Day 1
This was the first time we were on the Airbus A380 and we were drawn to the really huge screen in front of us! First impressions of the plane was good already!
Day 2 Arrived into Paris after the 2.5hrs on Eurostar from London. Immediately after depositing our luggage at our hotel, we took the metro to the Montparnasse for our train ride that we have booked online to Mont Saint Michel. Upon arrival at the station with 15mins left, we tried to retrieve our train tickets from the self service machine and was unable to retrieve our tickets (later we found out that the machine does not accept retrieval for bookings by AMEX and we should have gone to the customer service instead. We also couldn’t get it refunded by TGV)! By then we were late for our train and there wasn’t any more schedule to Mont Saint Michel already.
Disappointed, we returned to check in at our hotel, Hôtel Gare de L’Est Francais. Our room Not much space Compact toilet too.
Since a day was created because the day trip was cancelled as we missed the train, we thought we would just spend the day in Paris for some attraction visits and shopping!
The train station near to our hotel. This is the Palais de Justice
Sainte Chapelle cathedral was somewhere we wanted to see as we didn’t do so when we were in Paris many years ago. The interesting architecture at the entrance. The stained glass and the internal architecture was just intricate and amazing. Zoomed in to see the details, as the glasses tell a story. The internal arches of the cathedral. The stained glass dominate the room And went all around. Again more internal arches and beautiful architecture The entire area was surrounded by the glasses. The circular glass that was looked so different in colors compared with looking from outside. Each square tell a story, and unique compared to all the others. A part of the glass as seen from the outside. The glass look so different when viewed from the outside.
A view of the Seine river in Paris. A little foggy but we could still see the Eiffel from here.
So we visited Galleries Lafayette and their home grown brand but it was lining with people from China so we left. The mall was worth a visit as it was beautifully designed.
We decided to walk from Galleries Lafayette to the Lourve and came upon a garden called Jardin du Palais Royal. We were amazed with the square shaped trees. But it looked like a really nice place to sit for a picnic. We arrived at the Lourve not too long later. We didn’t go in as we had visited before in our first European trip and saw Mona Lisa. We however decided on getting a little something to eat at one of the outdoor Cafe Diane. Then we decided to walk along the most famous shopping street of Paris, Champs Elysees. Along the way we spotted the Eiffel once again.
Of course the most iconic Louis Vuitton of Paris sat along the main Champ Elysees, in a really elaborate buidling. And also a quick visit to Arc de Triomphe that sat at the end of the street. After walking so much on this first day, we returned to our hotel.