30 Nov 07 - Versailles

My original plan was to go to Disneyland today, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I had to put it off and switch to plan B. Le chateau de Versailles was the attraction of the day. After close to an hour ride on the RER (the suburban line for Paris outskirt regions), I reached the town of Versailles. As I walked towards the castle, the first thought that came to my mind was "wow, this is gonna be tough". It proved to be true later on as I spent close to 5 hours in total. Considering that I was all by myself, with medium walking speed and without much waiting time, 5 hours were really a significant number.

Château de Versailles et l'intérieur!

Indeed, Versailles was perhaps the biggest castle I have visited in Europe so far. This site was once inhabited by the French monarchy, notably Louis XIV and his families. Like many other castles, the palace has many intricately-decorated rooms, with nice wall and ceiling paintings. However, unlike other palaces which were richly coated in gold, this palace was famous for its silverwork, with a total of close to 20 tonnes of silver used.

L-R: Hall of Mirrors; The Royal Chapel

The best thing about Versailles was that the visitors were allowed to take photos, except in the temporary exhibition areas. The audioguide was not of much help to my understanding and I was more interested in capturing images of the interior of the palace (it was a rare opportunity =P). Afterall, I guess I would forget most of the history told in the audioguide.

The colourful, intricately-designed rooms

Anyway, the palace was HUGEEEEEE. Let me redefine what huge means. Huge means you take one hour to walk at medium speed from the palace, through the vast gardens, ending at the Domaine de Marie Antoinette (the end of the site). The garden was supposed to be really awesome, but too bad it was winter so all I saw was green patches of grass and trees without leaves. The statues have been wrapped up to protect them from the bad weather as well.

Views from the palace garden

After close to an hour walk, I finally reached the Grand Trianon. If I did not hear wrongly from a lady there, this place was dedicated for all the mistresses/concubines of Louis XIV. More splendid rooms inside, after which I left for the estate of Marie Antoinette. This was my favourite place in the whole of Versailles as it was as good as a completely different world. It had the countryside touch, with a quiet and tranquil environment as well as a small lake.

1st row (left): Grand Trianon; the rest: Domaine de Marie Antoinette

After Versailles, I headed back to Paris centre and went to the Montparnasse area. I had the intention to take the elevator up to the 56th floor of La Tour Montparnasse which offered “the best panoramic view” of Paris. I thought the tariff of 7 euros was a bit too much and I was not sure if I could see anything since the weather has been quite bad. So I decided that I could do without the panoramic view and I just walked around the area. Nice neighbourhood, with many little wooden stalls selling local handicrafts as well as chocolates. I spoilt myself by buying one chocolate which had marshmallow inside. Letch will so gonna love this! Haha.

Montparnasse neighbourhood

I did not spend much time in Montparnasse as it was more of a shopping area and I did not have “le pouvoir d’achat” (purchasing power) anyway. So I made my way to La Défense” at the end of the metro line 1. This place is the equivalent of Singapore’s CBD with all the tall buildings and business centres. La Défense boasts many outstanding modern architectures, notably Le Grand Arc de La Défense, Les Quatres Temps and Le Dome. It was then that I realised that Paris was not only a classy city with Eiffel Tower and Musée de Louvre, but it was also a busy business city. It totally debunked the myth of “always-knock-off-at-17h” as the lights in the office towers were still on at 20h30.

L-R: Le Grand Arc de La Défense; the Paris Business District

And Noel (Christmas) was clearly in sight. There was a Marche de Noel held at the open space in front of the grand arc. My first Christmas market experience and I loved it!! The various stalls sold a variety of handcrafts, food, decorative lamps, aromatherapy, etc…There was a magic wallet, in which we could place a piece of card inside the wallet, then as we folded the wallet 180 degrees, the card would be placed nicely under a rubber compartment. Another woman was promoting this “blackboard” which did not require a chalks or drawing/colouring pencils to draw things. What the children needed to do was to press on the board in certain ways and different colours will emerge on the board. A different way of swiping the board will have the effect of “erasing” the previous designs. We could also place a picture on top of the board, and trace the design with our nails and the exact same design will appear on the board. Interesting.

Marché de Noel (What is the Mécanique Générale textbook doing there? FYI, it is one of the modules I am taking in France right now)

Then back to chez Yanghan for a good night’s rest.

29 Nov 07 - Paris

My day started pretty early. I rose at 6:15 to ensure that I would be at the tram stop by 7 am although my TGV would only leave at 7:50 am. I am quite sure some of you can guess the reasons. If you are thinking along the line of a strike, then you have won the top prize. This time round, the tram company went on strike and I was not at all sure about the frequency of the tram; thus, the need to wake up earlier.

Anyway, TGV, being the fastest train in Europe, should bring the passengers to their destinations at top speed and at top precision. Today, the TGV was late by 20 mins (I could not have imagined if I had scheduled my VISA appointment earlier) and this was not the first time that the TGVs I took were late.

After putting my bag at Yanghan's apartment, I headed out to the UK Visa Application Centre called World Bridge Services, located very near the Champs Elysées (a shopping district selling all the branded goods, such as the Louis Vuitton bags). After taking a quick sandwich lunch and taking a couple of photos of the Arc du Triomphe, I immediately went to the centre. My appointment was scheduled at 13:45 and I reached at 13:15. I was duly turned down and asked to return at 13:45. I thought perhaps they were very strict and efficient with the schedule. But to my aghast, when I entered later on, they were at least 30 more people in the queue in front me. The security man was not polite either; basically he spoke like a robot, without expression and intonation. So I waited...and waited...and waited forever. After about 2 hours, it finally came to my turn to submit my application. After that I still had to wait for another half hour or so before my turn for the biometrics scan. They should really consider improving the efficiency. They only have 2 counters for the submission and 1 counter for the biometric scan. I am now crossing my fingers that my application would be approved.

L-R: Yanghan's apartment; Arc du Triomphe

When I exited the application centre, it was drizzling and I realised I forgot to bring my umbrella out. Merde! I have to wear my beanies again. Haha. My next stop was La Tour Eiffel. This structure has never failed to amaze me, especially after researching more about it for my French 4 oral presentation last semester. The Eiffel tower is really an engineering feat, with an artistic touch, and it's a real wonder because up till now, nobody has been able to come up with a confirmed mathematical model for its curved body. From what I read, Gustave Eiffel simply used his experience to estimate the effects of the force of the wind on the structure when he designed the curve.

L-R: La Tour Eiffel; my obsession with carousel

La Tour Eiffel at night (rather at 5:30 pm)

I reluctantly left the Eiffel site because I knew that I would not go back there for a long long time in the future. I then took the metro to Montmatre area. This area was really touristy with plenty of souvenir shops. At the funiculaire station, I was stopped by this African guy who called me "his friend". He was holding my arms in one hand and a long string on the other. He told me to talk to him and I told him to release my arm. He told me to relax and be happy. And then I just left. I had a feeling that guy was trying to hypnotize me to lure me into giving him some cash. Anyway, I went up to the top of the hill and visited the Basilique de Sacré Coeur. It was just a normal cathedral in my opinion. The highlight was supposed to be the panoramic view of Paris at night, but it was so foggy that I could almost see anything in the distance. Too bad.

Sacré Coeur

I descended on foot and walked towards the Moulin Rouge. And what an eye-opener it turned out to be. The street was lined with many sex/erotic shops, lap/table dance shops and erotic live shows. I have never been to Amsterdam so I have no idea how these compare to the Red Light district. Anyway, a few of the shops tried to lure me in... one particular woman even grabbed me by the arm and called me "my dear". She told me that she would let me go in at 5 euros instead of 20 euros at normal price. And for the 5 euros, I would get a free drink and a live show. I replied her that I was not interested and that I would rather use the 5 euros to fill my stomach. Then she insisted: "Please Monsieur, just come in and take a look. Free of charge. You see. If you like, you stay. If you don't like, you go." Not a bad deal, huh? Haha. But I didn't go in cos I would probably not find a way out if I ever entered.

L-R: the sex shop at Orchard Road will be ashamed

The Moulin Rouge was a unique sight; the windmill was pretty and the queue at the entrance was snaking. Amazing that so many people wanna watch the cabaret show even though the cheapest tickets start from 80-90 euros. After dinner, I returned to chez Yanghan at La Défense area.

Weekend Activities

After returning from Uriage, the group of Singaporeans sprung a surprise birthday celebration for Siewsze. I doubt it was a surprise though (I bet most of us were half-expecting that something fishy was being planned =P) since the celebrations have generally become a routine since last year. Anyway, we had lotsa fun talking in her room at the top of our voice (imagine 15 people squeezing into a 3x3 m room). We were so loud that apparently we did not open the door when June knocked and then she left. Haha. Most of us then went off to play pingpong till almost midnight.

Birthday Girl with Birthday Cake and Birthday Present

Most of us. Look carefully at the picture on the right. It looked as if Jeremy is kissing Eugene.

Table tennis has become my newest addiction (second to travelling) since Saturday evening. So Sinhui, Jeremy, Shaowei and I had another go at it on Sunday afternoon before Pablo (a guy from Chile) joined us. I really had lotsa fun especially after getting frustrated trying to study just before the game.

Ping Pong rocks!

We then adjourned to Berlioz for a dinner with Jeremy at Berlioz. He cooked chicken curry as well as long beans in soya sauce. Not bad I thought. Merci Jeremy pour l'invitation! Invite-nous plus souvent! Haha.

Dinner