First time in Paris ...

We left London about 4 plus in the afternoon and travelled to Paris by train and reached there in the evening so other than having dinner at the train station, we didn't do very much but rested for a full next day :o)

Booking for accomodation is rather odd, as vacancy goes down, prices per room goes up. So moral of the story is book early. We stayed at the Hotel New Orient which is a lovely quaint place that I think was newly renovated. Price wise it was good for us and it was close to the train station so that was very useful. Made travelling alot easier by Metro. Another hotel is also good if you're early cuz they include breakfast in their weekend package is Best Western Elysees Paris Monceau. We somehow managed at Hotel New Orient because there is a bakery down the road as you're walking to the Metro so we grabbed a pastry or muffin from there. Plus it also gave us a chance to try the French Breakfast (just a lil different from the English Breakfast) :o)

We decided to keep the day nice and easy so we headed to Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is known as the most prestigious and broadest avenue in Paris to do some shopping. Interesting area and easy to spend the whole day there. Just watch your wallets please cuz there's lots of shopping to do.

And any trip to Avenue des Champs-Élysées will not be complete if we didn't pop into Louis Vuitton's flagship store there. It was quite an experience for me cuz I wouldn't even bother stepping into the one in Singapore but was told that when I was in Paris, I HAD to check this store out. Must admit that I left the store with my purse feeling alot lighter as I lugged some paper bags out. Yes, I caved in and bought some treats for myself. Let's just say that I have enough bags for the next few years while I 'recover' what I spent in that store *laughs*

As we dashed across the road, we managed to take a picture of the lovely Arc de Triomphe. Will have to do a proper visit to that arc when I am in Paris again.

We headed back to the hotel to drop our bags and took the metro out again to see the Tour Eiffel. It's really an awesome structure and unfortunately because we were there later in the day, the queue was just too long for us to go up to the different levels. Plus it was drizzling and I'm not sure how the view would have been like. Now you can understand why I would love to head to Paris again to complete the many things I didn't get to do :o)

If you're wondering what the photograph below is, well it's the view from right below the Tour Eiffel. Stumbled upon this view by chance actually and am very pleased with it.

And here's proof that I really was there *laughs* Got comments before that I'm hardly in my photographs so people do wonder if I'm even at them places!

Another must do is take a boat ride down River Seine. It's a good way to see Paris by the river and it's not too pricey either. Very relaxing ride. Stay tune to see what I did the next day. Spent almost the whole day there but it was worth it!