Since Darth Binky was feeling much better, I arranged a jam-packed day of activities!! We hit the Metro after breakfast but still got to La Madeleine quite late in the morning. Hee...it's not that it's far, we left the house late (again).
La Madeleine is a church dedicated to Mary Magdelene. Tho it started construction in 1764, it was not consecrated till nearly a hundred years later. It's a lovely BIG church and when we got there, lunch time mass just started so we didn't want to tour the church too much while a mass was going on. :P
We walked down Blvd de la Madeleine and got to the Opera National de Paris Garnier. Pretty pretty opera house but much of it was under construction so there was much hoarding and canvas covering a few main sides of the building. This is the opera house that inspired Paul Leroux's Phantom of the Opera!! Like in the musical, you can see that the Grand Staircase is really quite a close copy of the actually one in the opera house. The opera house comes with a real lake that is underneath the building too, just like in the musical. But of course I only read about it in my trusty guidebook, they didn't allow entry to many places.
Then it was shopping time!! Window shopping that is, at Galleries Lafayette. It's nothing like the small building at the edge of Orchard Road like most of us remember. Here in Paris, it's really quite the main shopping area and they carry many high-end labels. The main building has 7 floors and there's a separate building for Men's and another building for Home stuff... Crazy right? Hee...
After window shopping, then came REAL shopping!! At LV no less, my sis asked me to help get her a bag and so I walked in confidently as I KNOW I am not just window shopping (again). Hahaaa... Darth Binky is real sweet, he said he'll get me something (not too big lah) from LV. So I browsed around and eyed their classic checker-patterned wallet. It's 192 blinking, freaking, turtle-monkey euros lor!!!! That's easily S400 for a small wallet you know!!! I don't even carry a quarter that amount at any one time. On good days, I only have S$50 in my wallet and loads of faith in my heart when I go out!! :) But I digress... so I thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and then asked the lady attending to me to get my sister's bag so as to buy more time for me to think and think and think and think and think and think and think and think somemore about buying the wallet. I'm psycho...how?
So in the end, I only got my sister's bag at 420 euros!!!!!! And me nothing as I couldn't buy something SO expensive and then not treat it like gold lor! If I bought both, then I'll need to buy an additional SQ seat just for the LV wallet and bag on my way home. :P
We next headed for the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top to catch a pretty view of the city that we are leaving behind. :( There were again super many steps and once up there, as they say, the view's worth it lah. :) It was really quite cool to see all the roads converging at the roundabout circling the Arc de Triomphe as the area is called Charles de Gaulle - Etoile. Etoile means "star" and the 12 roads with the Arc as centre really looks like a 12-spook star, seen from above. :)
As I walked home carrying only my sister's purchase, I can't help feeling like a loser... All the way to Paris and nothing big and swanky for myself. Loser... :(
2 comments:
my dear..
u are one classy woman without the all branded goods k.. :)
o ya.. remember to settle tax rebate before you come back ya..
anyway, after reading your blow by blow account of the trip, i is decided that i must brave the long long flight and make a trip to paris again in this lifetime!
kk.. see you next week! :)
This is great info to know.
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