Hotel de Ville is not a hotel like its name suggests but a City Hall in Paris. It is used to hold functions, house the local administration and the Mayor of Paris. When we were there, live tennis was shown on a large projector screen watched by the local crowd.
Restaurants are abundance in the area of Hotel de Ville so deciding where to eat posed more of a problem. In the end we headed to Pizza Sant Antonio at rue de la Verrerie, without knowing they are actually one of the best pizza restaurant in Paris. Now who would have knew?
So we made a mistake here by not ordering pizza despite pizza being their specialty. We wanted to save pizza for Italy, you see. My Provencal-styled Scallops was priced at €14.50 and came with a large portion of fries. I didn’t really enjoy it mainly because they were served with their gonads attached (the orangish part)
Escalope Pizzaiola (Veal Escalope in Pizzaiola sauce) @ €11.35 isn’t as fancy as it sounded or looked. Its basically just slices of thinned veal meat cooked in a pizza tasting sauce and topped with olives. Tasted like meaty pizza if you ask me.
I was kinda disappointed with the state of Paris’ Metro too.. it was quite dirty and very inconvenient to travelers. Worse if you are lunging your luggage around because there are no escalators except for the main station!
A visit to The City of Light wouldn’t be complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower. Whether you like it or not, this tallest structure in France is a global icon that immediately makes you think of Paris.
Even if you are willing to pay for the lift tickets, the queue was so freaking long you would eventually drop the idea anyway. For me, looking at it from afar was good enough. The more you get near to it, the uglier it looks. Sad but true.
The view surrounding the Eiffel Tower was much more attractive, especially the Seine River where you could also embark on a river cruise if you have enough moolah.
Another must visit in Paris is none other than The Musée du Louvre, one of the largest museum in the world and also holds the status of being most visited. We just came to have a look, took some photos and left without entering. It is said that the museum is so large you would need to spend at least a day to really enjoy it.
But due to a planning mishap we had to leave Paris early (we originally planned to stay for two nights but had to cut short to one) to Switzerland, as we didn’t reserve the seats for train to Interlaken. This is another important thing to look out for if you are traveling in Europe with either Eurail or InterRail pass.
As mentioned in their website and its guide, the pass does not guarantee you a seat on popular routes and reservation for the seats must be made. The best thing to do is to check your itinerary for any train routes that require reservation, and make it the first thing to do when you arrive in the departing country.
For example if you are planning to go to Switzerland from France, naturally the chosen route would be from Paris to Interlaken. But since this is a popular route as indicated in the Eurail timetable, a reservation is required. So what we didn’t do was to reserve my seat when I arrived in Paris. If we did that, then we could’ve extended another night in Paris and seen more places. Worse still, since we reserved our seats so late, we got a noon train causing us to waste the most important time of the day.
However, I would like to believe it was a blessing in disguise, as we got to visit Zurich, which was never in our itinerary and got to spend more time in Switzerland. It is my most favorite country and it’s coming up in the next update! But if you have any questions about traveling by train in Europe, shoot away and I will try to answer.
the orange part on the scallop is the roe…it’s the best part of scallop !!
the orange part on the scallops are the roe..they taste really nice and probably the best part of scallops…yummy…
you must have spent lots of time and effort writing this update. your photos taken are really amazing.
Vkeong, do you use your 5dmk2 to take all those pictures? The low light photos are really good without any flash used.
and if it really is 5dmk2, carrying it around would not be too heavy for travelling? lolx, just curious.
Hi thomanic, yes I used my 5dmk2 to take all these photos.. low light photos were taken at high ISO. I don’t really like using flash for taking landscape photos because I feel it would kill the mood.. I think you will agree too yeah
as for the camera weight, it is heavy and really put a strain on my neck and back while traveling. but I treated it as exercise haha.
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Hi, how much did u guys pay for the night trains? As far as I know there’s an extra charge even using eurail pass. How much extra to fork out?
Hi Dave, I only took 1 night train before, which departed from Venice Santa Lucia to Vienna. It was a Euronight train with 4 couchette in a cabin. It cost 37Euro
Terrific photos! Would love to take it like yours even though i’m a frequent user of Canon digital cameras because of its light-weight and convenience.
Great posts, vkeong.
This might come in handy some day down the line.
Personally, I don’t take the orange sac clinging to the scallops either, unless I know that the scallop is really really fresh.
I have always thought that that orange sac contains the roes. Maybe I was wrong.
.-= J2Kfm´s last blog ..“Tong Sui” in Ipoh – Where to Find the Best =-.
Oh yes, the Paris Metro is quite rundown and I ve seen fights on platform.
Many years ago during holidays, I stayed at a hotel in Gentily and need to use the Metro to travel downtown. Communication is huge obstacle in buying ticket,then I noticed many youth just jump over the entrance barrier, even men with tie and suit were jumping in n out w/out ticket. I followed suit, for the next few days I travel the whole of Paris happily jumping over the barrier…no need ticket.
Then 1 night I arrived back at home station around midnight, to my horror all the barrier were closed and passengers can only exit through a 12ft wire gate which need ticket. All passengers cleared the platform except me. There were no one left in the whole station ,just me running up n down desperately looking for a exit (sortie), like fish in a net. Preparing to go to jail is the only thing left on my mind.
After 20min or so, as I lean helplessly on the 12 ft gate, a group of black youth passed by on the otherside singing n rap dancing, I shouted for help and to my amazed, they passed me a ticket and I was be able to exit through the gate without haste.
The lesson here is that do not always do what the Roman do, unless u r Roman.
wow nice one vkeong…i can only see this in picture..
Very beautiful architectures.
.-= jason´s last blog ..Funky Villa- e@Curve =-.
The photos you took are very nice like a professional photographer. I wish I can go to Paris.
Bonjour,
There is a new Malaysian restaurant in Paris, called: “LEGENDA DE MALAISIE”.
Address: 46, rue de Trévise – 75009 PARIS – FRANCE
Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 70 87 07
Business Hours:
Breakfast: Monday – Sunday 6:30 – 10:00.
Lunch & Dinner: Monday – Saturday 12:00 Noon – 15:00 & 18:00 – 23:00. Sunday Closed.
You ca visit:
http://www.holidayvillaparis.com/winedine.htm
or
http://www.cityvox.co.uk/restaurant_paris/legenda-de-malaisie_200139669/profile-place
Bon appétit !
Nice post and photos. Actually to avoid crowd for zigzag the Eiffel Tower, you can book ticket via online. The view of the second level is awesome. Meanwhile, you can go for the La Seine Cruise whereby you can see most of the famous building along the river. Don’t forget to stroll along the La Seine, it will give you a romantic & sweet memory.