J'adore Paris! (Paris Part 1)

Being in Paris is always like a dream. A kind of deja vu I long to have over and over again. Everything just seems to glitter in Paris!

Here i am in Paris again, my 4th visit but yet Paris never fails to excite me with her graceful allure. Like a beauty queen, every corner of Paris is always a surprise exuding her own charm. Getting downtown to Paris from the Charles De Gaude Airport is fairly easy by the RER transiting over to the Metro except if you are not overloaded with baggage. The stairs up and down the Metro can be quite a feat for most. Also beware of the lurking pickpockets at the Metro stations. That imperfect side of Paris literally hidden in its undergrounds isn't quite alluring for tourists.

Arriving at mid day, we figured that the best thing to do would be to hit the shops armed with the shopping list we compiled from family and friends that we had better get going since most shops in Paris close by 7pm. We decided that we were going to first pick up items on our list from the flagship Longchamps store at St Honore.

(i kept all my purchases in my supermarket bag to avoid being mugged by gypsies)

Wanting to get a bag to commemorate my trip, i decided to get an Eiffel Tote which apparently is only for sale in the flagship store in Paris.

Shuffling my way through the store, a kind of familiarity loomed in the air with spoken Singlish. The store was half filled with Singapoarens like ourselves trying to fulfill that long shopping list we got from relatives and friends back home. Initially a little embarrassed by the commotion my fellow citizens were making in the store, i actually felt comforted listening to all the fuss of "lahs" and "lohs". It was nice seeing some familiar faces miles away from home afterall.

Being one of the last people out of the store, we stepped out into the orange Parisian skies. It was a little past dusk and the sun was setting and we hurried along St Honore down the street to the nearest open space and found ourselves standing at the Place de la Concorde.

The Place de la Concorde is a great place to capture 2 iconic towers. One being the Obelisk from Luxor and not so distant, amidst the orange skies, the Eiffel tower can also be spotted glistening in the last lap of sunset. The view here is picturesque as you can simply watch the orange skies turn to yellow and fade into the dark night sky when the lights come on.

This was the beautiful dusk of the Extended Summer of September 2011.

TBC...