Saturday, January 04, 2014

Europe Travelogue - Paris Day 3 and 4

Itinerary for Day 3 in Paris
  • Arc de Triomphe
  • Ladureé for brunch (Champs-Élysées)
  • Shopping along Champs-Élysées
  • Infinite's concert - One Great Step Paris
Itinerary for Day 4
  • Paris CDG to Zürich
The last of my Paris travelogue entries.
Gosh, writing travelogue entries make me so nostalgic and just gives me the opportunity to really reminisce about my times spent in that place.
Paris is really a dear place for me because of my love for Chanel and where I bought my first Chanel items HAHAHA!
Maybe I should ask Carol to teach me some French, should come in handy for my next trip to France :)
So anyhow, if you haven't read my previous entries on Paris, go read Day 1 and Day 2 before proceeding with this ok?
We woke up like at close to 12pm the next day actually.
I remember telling Carol what if we woke up and it was like 4pm or something given that we were really very tired plus her bed is really big and comfy hahaha!
She was like 'No la, won't'. Wah lau, I didn't want to wake up actually at 11 plus but I dragged myself out of the bed because why would I spend more time in bed when I'm in freaking Paris hello!?
So we managed to get out of the house at close to about 1pm to head towards the Arc de Triomphe (nearest metro station is Charles de Gaulle Etoile) where Champs-Élysées is at as well because as usual, nowhere is open on Sundays except at Champs-Élysées.
But first, did a mini photoshoot of our Chanel items lol.
The house she stays in has this very vintage/woody feel to it and really awesome to take pictures in.




 
Here's the stuff I bought from Chanel by the way. Will wear them only for special occasions I suppose :P

See what I mean when I say it looks very vintagey?

Random picture to make it seem I can take artsy pictures lol

Arc de Triomphe

 

Champs-Élysées



We went in to Louis Vuitton to just look around because it's freaking 4 storeys high!

Our main purpose at Champs-Élysées is actually to eat at the Ladureé cafe because I told her I had to go and at least try the real Paris version of Ladureé macarons because the ones sold in Singapore just really falls below my expectations of what bloody expensive macarons should taste like.
She agreed and we went to eat in the cafe which she has visited a couple of times too actually so that was good because she knew what was nice to eat and all.

Ladureé
75 Avenue des Champs-Élysées
75008 Paris
France





Actually I was starving by then. We didn't have any breakfast that morning because we ran out of bread but the food in the cafe was really expensive.
But I was like 'Aiyah nevermind la, how often do you come here much less for me because I don't even live in Paris' so that's how I convinced Carol to just order some food there lol.

 
Complimentary bread and butter

My omelette which cost approximate 18€ heart quite pain but I was hungry so stomach >> money

Carol's truffle omelette


My GZB level was quite high that day because we ordered desserts too hahahaha!
And I left with a box of macarons too omg.




  


I thought the food wasn't fantastic so I was wondering why the whole place was full.
We only managed to jump the huge queue for the restaurant because they had a table for 2 (others were in larger groups) plus there was a humongous queue for the take-away macarons.
Would I go again? Probably not given that we spent about 80€ for just 2 omelettes, 2 dessert items and a box of 8 macarons.
I didn't eat the macarons on the spot that day, I brought it back to Switzerland with me to share with Eva my host though.
Afterwards, still had more time to kill so we went to the humongous Sephora store!
Oh and just an update on bloody Lebara Fr, MY CARD COULD NOT CONNECT TO ANYMORE DATA BY THEN!?
How issit that I used up 150MB worth of data with not much connectivity all day? Omg.



Separated with Carol afterwards where she went back home while I went to Opéra again for the concert.




Concert was amazing simply because it is Infinite! :)
It was difficult for me to be all alone there without anyone accompanying me.
The queue to get in the venue was really crappy and I'm glad when I attend Kpop concerts in Singapore it doesn't get to such crappy state.
They didn't allow anyone to enter before 7pm and the queue was not separated into standing and seated so it was just a major mess!
And the whole concert hall was so stuffy because there was no ventilation and I practically got baked under the layers of clothing I was in lol.
Oh and the sound system broke down quite a few times I was like all 'WTF' by then.
Yup, we really have it wayyyyyy better here in Singapore.
Went back home afterwards to pack and get ready for my flight back to Switzerland.
Woke up at an ungodly hour and left at 7.15am in the morning to head to the airport.
Along the way, conductors appeared on the train to CDG and started checking for tickets which I find odd because you needed to use a ticket/card to enter the train station.
But maybe it could be because some stations allow people to exit without tapping their ticket and I've seen some people just enter via the exit area to avoid paying for the tickets.
Nevertheless, some guy got caught without his ticket and I felt quite bad for him because they dragged him away for questioning (It's quite a massive fine throughout Europe if you're caught without a ticket or with a wrong ticket so don't do it ah!).
Flight was delayed by an hour actually so I spent alot of time just stoning at the airport lol.
By the way, the queue to claim VAT is mothereffing long and the people stamping the forms are just plain grumpy they make Grumpy the dwarf look like Happy actually.
So go there earlier to prepare to queue and fill in your forms beforehand ok!

 
Au revoir Paris, grüetzi Zürich!

Reached home at about 3pm and was really just damn hungry then because I only had 2 pieces of croissant for the entire day and no dinner the night before.
Eva prepared spaghetti bolognese with salad and wine for me because she said I should unpack and rest (T.T she's just damn nice la!) which was what I did.

 

And my Ladureé macarons which still loses to Pierre Hermé.
I take the macarons from Antionette over Ladureé (SG/Paris version) anytime please!
Of course, Pierre Hermé macarons wins hands down so... please open a store in Singapore soon ok? 
Nearest one to me is in Hong Kong (which I'm intending to visit soon) :(
Alright, that ends my final entry for my trip to Paris!
I'm heading to China this weekend for a 3 week work trip and sad to say, Blogger is one of those websites banned there.
I'll see if I can schedule some posts before I leave (I doubt cos mad busy these days!) if not, see you when I return from China and expect more posts from me then!
:D

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Europe Travelogue - Paris Day 2

Itinerary for Day 2
  • Chanel store at 31 Rue Cambon
  • Lunch near Opéra
  • Galeries Lafayette for Pierre Hermé macarons
  • Dinner in a bar for escargot and foie gras
Hello! I'm back with my Day 2 travelogue in Paris :D
Super hardworking blogger *pats self on back* HAHAHAHAH
Go read Day 1's entry here if you haven't done so.
So we headed to 31 Rue Cambon by hopping onto the metro to Madeleine station.


Arrived there in minutes and ta-dahhhhhhhhhh..... the first ever Chanel store! :)

Panoramic view of this glorious store

My love affair with Chanel started with makeup of course.
And gradually, as I added more Chanel beauty products to my collection, I toyed with the idea of owning a bag from Chanel because I loved the brand that much.
I struggled internally whether I really wanted to borrow money from my mother just to buy a Chanel Boy on this trip because I wasn't sure when my next trip to Paris would be.
But clearly a Chanel Boy at this point of time in my life was out of the question because of financial reasons - I didn't need it, I simply wanted it.
Hence, I settled for buying jewellery from the store because... you just had to buy something from 31 Rue Cambon!
"One simply does not go to 31 Rue Cambon and walk out empty handed." -  Paula
LOL! So I really went there with the intention of walking out with something in my hand (that precious white bag with the white flower adorning it).


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