it's a childhood dream come true. romance is seen everywhere in paris - streets, buildings, along the seine river, the arty farty sculptures n paintings in museums, the french pastries... i wished it was honeymoon, hurhur - but it wasn't! :p we had fun.

we travelled paris mostly on foot - meaning, it was just walking and walking and more walking. we didn't really take the trains, which was something unexpected - at least for me. thankfully adr did pretty well in his geog classes in his sec school days, cos my map reading was simply quite hopeless. although it seemed like a mission impossible at first to walk from our hotels to Eiffel Tower - to Arc de Triomph - down the Seine River - to the Lourve Museum - to Notre Dame, completing the journey of about 20km there and back all in the same day :)

i think my greatest fulfilment from my paris trip was to take the lift all the way up to the top of Eiffel. the view was just amazing, but the queue was crazily long. we waited for an hour to take the lift up, thinking that it would bring us all the way to the top. but no... that brought us to the second level, where we had to queue again to get up all the way to the top. it was freezing up there! my feet got so numbed that i had to wriggle my toes constantly. adr made me wear his big beanie, cos i didn't bring mine out that day. (hurhur, i looked superbly like miss tweetybird with that on) :p but it was worth the wait i'd say... never regretted going up there. more so, when it was christmas day on eiffel. how wonderful...

boxing day was spent at the Lourve Museum. i felt like i was soaking in the arty farty air in that huge complex of paintings, sculptures, figurines, artefacts and everything artistic. after 4hours of completing just the 1st level of the Lourve, i got tired. and yeah, i so agree that even if you were to sit and sleep in the Lourve Museum, you might need many days to finish the art appreciation lessons of each and every single art piece. of course, we saw the major ones like Mona Lisa painting and the Diamant dit "le Régent", 140,64 carats. but the walk through seemed to remind me of all those little museum details like conservation techniques, low lighting and display styles which used to be my job forte in the past... oh well :)

montmarte was the only place we took a train up, on our way back to cdg airport. this little village has its own beauty which is different from paris central. the buildings here reminded me of Holland V in singapore... and there were little markets selling tourist-y stuff and fruits and vegetables and flowers. the tulips here bloom with serene beauty too, the reds, the pinks and the yellows. we visited the famous Sacre-Coeur cathedral, with all its intricate architecture on the exterior and displays in the interior hall. one thing about montmarte i'd remember - it's set on a hill. we climbed so many steps before reaching where we were... endless steps!!!! ah...

nonetheless, i loved my 2007 christmas :p the french cuisine, i realised, has lots of salmon and bread. the croissant was also my favourite. and those little french pastries - they were so so so sweet and sour.

asto, we thought of you when we were at paris. sorry that we can't bring those sweet pastries back for you. i would have done so if i was flying back directly from paris. anyhows, we took pics and will show you when i return. meanwhile, you've been missed too!! :p