A visit in Paris! (Part 1)

On the 4 and 5th October 2008, I went to Paris to attend the "Hari Raya Aidilfitri Open House" at Malaysian's House situated in the west of Paris. My train took off at 6:43 am that Saturday, and the bus that could drive me from my house to the train station would depart at 6:20 am yet, I was still cleaning my studio at 6:22am. I knew that the remaining one minute was extremely crucial in order not to be left walking 3 kilometres. I ran down from the third floor to the ground floor, hoping that the bus would wait for me. When my wrist-watch striked 6:23 am, I saw the bus stopped at the bus station which was about 400 m from the point I was standing, in 10 seconds time, it left.

I was left with the only choice: run as fast as I could to cover 3 km in 20 minutes time. This task was seemingly impossible, and in between, there were a lot of doubts, I was wondering whether can I make it in time, I ran like a professional runner, with my formal shoes on (luckily I have been having the habitude of jogging every evening, 3 km is just too little). The continuous running was fun and that morning was freezingly cold, and I was informed that it was snowing at the Vosges (a mountain near Colmar). the breezy wind numbed my receptors, but the determination to catch the train kept me running.

At 6:39 am, i reached the main entrance of the train station, after having my ticket composted, I went to the platform indicating "Colmar-Strasbourg-Paris Est", it was platform 1, I climbed the stairs, the sense of victory that was generated within caught the better side of me. Suddenly, the speaker was on, "Messieurs-dames, le train TGV 2352 en destination de Paris Est sera eu un retard de 20 minutes... Merci pour votre compréhension." In your opinion, what was my feeling after hearing this announcement regarding a delay of 20 minutes?

At 7.03 am, i boarded on the train, I sat beside an auntie who knows Paris very well, during the trip, she explained to me places that I must vist before leaving Paris, suchas Montmarte, le Sacré-Coeur, le Jardin de Luxembourg, Les Champs-Elysées, La Tour Eiffel... She even showed the map of métro of Paris and gave me some advices like:

1. Be careful with the pick-pockets.

2. Get the map of Paris as soon as you reached, it's free.

3. Have fun.

At 9:54am, I reached Paris, got down from the train with my backpack, and walked all the way the platform which was surprisingly quite far, i followed the signs shown to the métro station. Oh là là! There was such a long queue in front of the métro counter. While I was waiting, I chatted with a couple standing behin me who was actually visitor from England, so we spoke in English and we chatted for quite a while. Nice talking to them. Did I tell you that I had an assignment of fetching another friend of mine who came from Blois? For your information, there were 6 main train stations (for TGV): Gare de l'Est, Gare du Nord which goes to London, Gare de Lyon which goes to Lyon, Gare Montparnasse, Gare St.-Lazare and Gare d'Austerlitz (I have no idea), but my friend was right there: Gare d'Austerlitz.

After having the information that I need from the counter, I followed the arrows to the platform. When I was approaching the platform, I saw the train there and the door was still opened, I slipped into it. Voilà! Here comes my first experience of taking the infamous, le métro de Paris.

At 10:10 am, I reached the station, I saw my friend sitting there, typing messages on her handphone which in no time would be lost in the métro. My first destination is the Tuilleries Garden (Le jardin de Tuilleries). The starting point of taking pictures frenzy.

The first picture that I took in Paris -Tuilleries Garden.

A nice place to read.
A standing position.

In front of one of the statues in the garden.

La Concorde.

The creator of this Garden, 'André, Le Nôtre-Auteur de ce jardin de ceux de Versailles Chantilly'.

The views are extraordinary except that there are too many falling leaves on the grass which indicates the coming of autumn. And there were many statues made of white marble around this garden especially around the fountain. All in all, it gave me a peaceful atmosphere. Around 11:30 am, I was on my way to Malaysian's House, my friend and I took the métro from La Concorde to Charles the Gaulle, boarded on to another train to Trocadéro, changed again, to Ranelagh. and finally, arond 12pm, I have arrived Malaysian's House, there was a buffet, I served myself and I talked to many seniors there, wasn't really that interesting but I enjoyed meeting my friends who were separated from me since the first day in France and also talking to the seniors who have had already stayed in France for several years which means they have a lot of experience. And guess what, I caught a sight of our Education Minister, Dato Hishamuddin, I took a picture of him.

In front of Malaysian's House.

Dato Hishamuddin was in front of me.

In the métro

Then, I took the opportunity to visit Paris, I went to La Place d'Italie, the chinatown in Paris and I found so many cantonese speakers, and the whole street was full of chinese. I was actually amazed. I finished that day promenading in that place and also St.-Germain-des-Près, a street for the artists.

St.-Germain-des-Près

I crossed Le Pont Neuf where I took a picture. Le Pont Neuf is one of the bridges that connects La rive Gauche et La rive Droite de la Seine (The left and the right bank of Seine in which the living styles are totally different). As we were walking (with another friend of mine) I came to Notre-Dame de Paris, we didn't go inside because there was such a long queue but I managed to take some pictures.

Near the Pont Neuf.

At Le Pont Neuf.

Notre-Dame de Paris (Look at the people)

Notre-Dame de Paris (with me in the photo).

Close-up of Notre-Dame de Paris.

What really intrigued me that day was the trip back to the metro station from Notre-Dame, I found a really big bookstore (you all know me), I went inside and I was so much in love to it because the books were so cheap, I chose 3 books and it only costed me 11 euros, anyway those were second-hand books but they looked really new, so I bought Le Petit Prince de St.-Exupéry, Les Misérables de Victor Hugo and Next de Michael Crichton which is actually a french version of an american novel. I told myself, I will be very busy with all these books later on. Anyway, I just like that store so much... All these pictures are taken by my friend who I fetched that morning. Later, you will know who she is in part 2 of my visit in Paris. By the way, ask me how could I do so many things in one day, I don't know!

Last picture of the day, a statue near Notre-Dame.