[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 7 September 2015]
7 November 2014, Friday
It’s Day 14, the last full day of the trip, and we would be taking it easy today. After yesterday’s unsavoury encounter with the gypsy woman that left mum a few hundred bucks poorer, we were much more cautious today. We had already covered most of the sights yesterday, so we just spent a casual day shopping and walking around without much of an agenda. There were a few places that I had in mind – Jardin des Tuileries, Montmarte and Sacré-Cœur, and perhaps another visit to see the Eiffel Tower up close, but it all very much depended on our mood and how the day went.
The first two stops were the Printemps and Galeries Lafayette stores located at Boulevard Haussmann. These are two of the biggest department stores in Paris. Mum said that we used to have Printemps in Singapore long ago but they have closed down for many years now. We did not buy anything there because they were pretty pricey, so it was mainly for the experience.
We then headed south and strolled to Jardin des Tuileries (aka Tuileries Gardens). Along the way, we passed by the Academie Nationale de Musique, aka the Palais Garnier. It is a 1979-seat opera house and part of its fame is due to it being the setting for The Phantom of the Opera novel.
Jardin des Tuileries is a beautiful park located in central Paris, where locals like to go to relax. Indeed, you can see many of them lounging at the deck chairs around the fountain, grabbing a bite or just chatting with their friends. The lawns in the gardens are immaculately manicured and the trees lining the avenues are planted in perfectly straight lines. As it was autumn, the leaves were turning golden brown and it was very pretty. We decided to spend some time there to enjoy the view, so we found a bench to sit, bought some sandwiches and munched on them for lunch.
After filling our stomachs, we took a short walk to the Louvre, this time to see the day view. I remember Dan Brown mentioned in The Da Vinci Code that some people call the Louvre glass pyramid “a scar on the face of Paris”, but personally, I think it is a stunning piece of architecture. The glass façade and sharp edges stand in total contrast to the buildings surrounding it, and that makes it so striking and iconic. Together with the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre glass pyramid is one of the defining images of Paris.
We ended up not visiting Montmarte and the Eiffel Tower after all because we didn’t feel like making a trip too far out. The rest of the day was simply spent buying souvenirs and window-shopping. There are souvenir shops everywhere, selling everything and anything to do with the Eiffel Tower. We bought many miniature Eiffel Tower keychains, fridge magnets, table placemats and even drawings of Parisian scenes. We had a good time souvenir hunting because everything seemed so nice, but when those little things added up, they burned quite a big hole in the pocket!
For dinner, we decided to reward ourselves with a good meal since it was the last proper meal for the trip. We went back to our trusty Rue Montorgueil street and picked a fine dining restaurant – L’escargot. As its name suggests, it is famous for its escargots, aka snails. If you think that eating snails is disgusting, you are so wrong. Escargot are a delicacy in France and the dish is usually prepared by cooking them in garlic butter and parsley, which totally masks any (imaginary) smell that you would associate with snails. The meat is a bit chewy and succulent, and the seasoning makes it very fragrant and delicious. You MUST try escargot when you are in Paris. We had red wine to go with the escargot, followed by a beef steak, which made for a very good dinner. It was the perfect way to end the trip.
We then headed back to our apartment to pack our stuff. We even had time to watch a movie, Gravity, which I had purchased the Blu Ray the day before. The sound system and TV set in the apartment were top notch, so we put them to good use. Finally, it was time to take one last sleep in Paris before we depart the next day.
8 November 2014, Saturday
It’s finally time to say goodbye to Paris…after checking out of our apartment in the morning, we walked to the nearest taxi stand to find a taxi to take us to Charles de Gaulle airport. As it was a Saturday morning, there were not many taxis plying the streets. As we waited for about half an hour and no vacant taxis appeared, and we also didn’t know what number to call to book a taxi, we were getting quite desperate and frustrated. Just as we were about to give up and take the bus, a taxi finally appeared and we hopped on relieved.
Our Qatar Airways flight was at 3pm. From Paris, we transited at Doha, Qatar for 1.5 hours before catching the onward flight back to Singapore. By the time we touched down at Changi Airport, it was about 2pm on 9 November, Sunday. No matter how good the trip was, as always, it felt good to be home. And with that, it was the end of our Europe trip.
I had enjoyed myself immensely for the past two weeks. It had been some time since I went on a trip with mum and dad. And it was the longest trip we had done by ourselves, without engaging any tour company. I was happy that almost everything went as planned. Granted, the Airbnb apartment in Milan was not up to par but all the others were pretty good. I especially loved Florence, Venice and Zermatt and I will definitely return to Venice one day to spend more time exploring the winding streets and uncovering more surprises. Most of all, I think that mum and dad enjoyed themselves and I am happy to be their tour guide. Here’s to many more trips to come!