Travelogue - France (9th - 12th Sept 2009)

And the journey continues... and we've arrived in FRANCE :D it was close to 6pm and we were stuck in the jam all the way to the hotel.

After we checked in at the Hotel (which was located at Marne-la-Vallée), we took a night drive to Paris around 8pm...

The view of the Eiffel Tower at night - from afar and up close

It was also that night under the Eiffel Tower that Chin Aun proposed to me. But I will not go into that because it's not any of your business. Haha...

10th Sept 2009 - Day 1

We spent the first day in France in the town of Paris going to the local must-sees...

At the Arc de Triomphe:

Up on the Arc de Triomphe:

The view was magnifique

Where Next???

At the Musée du Louvre :

The place was ridiculously crowded and it took us forever to take this photos

And finally... the time that we have been waiting for has finally arrived... Time to scale the Eiffel Tower!!

The man who took this photo decided to add a little artistic flair by slanting the camera...

View from the deck of the second level of the Eiffel Tower...
If I thought Musée du Louvre was crowded, this was even worse!

And since we went all the way to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, of course we went to the third level! We saw Kuala Lumpur being featured to have one of the tallest buildings int he world standing at 10,433km :)

We spent a few good hours at the Eiffel Tower just taking in the sights and the people before heading to our next destination...

Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) :

On the Outside of the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

I know that I don't have much photos taken of the Cathedral, especially of the inside, but I personally thought it was rather disrespecful to be taking photos inside a place of worship. But I obviously was quite alone in my opinion because the rest of the revellers were busy snapping away with flash and all..

We spent the rest of the day walking around Paris people watching and taking photos... Of course we also went to famed Louis Vuitton shop that was situated on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. No trip to Paris would be complete without that, and NO, unfortunately, I did NOT buy anything. The shop was chock-full with Asians lining up to make a purchase of something LV to bring home.

Tha about sums up the first day we spent in France...

11th Sept 2009 - Day 2

More than half of the day was spent shopping in Marne-la-Vallée. Our first stop was at theVal d'Europe shopping mall followed by several hours of outlet shopping at the La Vallee Factory Outlet. Let's just put it this way... We spent so much time shopping that the only thing we had for lunch was a Ciabatta. But if you ask me now what we bought and what it was that took us so long to shop for, I seriously do not know...

So after the hours spent shopping, we drove to the Château de Ferrières and my word... it was Beautiful!

The best part was that it was closed to the public on that day as there was preparation in progress for a private function that night. However, the nice lady at the reception/entrance admitted us because we travelled so far to see it...

At the driveway and yes, Chin Aun is striking a rather odd pose.. Hehehe

I really love this photo... and I totally fell in love with the place. Let's just put it this way, I could spend hours walking on the grounds of the chateau even though there are no shoes for sale there.

After we left the chateau, we went for dinner and went back to the Hotel to freshen up for a late night drive through the streets of Paris, for some coffee at Montmarte and to go to Hard Rock Cafe of course!