28/12 Paris, Day 2 - I want to marry a French man

Day 2 started at around 9.40am, waayy later than what we planned, because the Sheffield contingent were tired from all the travelling. I was pretty pumped to go see Eiffel Tower from up close and personal. We had to walk to Gare du Nord that morning to buy tickets because the Barbes Rochechuart station didn't have them. Well, there were some men outside the station trying to sell tickets to us ('Billet! Billet! Assalamualaikum...Malay-zee? Malay-zee? Billet?'), but we were street-wise enough to not fall for that. I mean come on, we come from Malaysia.

I thought we won the tourist-conning scheme by ignoring the men outside Barbes Rochechuart, but oh I was wrong. When we got to Gare du Nord, we went to the ticket counters and told the lady that we wanted 9 Mobilis tickets, the ticket that will last us the whole day, and can be used for both the metro and the buses. We bought this ticket yesterday and it costed us 6.10euro pp. To our surprise, the tickets today costed 9.30euro pp, and when I wanted to cancel the transaction, the lady just yelled at me in French and I really just wanted to yell back Malay curses at her, but I had this hijab on my head in a very secular country. I didn't want to give Islam a bad name.

wajah ceria sebelum ditipu wanita Perancis bengis

look at the train's tyres!

Later we realized that she had given us the most expensive option on the menu: the Paris Visite tickets, one that would take us to all zones (Mobilis only takes us to Zone 1&2, but that was enough to take us to most destinations) and included discounts for entrance fees. Trying to not start the day negatively, we decided that we'd make full use of the tickets and go all the way to La Defense today, which was never on the plan because it was located in Zone 3.

First Destination : Tour Eiffel

Eiffel tower was everything I expected it to be and more. It was gorgeous despite the foggy day and crowded with tourists and illegal souvenir-selling vendors. I knew they were illegal because they had all their stuff on a spread of white sheet on the ground, and then the police came (on bicycles!) they rolled it and ran away. It was quite the sight, seeing approximately 50 men (one in a Fir'aun costume, for some reason) got chased by three men in uniform riding their bicycles.

We huddled in a circle right under the tower when Mas was telling us about its history, to avoid the annoying calls from the vendors and the beggars. Since the line to take the cable car up the eiffel is SO, SO, long we decided not to do it. There was another option with a much shorter line and cheaper ticket, though. You can CLIMB STAIRS to go up the eiffel. Eh? Eh? Any takers?

We also walked for a little bit through the park in front of it, called Champ de Mars, and then went through a Christmas market (the first of many, many more) to get to Trocadero for a good view of Eiffel and to get a metro to Paris mosque. French men is a bit like Kelate men in a sense that you can find good looking men selling knitted gloves and waffles in a Christmas market (nasik kerabu and nasik lemak in Kelate's case), only, you know. The French is way taller and, well. Much better looking.





Second Destination : Paris Mosque

We got lost in Place Monge for quite a bit, going around in circles because Mas couldn't remember the exact way to the mosque. But somehow we managed to walk close enough to it, and a French man walking past us randomly asked

'What are you looking for, the mosque?'

To which I replied with a bewildered nod because 1. He spoke clear English, and 2. He knew where the mosque is.

'It's just there, turn left' He pointed.

I forgot that this was Paris I was in, so of course the mosque is conspicuous and obvious to the locals, like the one they have in Dublin. Not, like the one we have in Cork, which basically is just a makeshift warehouse of sorts.

I have to say, I fell in love with this mosque at first sight. I mean, look at it; how can I not?




I had to really tundukkan my pandangan there because the men and women sections overlap a little bit and the men there were gorgeous Frenchmen and Arab men. Kalau tak tundukkan pandangan mesti kantoi mata melilau tak tentu hala wahahaha *cough*. The Muslim community there was very welcoming and warm towards us, despite our weird ambik gambar di sana sini antics.

Third Destination : La Defense

La Defense is basically a place full with splendid modern archictecture, buildings of the giant companies of France. The highlight of it is the Grand Arche, which is a frame-like square office building, aimed to be the '20th century version of Arc de Triomphe'.





It's a whole different world from the classic architecture of the other famous buildings of Paris. At this point of time we were already pretty exhausted and freezing cold; because as you can see, it was really foggy. What you can't see, is that it was actually raining. So we take refuge in a huge shopping mall, in which Mas and I sat down and read the map to figure out where to go for dinner, and the rest of us toured the mall aimlessly. This, was where I bought (only two pieces of) the super delicious, 1euro apiece, chocolate and pistachio macaroon.

spot us.

mmmmm.

We then went to have dinner at a Halal fast food chain in Chateau d'Eau (pronounced sha-to-dow), which was completely flooded with black people, and the streets are lined with stores displaying various wigs, and hair salons *cough*. While we were in the restaurant we played a game that's called guess-if-that-hair-is-really-hers-or-not.

Fourth (and final) Destination : Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe (at night)

Everybody said if one is to get the full Paris experience, one must walk down Champs Elysees at night. So we did just that, all the way from Concorde to Arc de Triomphe. This is not a short walk, mind you. And if you've lasted this long reading this blog post, you'd have realized how much sightseeing we did on this day, and at this point my legs were already shaking a little bit (LOL, tua much?). Unfortunately, none of the pictures I currently have captured the night well, so I'd leave it for later when I get the rest of the pictures (or never if none turned out good).

There were two long rows of Christmas market stalls along the road from Concorde to just before Champs Elysees, and we spent a lot of time looking at the expensive pretty things and delicious food they had to sell. Christmas markets are one of my favourite things of December. There wasn't much to do on Champs Elysees that night though, because we went there so late that most of the shops were already closed.



Among the things that I found amusing was that the Peugeot showhouse was only one store away from a McDonalds (and the McDonalds looked prettier, and bigger). And I couldn't understand why the little souvenir stalls sell arabic newspapers arranged directly opposite to 18sx adult magazines. Makes one wonder about the demographic of its target customers.

That was the end of the day for us, and we went home completely worn out and exhausted. I only had one thing in mind that night:

Louvre tomorrow!


xoxo