Paris the City of Light

Paris is famously known as La Ville Lumiere, translated to the City of Light
So don't be surprised with all the beautiful lights everywhere....it's not the Hong Kong/New York/Tokyo kinda Big City Bright Lights with Neon boards flashing everywhere....

Paris is just so chic and beautiful day and night
The term City of Light was coined not for its physical lights then......but for its role as the center of enlightenment, arts, literature bla bla bla in the 17th & 18th century.

Later during the modernisation era under the Emperor Napoleon 3rd, most of the old quartiers were torn down to make ways for HUGE boulevards, beautiful streets and avenues. This was a very ambitious project of Baron Haussmann. He was fired for his cost and extravagance of the modernisation project.

BUT....but....without him Paris won't be as beautiful as it is today and that's really a FACT.
The view of Arc de Triomphe from the park, the Place Etoile, the Opera area were all re-designed by Baron Haussmann.

He's civic planner actually, he didn't really designed all these buildings but he beautified the area surrounding it, built wide roads. This came at a cost bcoz he tore down most of the medieval part of Paris.

Oh well in life nothing is without sacrificed isn't it???
Even if u wanna enjoy a yummy plate of Nasi Lemak u gotta sacrificed ur Waist isn't it??? or go torture yourself to burn all the extra calories after indulgence.


The Musee du Louvre which we loved so much....
the pyramid entrance was built in the middle of Palais du Louvre

Designed by IM Pei and constructed in 1989 it was much of a controversy bcoz it "destroyed" the beauty of the palace around it. The futuristic outta space liked glass pyramid and steel were not accepted by ppl in 1989....HAHAHAHAHA

Look at it now!!! it's one of the most photographed ICON of Paris!!!
this reminded me the story of Eiffel Tower which they built temporary for a fair in 1889
Thank GAWD they didn't tear it down!!!! Eiffel Tower is now the ICON of PARIS.
:))))))))))
so u see, everything happened for a reason.



So every evening, after our burpylicious dinner we walked home to our hotel.
Doesn't matter the journey was 10 minutes 30 minutes or 60 minutes....we walked home

it's by foot that u get to see the city even more, spending time at the parks and listening to musicians playing on the streets. I must admit the most romantic city to do post-dinner walks is Seville...and yes I have yet to finish blogging about Seville, Spain...

oh no....too much to post. I need to prepare like 5 postings a day????
that can be done, if only I don't have a full time job


crossing a bridge never feel this novel
we tend to do plenty of pit stops taking pics, listening to more street-musicians, basting under the moon light and enjoying the night breeze

Oh yes. I can definitely live in Paris
but NOT work in Paris


oh yea from the Pyramid of Louvre u can see this Arc deTriomphe du Carousel
built to commemorate the victory of Napoleon

for those that didn't know, next to this arc there is another entrance to the Musee du Louvre with less people and shorter queue. Because everyone tend to hog the other more famous entrance - the Glass Pyamirad entrance.

hahahaha alwiz good to have local knowledge. 
in fact this entrance is not known by many ppl...but looks like for now...u all would have known hahahahahaha.

I am sooooo very very deeply amazed by the planning of all these monuments

allow me to explain...
the Palais du Louvre embraced the Glass Pyramid...
the Glass Pyramid centre aligns with this Arc de Triomphe du Carousel *I was standing underneath it while this pic was taken*
the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel is aligned with the Luxor Obelisk at the centre of Place de la Concorde.
u can see the Luxor Obelisk in the pic above...it's like a shining sabre *zang!!!* erected there.

okie to continue...
the shining sabre I mean Luxor Obelisk is aligned with Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe!!!!
Arc de Triomphe is at the far end...it's pretty tiny in the pic above, just right at the back of the sabre I mean Luxor Obelisk

aaaahhhhhh isn't it amazing?
kinda difficult to get a pic with all these passing people....

okie I am not done yet actually...
the final Arc de Triomphe is aligned with the CBD area La Defense

right, I don't have a pic now but will dig it outta JS's really super huge gazillion Gigabyte hard disk

at La Defense in our era, Paris built a modern Arc of office building hahahahahaha
named the Grande Arche


so in the end this is wat Paris got!!!
a 10km of Axe Historique!!!!

Left to right:
Grande Arche of La Defense, then to Arc de Triomphe down right to Champs Elysees meeting the Luxor Obelisk and finally ending at the Palais du Louvre
:)))))))))))))))


almost empty streets outside Musee d'Orsay on the left bank
actually we didn't stay on the left bank this time around......but we tend to walk from left to the right back to left and finally crossing over to the right

it's a good excuse to view all the beautiful architecture
and walking BURNS CALORIES!!!!
wuahahahahaahahahha


Finally we arrived at our destination - Palais Garnier Opera House
we stayed next to this beautiful monument
such opulence and architecture
I will do a separate posting on the opera house soon :)))))

Hope u enjoyed this posting as much as I did :))))
yeah I know...it's different coz I got to Walk my Talk
pfffffffttttttt hihihihihihihihihihihihihihi