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

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).

Europe Travelogue - Paris Day 1

Itinerary for Day 1

• Zürich to Paris CDG Airport
• Eiffel Tower
• Notre Dame Cathedral
• Lourve Museum

Hey all, before 2013 ends, I better churn out all my travelogue entries before I forget them lol!

Here's the entry for Day 1 of my trip to Paris at the end of November this year :D

Actually my main aim for going to Paris was for Infinite's concert 'One Great Step' on 1 December at Olympia Hall.

I was really feeling damn upset that I couldn't attend any One Great Step concerts because they came to Singapore in October when I was in Germany.

So I tried to search for their Europe stops - I mean I'm in freaking Europe so.... just go even though I'll be going alone.

And Paris was the only stop on a weekend (I mean... wow, Wednesday night in London for a concert is just so shit. I have to take so many days leave just to go for it please! Chao Woollim! *waves fist*).

So yeah I took Friday off and left on an early flight from Zürich to Paris CDG airport.

Selca in the morning hehe

My lovely host Eva sent me to the nearest train station at 6am so that I didn't have to walk in the dark and cold. She even made me breakfast, mad love her.

Airline of the day was Swiss Air! It was quite cheap for my ticket to and fro Paris - 88CHF to Paris and 85CHF back to Zürich.

Quite cheap in my opinion, didn't expect it to be so cheap given that it included 20kg of baggage already and taxes.

Breakfast served on the flight

Flight was pleasant and comfortable! :)

We reached Paris in about 45 minutes so it was an extremely short flight - kinda like from Singapore to KL by plane.

It's my 2nd time in Paris so far, the last being 13 years ago when I was 11 years old.

That time we took a bus from Switzerland to Paris so I hadn't been to any of their airports before.

CDG's Terminal 1 is very simple, not as fantastic as Changi Airport but I can't really complain.

As long as my baggage comes out on time and intact can already haha.

Rapperswil Day Trip

Welcome to Switzerland lol!

Yes, I am writing about my life now in Switzerland despite not even finishing the Germany ones.

But Switzerland is so pretty and I have wifi access at home now so... we should live for the present yeah? :)

So... on the first Saturday in Switzerland, my colleague and I went to Rapperswil for a day trip since it was nearer to us (I was still living in Wolfhausen then. Now, I'm in Bubikon area.) than Zürich.

The Swiss colleagues weren't able to accompany us that weekend so we made do with... getting out of Wolfhausen to Rapperswil.

Hopped onto the bus and made our way to Bubikon where the nearest train station is.

Bloody expensive I tell you. Paid close to 14CHF for the trip and back and it's like... travelling from AMK to Orchard Road only leh.

Sigh.

And it's bloody complicated the Swiss transport system. Hopefully I'll be able to understand it before I leave lol and write an entry on how to buy tickets/survive here in Switzerland.

 

It was quite a nice Saturday and lucky us too because subsequently the weather turned shittier and all I've been seeing everyday now is fog and more fog. I feel like I'm living on Silent Hill or something.

Anyways, the trains really surprised me! So much more cleaner and newer than the ones in Germany.

Plus they had a screen that showed you which station was next as well as the entire route of the train.

Pretty awesome because the driver would speak in German when I was in Germany and I couldn't understand anything T.T so the Swiss trains were a nice welcome for me.

Rapperswil is really a small town within the canton of Zürich.

It was my first time there and I quite liked it, small and quaint with an awesome view of the mountains with Lake Zürich.

All my pictures were taken on my iPhone 5 and edited to brighten up the pictures.

I really love how the sky (when you can see it) is a bright blue and the clouds are fluffy white like marshmallow lol..

Makes me wanna migrate here if not for the high standard of living and the language barrier.

 

So we kinda made our way to the post office first to get our prepaid sim cards before walking to the... town square I suppose to find food and naturally... we went to McDonald's lol.

My cheeseburger royal with rosti fries and yoghurt sauce. Yum, love the sauce.

Yes, everything is expensive in Switzerland. I think the only thing that is free is really the scenery and fresh air.

Oh, and Evian is quite cheap here too lol.

The lake you see here is Lake Zürich and I was really in awe of how clear the water was.

And.... SWANSSSSSSSS HOMGGGG!

I think this is the most amount of times I've ever seen swans/ducks/fowl/birds on my Europe adventure.

First London, then seeing them in canals in Amsterdam and now.... even in the lake!

They are really everywhere lol. Is it bad that everytime I see a duck I think about roasted duck rice? :O

There really isn't much you can do here in Rapperswil other than see the lake and climb onto the hill where there is a museum, church and deer garden.

Sorry for the bare face. I was very sleep deprived and ran out of my room to catch the bus without putting any makeup on D:

I will keep all my stale bread and try to feed them one day lol

Castle with a museum inside

Here's one of the deers from the deer garden

 

See how clear the skies are?

I was honestly quite bored by the time we made our way to the bridge to cross the lake because I was extremely exhausted from packing the night before leaving Germany plus all that walking killed my feet lol.

And it was cold too! :( Much too cold for my liking to be honest.

But the lake is really magnificent! The amount of pictures I took of it should be testament to how much I loved it there.

Here's the bridge that people walk over it and admire the scenery lol

It's a good 45 min walk from one end to the other

I headed back after walking about three quarters of the bridge because I was really exhausted by then and waited for the colleague by the lake.

He turned up a good 30 mins later while I froze all the way lol.

Thankfully bff was entertaining me on LINE.

Made our way back to the area where we found McDonald's and bought gelato from the store beside it.

Pretty yummy albeit the price for such a small cup (wtf 5CHF leh).

But cannot hiam already, quite reasonable for Switzerland's standards alr lol.

Went in search of a huge supermarket (my fav activity) because I wanted to stock up some food in my hotel room as everywhere was closed on Sundays.

Lugged a huge bag of groceries from the supermarket and was really hungry by then.

The cold weather really wrecks my eating timings.

I'm perpetually hungry all the time and at 4.30pm I am starving but have to wait till 6pm for dinner because that's when the restaurants open :/

Now that I'm living in a house and have a kitchen to cook in, my tummy is easily filled before 6pm lol!

Ok, enough digression.

Went in search for dinner then and settled for thai food because the colleague said he wanted to eat that (I was hesitant because I was afraid it'd be expensive but by then was really sick of pasta/risotto/schnitzel/whatever western food so I caved and said okay).

Thai Orchid

Engelplatz 4

Rapperswil 8640 

Switzerland

This can be easily found beside the huge shopping mall where you can find alot of shops like H&M, C&A and Migros (the supermarket where I died and spent so much money in).

But just... use Google maps really haha. It's not really seen clearly from the main road.

 

My 5CHF lychee juice from a can but they poured it into a wineglass and stuck an orchid in it to make it look atas. Ok, I gan yuan lol.

#ootd because the toilet in the restaurant very atas and well decorated lol

We were the first customers there and initially the lady told us it was fully reserved already.

(Seems like the Europeans really like to call and make reservations ahead. But I can't speak German so how to reserve? D:) 

But she said if we could leave by 8.20pm before the next customer came we could order.

Hello, we were out by like... 7.15pm and the place was really full by then.

Here's our free starter - fried baby corn. Pretty yummy!

Our dinner

Yes, atas food so must take picture. Actually atas = expensive.

\

My 35CHF thai green curry with chicken

The colleague's thai red curry in a pineapple lol. Think this was 38CHF?

The meal was nice because of thai rice wohoooooo! I'm such a fan4 tong1 please, nothing is nice to me except thai rice to be honest.

But I couldn't finish even half the pot of green curry so I asked to tabao it and they gave me another pack of rice which I kept for the next day.

Heated up the remaining curry in my rice cooker (thank you mum for forcing me to bring it to Europe despite it occupying so much space in my luggage) and had it for lunch and dinner the next day.

Of course I cooked more rice (yes, I very kiasu I made my dad bring me my own Royal Umbrella rice to Europe) and it was... awesome!

We headed back afterwards even though it was quite early in the night but by then everything was closed (7pm close already) except for restaurants so that's the end of my trip to Rapperswil.

LOL, yes gonna end this abruptly.

I'll head for my shower now because I'm freezing cold and I have to do some work later boo :(

Till the next entry :D annyeong~