On the 7th of Sep13 after we arrived in Paris airport, the first unfriendly person we met was out of our surprised. It was the custom staff at the airport. As i passed through the gates to get my passport chop, i showed the custom staff the letter of excusing me from xrays as i was pregnant as i wasn't sure whether the entry gates have any xrays radiation. The custom staff make faces & spoke some words in France which i do not understand & went on to chop my passport.I have no choice but to walk pass the gate taking my own risk thinking maybe he does not know how to read English. When my husband joined me shortly he realized that my passport was not chopped properly as it overlap with other chops causing the dates unable to be seen. Then we saw a woman in uniform who speaks English so we approach her to help us get another chop to ensure we can leave the country safety on our last day. She brought me back to the custom staff who chop my passport & he unwillingly speak in France again put a new chop date on a new page of my passport. I guess that was the worst custom staff i have ever met after travelling to few countries. We realized later that my husband's passport was chop wrongly on arrival too but luckily they did not give him any trouble for that. We went on to find the driver that will pick us up and send us to our hotel. As it was still early for check-in, we put our luggage at the hotel and rested at the lobby as i was really tired after the long flight. We waited for about 45 mins & we were allowed to check-in early and rested about an hour plus before we start to explore Paris. We went to explore their rail & train services and we manage to find our way to The Louvre Museum. It took us some distance to walk from our hotel to the railway station which they call it Metro. The Louvre Museum was a beautiful & one of the biggest museum in Paris.
We took many photos inside & outside of the museum. The ones we took inside the museum was only 1/4 of it and sometimes we may pass by the same portrait a few times not realizing it. The few best spot at the museum are the Mona Lisa portrait, the last supper portrait and the triangles structure outside the museum. After viewing most part of the museum, my foot were quite sore. Not forgetting to mention, we met a rude man in the museum too. He does not wear uniform so we guess he was not the staff at the museum but just a public like us but he is a French. I unintentionally touched one of the sculpture & he came to me saying something which i do not understand in a unfriendly expression . His gesture told me that he is scolding me so my husband & i went on to see other sculpture, ignoring him. Later then we realized that everything in the museum are not allowed to be touch. At that moment, i felt slightly offended too by the rudeness gesture of the people that we met on our first day in Paris. In order not to spoil our own mood since we spend so much to travel here we took it as a part of their culture difference and we continue to enjoy ourself exploring Paris by our foot. I know many people have visited Paris few times or many times but i also think that there are alot of people who are less fortunate that do not have much chances to travel overseas. There is always plenty of chances and ways to make it happen. As we walk out of the museum we came to a big & beautiful park nearby. There are many beautiful parks in Paris. Many people like to spend their time with family, love ones & their lovely pets especially dogs sitting in the park enjoying the cool weather.There are many beautiful sculptures in the parks too. As we walk down further, we could see from far the Eiffel Tower and the Arch of triomphe. As we will be taking of wedding photo by the Taiwan Bridal that we engage, the next day therefore we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower and then return to our hotel to rest. It was quite a distance to walk to the Eiffel Tower, along the way we walk pass the Lover's Bridge, Pont des Arts,
where many couples will put their locks on the fences & throw the keys away or into the river. They believe that by doing that their love will be locked together forever. We just took a few pictures there & we continue walking. It was really good to stroll along the rivers of Paris, enjoying the beautiful scenery, bridges & buildings. As we were nearer to the Eiffel Tower, we saw a florist shop with beautiful sunflowers, roses & other flowers. My husband & i went in to have a look & he bought me a bouquet of 10 pink roses as it was very cheap. It was the first time he bought me flowers & initially i planned to bring the dried flowers back to Singapore to keep for memories but in the end the rose buds came off when we reach home. My husband said never mind, i will buy you more flowers in Singapore next time. As we reach the Eiffel Tower, we saw many people queueing to either walk up the stairs or to take the elevator to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Walking up the stairs is free. After a day of walking in Paris street, we were both pretty tired especially after the long flight. We took pictures at the Eiffel Tower & proceed to the nearest Metro which is quite a distance away to make our way back to our hotel. The Eiffel Tower is one of the world's famous attraction, worth visiting. We saw many tourists form different countries there, like India, Parkistans, Japan, China & UK/US. It was a pity we did not get to meet any Singaporean there throughout our stay in Europe. As we took the metro back to our hotel, the transferring of the different colour code lines to different destinations was not difficult to understand after awhile. The train and the train stations were pretty clean even though there is alot of dustbins available. The train travels at quite a relatively smooth and fast speed therefore even if it was 20 stations away, we can reach our destinations in about half an hour. As it was around evening time, the train was not too packed & people were seen with luggages and pets like big dogs were allowed to be on the train. We also noticed there are certain stations where the doors will not open , if there is a passenger outside , they could just press on the green button on the door to open it. The green buttons are available on the inside of the door too. As we reach the metro station, we walk back slowly to our hotel. Our hotel was quite a cosy one good enough for sleeping. The best i like about it was that the place was very quiet and we had a great rest that night.
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