the elegant store shutters, out goes the diurnal tourists, and the city of light reveals its true colours. Went clubbing with the rest of the Parisiens and then I tried to go to Buddha Bar at 4 in the morning but it was closed! I mean like why is Buddha Bar sleeping when the rest of the world has just started partying? Grrr.

tour Eiffel

paris from the top

3 of us

le Queen

the Parismus and me

Day 2 and the ladies were still not in the best of shape so I took off myself. Visited some museums like the Musée d'Orsay and Geroges Pompidou which I never went to in my previous excursions up to the capital. As Jianhui says, one cannot possibly finish visiting all the museums in Paris, so the least I could do was to visit the more popular ones. Pompidou's modern art was cool, and was a welcome change to the usual classical European art pieces.

After the museums I headed to the École Militaire. It is out of bounds for visitors but apparently members of foreign military organisations can go in and visit! Yaay. I flashed my SAF 11B and was greeted with "Bienvenue et bonne visite" by the guards. The school was really impressive and it brought back memories of my days in OCS. Its hard to imagine that just opposite the Eiffel Tower lies a fully functioning military camp, replete with a working stable and MT line! Seriously.

Then I walked around some more and then I went to the Louvre. Again! Because it was Friday-free-to-students-under-26-night and you just have to love the French for this. Brilliant. Then I went to meet Lucien at his place for dinner. Apparently he has established some rapport with this restaurant near his place and which he can call "his own" now. I wonder how much has he spent there to infiltrate the French's inner circle of trust! =D Anyways I had the best magret de canard and then we tried to go to Buddha Bar again but it was in the midst of closing at like 130am? Like seriously WTF.

paris from the top of the Pompidou

nice artpiece inside

école militaire

le Louvre encore

le crépuscule

Started Saturday with a 15km run along the Seine to burn off all the liquid carbohydrates ingested from the previous two days of partying. Surprisingly for such a large city, Paris was quite runnable! Wide pavements, tolerant motorists and of course the superb views made it a very pleasurable run. Then I met up with my mom and aunt and we headed down to the Louvre. This time I did not go in (not free mah), but instead I crossed over the Seine and visited the Tulleries. It was nice there but then it started raining and so I went back to the Louvre to pick the two ladies up to go shopping. Fortunately after a while the rain had stopped and so we took the Batobus down to the Champs Élysées. Mom went mad again and bought a couple of things while I mainly just window shopped. Tells you a lot about the difference in purchasing power parity of a working woman and a poor student! =D

group shot

paris from the quays

Anyways after that I dropped them off again and I went for pre-dinner drinks at Buddha Bar with Lucien. It had better be open at 8pm on a Saturday night! I reached earlier than Lucien and amazingly the bouncer recognised me from the previous nights and we made some small talk. Then we went in. The ambience of the entire place just exuded coolness! We couldn't find a table where we could admire the giant Buddha statue, so we went to the bar, which was craved in the shape of a huge dragon. Super.

3 drinks and €106 later, it was time to get back for dinner, a little early, but not as though I could afford (literally) to stay any longer. I had, at that point in time, truly reached enlightenment (of my wallet)! Heh.

entrance to nirvana

giant Buddha

me and my funky buddha