Paris Holiday - Day 2

Continuation from our day 1 in Paris.

We planned to visit the shopping area of Paris today. 

At least for the day, in the evening we visited Eiffel Tower again.  I think at least we must visit the shopping areas and I am sure everyone agrees, we must do shopping when we go on holiday.  Right?  At least a little bit.  So today was the day we do. 

One thing that kind of dampen the holiday was the day was so short.  It got dark by 5pm in Paris and by 4pm in London.  And we kind of rushed to go places due to the short days.  And since we mostly used the tubes and its our first time using them, we spent so much time looking for directions, got in, travel and got out of the tubes and look for the places we wanted to go.  Can be so daunting and time consuming but we did enjoy looking at the place we dropped by at and looking at the so many different kind of people on the tubes.  Interesting.

And today was our first time using the Paris Metro (the tubes/trains were called Metro in Paris).  Metro Paris was smaller than London tubes.  The trains were also smaller and shorter in sizes, more like Kuala Lumpur LRT.  And in some areas, its kind of abandoned and need some face lifts.  Another funny thing was, the door of the trains had to be manually opened by a ledge, not automatic.  I should have taken a photo of that!  I salute London tubes, they were much better in terms of cleanliness, facilities and overall impressions.

There was one Metro near our hotel.  And its called Bir-Hakiem.  Nice name!  As if we were in Dubai or something, hehehe.

And the weather was so wet today, it rained all day so its a bit difficult to move around without being soaked.  Luckily the rain stops towards the evening.  We went out nevertheless although its a bit late already around 11am.  So we decided to get some lunch before doing the shopping.  We knew how tired we would be after the shopping!

Trains were paid in credit card in Paris, at least at Bir-Hakiem. I dont know at other places.  So hubby bought 3 day-pass tickets which can be used for the whole day today (I didnt know how much it cost, its hubby credit card hehehe).  After buying the tickets, we started to look for the right trains and headed to one Halal fast food restaurant in Paris for our lunch.

Hubby queuing to get the day pass tickets at the station

Tickets can also be bought using the machine.

This is how the tickets looked like

Us at the Metro

Time to enter the train station

As usual hubby looked at the map to find the place we wanted to go

Hubby and Ayang on the train.

At the train station to go to the next connecting destination.

Cant help to take pictures on how pretty Paris is.  Did I say that already? lol

This is the Halal fast food where we had our lunch

Again picture of Paris

Our lunch

Sorry about the mixed up picture, now we are back in the train station!

After lunch we were heading to the shopping mall.

Hubby at the city

Us having lunch

After lunch we went to the Galeries Lafayette, I've done some research through the internet and found out that this shopping mall is one of the best known in Paris.  The thing that struck me the most is how beautiful the building was.  Not only the exterior of the building but the interior too.  The store is synonymous with fashion and is home to many of the best known global labels. It also offers a dizzying array of cosmetics, china, decorator and household items and food products - enough to keep the most ardent shopaholic busy for many hours.

I didnt buy alot here but the experience of being here surpass everything else.  And there were lots of shoppers too, I guess its being so close to Christmas, everyone was busy buying gifts.

Us outside Galeries Lafayette

My daughter

Hubby outside Galeries Lafayette

Upon entering the store, we were greeted by a big christmas tree, and look at the ceiling!

Beautiful right?

Shopping time

After the shopping

So many shoppers

Busy and crowded

From across the road

Traffic jam

After strolling around the area and bump into so many people (we met a few Bruneians and lots of Malaysia here in Paris), we then went back to the hotel to rest.  The weather is getting better by now so we were hoping to go out again tonight and visit the Eiffel Tower one last time, tomorrow we will have to go back to London.

On our way back to hotel, I didnt know Paris also had Ferries Wheels.

A motocycle parked at the front of the hotel, interesting it has 2 wheels at the front.

Rest time and being playful :)

Our last night in Paris

Cant get enough of this

At the foot of the tower

Since its almost christmas, the Eiffel Tower area was full of stalls (christmas market) and carousels where people could enjoy the festive season.  And being in winter and the cold, didnt hinder people from being outside and enjoy all the fun rides and the sight seeing.

The christmas market at the Eiffel Tower

This stall was selling soaps in different colours and flavours

The dustbin.  Interesting it didnt look like our dustbins here.  Hubby has a logical theory about this haha

More Eiffel Tower picture!

More stalls

The carousel

Nice

Paris has treated us well

The last picture at the tower

The area was beautifully decorated and lighted.

Thats the end of our trip to Paris.  Tomorrow we will travel back to London and continue the holiday.  2 days in Paris definitely not enough.  There were still alot of places we wanted to go but we didnt have the time.  So hubby and I made a pact that we will return :)

Update in London will be soon.