OFF TO PARIS : DAY 1 afternoon

8th October 2009



My respected elder commented that one can find love up on the Eiffel Tower or on a cruise on the River Seine. Indeed, I agree.


If one goes to Paris, then one must surely visit the Eiffel. And that was where we started our visit today. Of-course My wife and I had visited the Eiffel Tower on our first trip years ago. Like most tourists, we too went up the Eiffel. Did we find love there? Well, I went there with my better half, so I better not find love there......or else I'll be halved!





This time around, accompanied by our daughter, Mimi said she will save the trip up the Eiffel Tower for another visit. She was happy just to have the experience of the Eiffel on the ground, with her parents. I suppose she is saving that for a special trip, on a special occassion. We understand Mimi. We were once in our 20's too...sigh....soooo loooong ago!




Mimi also had this goal of doing a jump at all the places she had visited. That's fine when you can still jump around. Will I do a jump too? We shall see. For now, I will leave that to her to perform the jump.

I guessed I should not be amazed at the number of visitors visiting the Eiffel Tower. But, I am still amazed that after all these years, there are still visitors by the thousands. The queue to go up the Eiffel winds like a dragon. I just wonder, how many millions have gone up the tower.

Paris was warmer than Dublin. No, wrong. I should rephrase the sentence. Paris was less cold than Dublin. Yes, that's the correct way to compare the weather.

Since the weather was quite favorable, we decided to walk along the River Seine. Several cruise boats were carrying the tourists up and down the river.

River Seine had lots of boats plying the river and yet the river is clean. Perhaps I should say, very clean. The color is that of a river too, unlike the teh tarek colors of sadly, our rivers in Malaysia.

Again, just like the Eiffel Tower, we decided not to take the cruise. Mimi said the cruise did not serve rice on their menu, so it was really worthless to bring her dad on the cruise. Fine Mimi. Do save the cruise for a special occassion again. Your mom and dad had already done the cruise on their first trip.

For this occasion, mother will be happy to pose with daughter besides the cruise boat and dad is happy photographing the occassion, minus the cruise.

Along the river bank, there was also an art exhibition. In a cool weather, it is such a joy to stroll and admire the photographic exhibitions. The exhibition was opened to "not so famous" professional photographers to display their work of art. Judging by their names, most are photographers from Asia, Central Europe and South America.


Most shots were shots I would classify under "humanities". These shots are normally those taken in the less developed countries, shots of impoverishment, the less fortunates, the hunger, the pain and the joys of the poor. These pictures usually moves most of us.

Here, Mimi mimicked the photo behind her. Not quite there, but ok la.

Anyway, how about a natural pose!

Moving along, we detoured to that famous street, Champs-Élysées. One may accidentaly knot once's tongue to pronounce this street correctly. Followers of the Tour de France, the greatest annual cycling race in the world will know that the last day of the race climaxed at this cobbled pavement. This happened every July since 1975.

From Wikipedia, I picked up this statement :

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as USD1.5 million per 1,000 square feet (92.9 square metres) of space, it remains the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe.

I can't argue more of its prestige. On its side road, one will not miss this hotel, Hotel Athenee. Even from a distance, one can feel the Euro slipping through the fingers like water.

And as I passed by the lobby, I saw this car parked right in front. I don't know the make, neither can I make out the number plate. But I do know its written in Arabic! The owner obviously have huge reserves inspite of the Euros slipping through his fingers like waterfall. Such is life.

Down by the River Seine, I recalled the exhibition and this photograph of a couple watching TV in a place the couple call home!

So I walked back to reality. And this is my reality - "when less is more"