France Trip: Strolling from Arc de Triomphe, Champ Elysees, to Palais du Louvre

After spending our morning at Versailles Palace, we continue our journey to Arc de Triomphe. We took a RER from Gare de Versailles Château Rive Gauche and then continue using Metro to Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile station. Once we get out from the station, voila, we can see the amazing Arc de Triomphe upon our eyes.

Arc de Triomphe

At first we confused how to get to the monument, should we cross the street? cause the around Arc de Triomphe is closed by fences. Then we found out that there is a tunnel that can lead us to the entrance of the monument. After arriving at the monument, we saw a huge French flag is put under Arc de Triomphe and a slab with inscription "Here lies a French soldier who died for the fatherland 1914–1918" lying on the ground with eternal flame above the slab.

under Arc de Triomphe

Here lies a French soldier who died for the fatherland 1914–1918

We didn't have to queue for the ticket since we already have the 2 days Paris Museum Pass, so we decided to go straight to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We had to take the stairs to the top of the building. The circular stairs look like a shell from above. I had to stop once, because the stairs was so high.

looks like a shell from up here

After climbing the stairs, we enter to the first floor of the monument. There was a huge sculpture that really eye catching in there, it was the statue of a soldier. I really curious who is the person described by that statue.

the head statue

After taking another stair to the top of the monument, we finally arrive at the top of Arc de Triomphe. It's really high, and you can see 360 degree of Paris view from up there. My favorites views are Sacre Coeur, Champ Elysees, and of course, Eiffel Tower.

Sacre-Coeur from Arc de Triomphe

Champ Elysees

Eiffel Tower from Arc de Triomphe

Done with Arc de Triomphe, we continue our journey by walking along Champ Elysees towards Palais du Louvre. We came there on December, so Christmas attributes were all around the corners. And there are some bazaars that are being held alongside the Champ Elysees avenue, mostly they sold beers and snacks.

bazaar alongside Champ Elysees avenue

At the end of Champ Elysees avenue, we arrived at Place de la Concorde. From the information I read, Place de la Concorde is the place where Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were guillotined in 1793. In here, we can see the Luxor Obelix and The Big Wheel.

Place de la Concorde

After crossing Place de la Concorde, we arrived at Jardin de Tuileries. Inside the garden, there is a huge pond where many peoples are sitting and enjoying afternoon around the pool. In Paris, you can see many people smoking all around the corners, which made my travelling partner can't resist to do the same thing, "just like the Parisian," he said. LOL.

smoking at Jardin du Tuileries

Finally after walking about 3.8 km, we arrived at Palais du Louvre. There are so many African sellers coming to us offering cheap souvenirs like 5 Eiffel key chains for about 1 euro, but since we intended to bought souvenirs from the official shops, so we ignore them and continue the walk to the famous pyramid of Louvre.

Palais du Louvre

Louvre Pyramid

inside the pyramid

After taking so many pictures, then we entered to the museum. We use the Paris Museum pass to get into the museum. Just like many other tourists, our main goal was to see the famous Mona Lisa painting.  I guess because it was the main goals for most people, the museum put lots of directions to Mona Lisa painting, and we just need to follow them. Unlike many other rooms in Louvre, the Mona Lisa room is really packed with peoples. Of course we didn't want to miss a chance to take a picture with the painting as well.

Mona Lisa painting

Among all collections in Louvre, my most favorite collection is the David and Goliath painting. This painting has two sides, so you can see what happened in the front and the back of the battle between David and Goliath.

David and Goliath front side

David and Goliath back side

I wish I could spend more time in there, because the museum is so vast, and my feet has already tired due to taking the long walk during the day. When we walking out from the museum, we arrived at the Carrousel du Louvre shopping center, in there you can see the reversed side of the Louvre pyramid.

the reversed pyramid

My friend suggested me to buy the Mona Lisa Swatch watch if I went to Louvre because it only sold in there. But since the watch was too colorful for me, I decided to spent my money in other stuffs in Pylones store. Really could not help my self with adorable things in that store. LOL.



XOXO,
The Tourist

France Trip: The Palace of Versailles

After taking some rest, we started our second day in Paris by visiting the Palace of Versailles. I wanted to go there because this palace was mentioned in my high school study book and it said the palace is extravagant and beautiful, so i wonder how it actually look like.

We took metro from Ecole Militaire station then change to RER to Gare de Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche station. The RER train has two stories. I guess because the train is ended at Versailles, so it use beautiful flowery theme which similar to Marie Antoinette room theme.

the flowery theme train

Since it was early morning, we decided to have breakfast at McDonald which's located across the station. After fueled up our energy, we continue our walk to Versailles Palace.

in front of Gare de Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche station

When we arrived at the palace, we were welcomed by Louis XIV statue. Since we have Paris Museum Pass, we didn't need to buy ticket anymore and just enter the palace.

Louis XIV statue

the golden theme gate

after passing the gate

getting closer to the palace

After entering the gate, I took out the tripod and planned to take a picture, but then an officer came and told me that i wasn't allowed to use tripod. So I folded the tripod and put it inside my bag. The collections inside Versailles Palace were amazing, mostly consist of statue and paintings. My favorite is the first floor or also known as the Grand Apartment. in the Grand Apartment, I was welcomed by the amazing Hercules Drawing room and the King's chamber.

The Hercules Drawing room

The King's Chamber

After seeing the King's chamber, then I walked into Hall of Mirror. This hall is magnificent because it has lots of chandeliers in it.

the stunning Hall of Mirror

Finished with Hall of Mirror, I continued the walk to the Queen's chamber. The room is so lovely with flowery theme. By having some walks inside the Versailles, I just realized I have a new interest in sculpture and statue, especially the one with lots of details.

The Queen's Chamber

look how flowing this statue's clothes!

After amused with the Queen's chamber, I walked into the Gallery of Battles. In ther, there are lots of humongous historical paintings all over the walls.

enjoying the Gallery of Battles

Finished with the palace, I walked to the backyard and see the amazing garden. The garden is so vast, so in order to preserve the health of our feet, we decided to take Petit Train for 7.5 euro to get more view of the garden.

at the back of the palace

I bet this garden will look better during the spring

our Petit Train tickets

view from inside the Petit Train

There are three stops during our trip using Petit Train, the first stop is at Petit Trianon (Estate of Marie Antoinette), then Grand Trianon, and Grand Canal.

Estate of Marie Antoinette (Petit Trianon)

hungry, anyone?

Another thing that I noticed in here was there's always armies with guns that patrol around the palace. Well, I visited Paris not long after the Paris attacks, so no wonder they're still worry about the security of the country.

the armies

XOXO,
The Tourist

France Trip: Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour!

This time I will tell you about my last euro trip which's happened on the end of last year. I went to Paris from Jakarta using Malaysian Airlines (MAS). I choose MAS since it offered the lowest price with only 2 hours transit time in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Malaysia.

However, after I entered the plane and took a seat around 15 - 30 minutes, the pilot spoke in the speaker mentioning that the plane would not take off that night due to the airport in Paris is full. He also said the plane will delayed about 4 hours. It was 00.00 a.m, which mean I had to wait until 4 a.m for the flight.

The airlines didn't offer any hotel whatsoever, so all passengers were sleeping in the waiting room, using the purple blanket that was lent by them.

my sleepy face after sleeping at the bench

When it was almost 4 a.m., the officer announced that the flight will be delayed to 10 a.m. and they just gave us few snacks as the breakfast. Since my traveling partner and I have already bored in the waiting room, we spend time walking around the terminal and duty free shops, then ended sitting near the window with nice view of airplanes in the morning.

morning view in KLIA

Fortunately they weren't lying again, so we did took off at 10.00 a.m. Frankly speaking, for flying about 13 hours, the in-flight entertainment was kinda sucks. Totally different from the in-flight entertainment during Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur that was hi-tech and sophisticated. In the long flights, we did not have any option of the show to be watched, just like watching blurry tv, with some channels that replaying the show over and over again. Really not recommend long flight with this airlines.

Finally we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at 07.00 p.m. Paris time. After taking our baggage, my travelling partner and I went to the tourist information center and bought our Paris Museum Pass and Paris Visit for 3 days. The information center was really helpful so don't worry if you have any questions about how to use the passes.

waiting for the baggage

our Paris Museum Pass

We took metro to Prince Hotel at Ecole Militaire. Since our hotel really close to Eiffel Tower, so after checked in, we took a walk to Eiffel. Actually we planned to spend the afternoon at the top of Eiffel tower and already bought the online ticket. Unfortunately the 10 hours flight delay made us had to let our Eiffel tickets went to waste since the tickets were for specific time only.

the view from my room's window

So here we go, enjoying the night around the Eiffel tower. During our stay in Paris, the UN Climate Change Conference COP21 was being held there. Therefore, the light show at Eiffel tower was replaced by the climate change theme. It's still beautiful anyway.

Bonjour Eifel tower!

taking a boat, anyone?

We walked to Palais de Chaillot to get better view of the Eiffel tower, and yes, the Eiffel tower looks majestic from up there.

Eiffel night view from Palais de Chaillot

Well, that's how I spent my first night in Paris. I'll share you more stories of this trip
in the next posts.



XOXO,
The Tourist