Back to Paris: A Duo’s Journey 🇫🇷🇫🇷

After almost three years, my trip in Paris still stays as one of my most memorable journey of all times given it was my first time travelling solo oversea. So, for this bank holiday weekend, I can’t be more excited of going back!

This time, however, instead of travelling solo I will be exploring it with my bestie! 🏃‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️ And we kicked the first night with a late, boozy dinner at Déviant! 🍸🥂

These octopus ceviche tostada were so delicious! 😍😍

*From left to right clockwise:* Beef tartare, pistachio gnocchi, pollock pil-pil and rhubarb sorbet

Hoping we weren’t too hungover the next morning, we stopped by a beautiful smelling bakery on our way to the Louvre museum! 🤤 I ordered a delicious gammon quiche which as I was taking a picture, dropped onto the floor!! 😱😱😱 (but 10-second rule right?? 😂)

The Louvre was packed full of people on the day just like last time. However, this time I was smart enough to reserve a ticket beforehand, but it still took quite some time queuing to get in! Finally, I get to meet the famous Mona Lisa (my friend wasn’t as enthusiastic about her though! 😂)

The famous Mona Lisa (so many people around it!!)

I really enjoyed the Egyptian section of the museum

Napoleon III Apartments at the Richelieu Wing

I do love chandeliers! ❤️ (But also very warm in the room haha! 🥵)

After a brief rest, we then embarked on our long walk towards the Eiffel Tower, passing by Café de Flore and Luxembourg Garden on the way! (Completely broke my record of steps that day haha! 😆🏃‍♂️)

Grand Bassin Rond – the weather was so good that ☀️ ☀️ we sunbathed here for a bit!

Second meal of gelato – needed it hahaha! 😂

Dinner time – and bestie absolutely refused to eat the snails! 😂 🐌 🐌

Climbing up the stairs of Eiffel Tower 💪

The view of Paris up at the Eiffel Tower

Second dinner – someone is REALLY hungry after all the walking! 😂 (and it’s not me! 🤣)

The next day we then visited the spectacular Petit Palais. A perfect spot for some morning relaxation and a light brunch! 🥰🥰

Maximising the time spent outdoor in the glorious weather, we also went picnicking back at Tuileries Garden by the Louvre as well as visiting the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette.

The most sophisticated supermarket packed lunch I have seen! 😆 (Love how the olive oil and vinegar came in a tube!) Also realised many of this packed lunches in Paris don’t include cutlery inside – so you need to buy your own one.

Another gelato snack – FYI stracciatella 🍫 and lemon 🍋 sorbet is a magnificent combo!

My bestie was heading back to London a day earlier than me, so after saying goodbye 👋 to her at Gare du Nord, I am running solo again for the rest of trip! My first stop was the famous red windmill of Moulin Rouge (after unknowingly wandered passed the red light district of Pigalle 😂🔞 probably won’t shared pics here in case people needed parental guidance haha! 🙈🙈)

I was initially planning to visit Le Petit Canard nearby in the area for the famous duck à l’orange, but unfortunately they were fully booked up (and also closed for the following day). 😔 So, I took the metro line and headed back to one of my favourites from last time – Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie! The onion soup was one of the best I ever had! 👌

And on my last day of my Paris stay (which coincided with Labour Day), I visited Marché Saint-Quentin and the Arc de Triomphe before taking Eurostar back to London. Somehow I gradually got a bit lost track of time and ended up being a bit of a mad dash home! (Typical! 😂)

Wandered around for a long time deciding what to eat in the market 😂 but went with this delicious Moroccan place in the end

How can you not try patisserie whilst in France?

Got the Fraisier and the passion fruit chocolate cake

A very quick sneaky visit to the president palace (hoping to meet Macron haha)- all the roads were blocked off with guards so that’s the best photo I could get 😅

Was running quite low on time and chowed down this duck à l’orange in under 5 minutes and ran to Gard du Nord for my train back to London! 🚄🚄

28 Today!

Another year flew by and so much had happened during these times… Went through months of lockdown; adapted to the new working environment; dazed through hundreds of online Team calls; forged new relationships with new people; rethought my careers path, enrolled to a new university course; felt the highs from the Tokyo Olympics and explored parts of this amazing world I have never encountered before… Going to a new year of my life, I feel like I am certainly turning over a new leaf. 🍀

There are many future plans I would like to share with you all, but I shall keep things under wrapped for the time being as the dusts settled. Meanwhile, I thought a new biscuit selfie profile pic is in order to celebrate the beginning of yet another chapter! 😉 The background is in light of my trip to Paris a few years ago – the stunningly bright Eiffel Tower under the midnight sky was a memory I would never forget!

My Parisian Adventure: The Unseen Bits

After a day of being back home, I started again looking through the photos on my phone from my trip in Paris. I then realised there were many snapshots of brief, funny and cultural moments that made my time there the more special and exciting. So, here are 10 unseen bits from my Parisian adventure. 😉

1. We were never short on water

While I was worried about dehydration, many people used the hot weather to business advantages by setting up nearby long queues around attractions and sell ice cold bottled waters on the spot. (Quite honestly though, I probably won’t have made it through those 4.5 hours by the Catacombs without them. 😂 Though I thought they did bump up the price to €2 there…🤔)

2. Ice cream is your new best friend

On the subject of the hot weather, ice creams had become my staple diet… 😂

3. Toilet is the new luxury

One thing I couldn’t get over in Paris was that almost every single toilets in malls and stations need to be paid for, with prices ranging from half an euro to over one euro per entry! 😠 This particular one in Carrousel du Louvre took it to another level, costing €1.50 per entry to their ‘luxurious‘ toilets…

And they also sold coloured and patterned toilet rolls for ridiculous prices! 😂

4. Apparently being 25 is not that old at all

Being in the UK, I was used to paying for adult tickets for most things post 16. However, in Paris, it seemed that being 25 was still very much considered ‘young’ in a number of places. In Sainte-Chapelle, not only was I allowed to bypass the long queue, I also did not need to pay for any tickets. Though the words ‘European Community‘ unnerved me due to the current situation with Brexit… (I was told by a member of staff to ‘enjoy it while [I] could.’ 😬) I did get lucky though because I was only a few months away from turning 26. 😂

Though, at the Eiffel Tower, I was annoyed that I just missed out the half price ‘youth’ ticket by a year… 😓

5. CinEiffel in the Ferrié Pavilion

While I collapsed in sweats and nerves after I reached the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, I got to catch this amazing clip in the Ferrié Pavilion section there which was projected onto a three-wall screen. (P.S. I didn’t stay for the whole thing… 😂)

6. ‘Pardon, monsieur.’

On the line of Eiffel Tower, I was taking this picture when a little boy accidentally kicked a football at me… ⚽️ 😵

And when he came up to apologise, that was how I learnt ‘pardon’ meant ‘sorry’ in French. 😅 (Which I later used repeatedly throughout my trip! 😂)

7. The Metro is a whole new world underground

Vending machines on the platform? And mostly air conditioned? London underground could really take a page out of the Metro’s book!

But their exit barriers really reminded me of fire exits. (I was scared I was going to set some random alarm off when I first passed one… 😨)

8. Duck or goose?

When I was at Le Comptoir de La Gastronomie, I took a look around their shop section after my lunch. But I was a little confused by the huge variations in the prices of the different foie gras.

While most of the foie gras was in the region of around €20 to €40, this one I was holding only costed €8. When I asked for the reason, it turned out that this one was made from duck livers rather than those of geese, so it was less valuable. 😯

9. Graffiti in the Catacombs

Be respectful for the dead? (I don’t want to be haunted! 😰😱)

10. And when you’re a tourist, you just take a bunch of random pictures of stuff that you don’t even know…

Day 5: Sunny Boulevard

They always say, ‘they save the best ’til last’. And just like that, the hottest day of the year marked the last leg of my time here in Paris. ☀️☀️ Since my train was scheduled for the evening, I decided to not to head out early this morning, and instead enjoyed every last bits of air con in my hotel room until I needed to check out at midday. 😂❄️ (Though I did took a brief stroll around the neighbourhood at around 9am and got a sandwich for breakfast from a supermarket nearby.)

With the intense heat, I refused to stay outdoor for any longer than necessary. Therefore, after leaving my luggage at the hotel’s locker, I headed to some major department stores on the Boulevard Haussmann. I first stopped by Galeries Lafayette, where the building was well known for its stained glass dome. It even has a extended path called ‘glasswalk’ on the 3rd floor that allows visitors to walk out and look right underneath the dome. But I was a little too scared to try due to my fear of height… 😅 (At least the Eiffel Tower wasn’t transparent!)

View from the rooftop. You can see the Eiffel Tower from afar. 😉

Like many high-end department stores, the place are filled with expensive brands. Now, I got to say I don’t have a particular interest in shopping in general. (Let alone ones that are this expensive!) So, my main focus was on the food available here. The place has restaurants and cafes dotted around each floor of the building. (The place was massive, since, in addition to the main building, there were two other separate buildings that were also part of Galeries Lafayette.) I initially wanted to visit the rooftop restaurant until I discovered it was outdoor… 🔥🔥😓 Not a chance I was going to stay!

So instead, I went to an Asian restaurant called Panasia on the floor below which turned out to be quite decent. Though I was more interested in trying their ice creams afterwards. 😋 (A quick side story: the place was absolutely packed, so I was sat facing the sun by the window and sharing a table with a kind old lady. She was very gracious in letting me sit directly opposite to avoid the sun and be her brief lunch date lol. 😊)

Panna cotta (top) and coconut (bottom) ice creams

I then moved on to visit the Printemps, another top department store a few blocks down along the Boulevard Haussmann. Similarly, it also has a beautiful stained glass ceiling in its dining area. ❤️

Felt like the hot weather really made me craved for something cold, so I was instantly drawn to an ice cream mochi stand in the store. (For those of you who may not know, mochi is a Japanese treat made from glutinous rice and has a soft yet slightly chewy texture – a bit like marshmallows.) They were popular sweet treats in Hong Kong and my family used to fight over them. 😂

I decided to go for less conventional flavours, and chose the mojito (top) and Sakura (bottom). Sakura is Japanese for cherry blossoms, and this had a subtle floral flavour which was pleasant but not too overpowering to eat. 😊 I absolutely loved the mojito one since I am a big fan of lime and I could definitely taste the alcohol! 😂 (If you eat too many, would you end up drunk lol?)

However, with that, I wrapped up my final activity in Paris and headed back to collect my luggage from the hotel. Learning from my mistake on the first day, I made sure I arrived way earlier at the train station this time!😂 (I actually almost missed the train since I didn’t realise at first that the way we entered the platform was via a different route to others because we needed to pass through passport control and customs! 😓) These past few days almost felt it went too quick. 😕 But I definitely will be coming back to Paris another time! 😁

(P.S. our train was delayed in our journey because of technical issues down the track. I am still on the train now as I write this! 😂)

Day 3: Tomb Raiders

It was a really warm day in Paris today with the temperature reached 38C in the afternoon! 🔥 🔥 Undeterred, I started my day early and visited the area around the Hôtel de Ville, and also dropped by for a look around and some food in the Bazar de L’Hôtel de Ville (a department store).

Following a suggestion made by one of my work colleagues, I next headed to Sainte-Chapelle, a chapel famous for its beautiful stained glass. They were absolutely breathtaking! 😮❤️❤️❤️ Being under 26 and from Europe, I was even able to skip the long queue! (Though I did ask a member of staff if UK still counts as part of Europe now despite the current political climate… 😂😂😂)

I also dropped by the Notre Dame which was nearby. Obviously the fire meant that it is now out of bound, but I still had the image of Quasimodo singing ‘Out There’ here from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The feel~ 🎶🎶

Now, moving on to my main event today, which was to visit the Catacombs. This was the location all of my work colleagues who I spoke to recommended to go. To head there, I took the RER (the regional train) from Notre Dame. And the station entrance was an elevator hidden in a back alley!

The elevator takes you right down to the platform 😮

Setting the feel for the Catacombs, I was excited as soon as we arrived at the station gate. But as I dug my hand into my pockets, I noticed that my 3-day train ticket had gone missing! 😭 I searched all the pockets and my bag, and I could only conclude I must have dropped it somewhere earlier today. 😓 Could this be a bad omen…?

Nonetheless, I decided to head to the Catacombs first and worried about the journey back later. But my excitement was quite diminished when I saw the massively long queue outside the Catacombs entrance. 😱

I guess my stubbornness took over and I decided to queue regardless. The weather was burningly hot and I was directly under the sun. The queue was also moving at an extremely slow pace due to the Catacombs only being able to hold a maximum capacity of 200 people on top of visitors with fast passes being prioritised. Many people either gave up and those who remained like me gradually got exhausted and frustrated after standing in the heat for so long. 😣

In front of me stood a pair of brothers who came from America, and behind me there were an American girl (who I later found out is now studying in China) and her Chinese friend. After two hours of just glancing at each other and making only very small talks, we gradually shared the same dislike of the heat, and started to have many deep conversations. 😊 We chatted about where we were from, our general lives and shared how we were all here in Paris for holiday. (The older brother of the two boys told me the Catacombs was the attraction he wanted to visit the most which was why he was so adamant about queueing!) The brothers were planning to visit the Louvre with their parents tomorrow and the two friends will be going to see the Eiffel Tower – both had got tips from me after what I learnt yesterday! 😂 We even talked about American and European politics and so much more. 😁😆

Finally, after a ridiculous 4 and a half hours in the heat, we were finally let in to buy the tickets. 😩 But because of the capacity issue, we were let in gradually: the brothers went ahead, followed by me in a few minutes, and the two friends weren’t long after me. The five of us though were able to meet back down underground and we explored the Catacombs together! 😁 We were literally laughing and joking around like old friends that have known for many years not mere hours. I felt so blessed by the company! ❤️

Honestly, I couldn’t imagine how one could possibly walk alone here with all these skeletons around! 💀💀💀 It was a damn creepy place! (And hopefully I won’t be getting nightmares tonight…) But, with my new friends, this was one fun adventure underground that I would really missed! 😆😆 I was so sad when I had to say goodbyes to these people who I just happened to cross paths today. 😔 (The brothers both shook my hand when I left.) I wondered had we all met in different circumstances, would things be any different? (I did ended up bumping into the brothers again though when they struggled to find their way back to the entrance of the Catacombs where their parents were to met them – the exit was a whole street away from it, so I helped them to find their way back! 😂)

To finish my day, I visited a patisserie shop called Thevenin nearby, and I literally just made it in time before it closed.

I bought the raspberry & chocolate entremet and also the passion fruit, mango and coconut entremet. The latter was absolutely scrumptious! 😋 I also got some unexpected delicious Chinese takeaways from a restaurant just a few shops down, and I could tell you I devoured everything when I got back into the hotel room! 😂

Day 2: Midnight in Paris

Bonjour to another day in Paris! Having finally recovered from the food coma yesterday, I was up early raring to go out and explore. My first stop was to get some breakfasts from a bakery, called Du Pain et des Idées, which my friend had recommended. I chose their chausson à la pomme fraîche, which is an apple pastry. I also used this opportunity to practice my KS3 French, and I thought I did a pretty good job. That was until the server immediately answered me with English… 😅

Moving on to my next stop which was the Louvre, I decided to take the metro line there. To be honest, I was initially a bit nervous about taking the metro but it turned out to be just as straightforward as taking the underground tube in London. Directions were very easy to follow as long as you followed the signs and more importantly they have air con! (For those of you who don’t know, London underground has no air condition and can be as hot as a sauna in the summer…)

When I did arrive at the Louvre, I was taken aback by how long the queue was. (Okay, I did expect there would be a queue, but this took queuing to another level!) Looking around the place to buy a ticket, I ended up being told that tickets were only available online and all the tickets for entry today were sold out! 😭 (I think my lack of thorough research is showing…) However, I did have a great walk around outside. 😉 The temperature wasn’t too bad and it was very easy to duck back into the mall shall it get too hot. 😅

For lunch today, I decided to visit another restaurant that my friend recommended, called Le Comptoir de La Gastronomie. The restaurant appeared to be very well known and popular in Paris, especially their foie gras dishes. As a fan of foie gras, this place was one not to be missed by me.

Pan-Seared Foie Gras with Gingerbread and Mixed Leaf Salad

As the reviews suggested, I was not disappointed! 😋 The ceviche was very refreshing with the lime and was very appetising. The foie gras though was absolute the star of the show as it was cooked perfectly and accompanied very well with the lightness of the salad. I was pleasantly surprised by the gingerbread as it actually worked rather well with the rest of the dish. 😊 After lunch, I took a stroll around a shopping mall nearby (to walk off the calories lol) and went back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading out again for the evening.

After a brief visit to the famous arc, I decided my main activity tonight was to visit the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t much of a long walk from there, and I was very much looking forward to seeing the whole view of Paris from the tower. I went for the cheapest ticket which required me to take the stairs up rather than using the lift.

How long do I still need to walk…? 😭😨🏃‍♂️

There are a restaurant and some shops on the first floor. I was going to eat at the restaurant when I came down, but it was closed by then… 😕

Not going to lie, my legs were absolutely shaking as I walked up to the first floor. 😖 The gusts of wind blowing against me did not help one bit at all. (I was constantly worried that I would end up dropping my phone 😰…) I was sweating so much (mainly from nerves) that I needed to take a seat down on the first floor before continuing…

I didn’t know if it was because I got some practices or I was just suddenly filled with adrenaline, but the walk to the second floor felt a lot easier. And if you were able to conquer this fear of height like me, the views from there were absolutely breathtaking! 😮❤️❤️ (I took some videos too, you can see those from my Instagram!)

I was starving by the time I got back to the hotel though, so ended up eating a cheese-and-ham toastie (though a very subpar one… 😂) at the bar at 1am! And honestly, it felt nice to be on the ground again! 😂

Day 1: Runaway Train

‘So excited for Paris!’ I thought to myself after I woke up early at 7 this morning and finished my last bits of packing. With everything ready to go by half 8, I steadily made my way to St Pancras station (which is a quick 10 mins underground from my home) to meet my Eurostar train at 9:24. Even when I looked at the time on my phone, I thought to myself that there was still plenty of time. How wrong I was…

Now, in all fairness, I could only blame about what happen next on myself. When I arrived at the Eurostar entrance at 9am, it turned out that the gate had already closed for my train. 😱 I was unaware that the gate would close about an hour before the train’s designated time (which was stated in very small writings on the ticket). It turned out, however, that I wasn’t alone in that boat as I queued outside ticket office among many people who had also similarly missed their trains. I did have a brief chat with the guy in front of me (who was from Paris and was heading back after few days of training in London). He told me that he too made the same mistake the first time he took a Eurostar train, which made me felt a little better about myself haha (he was late this time because of his friend who was late picking him up to the station).

Now, just to make matters slightly worse, the queue in the ticket office was moving very slowly as they only opened one counter (which probably was the thing that irked me the most at that point 🙄). It turned out though that the ticket change can be done on the self-service machines next right to the ticket office (which the friendly guy in front of me quickly advised me to go over after he went to try them himself as I watched his bags 😁). The two ladies over the self-service counters were very helpful. I had a minor panic attack when I thought there were no later trains to go to Paris today. (It turned out that because I booked my tickets through an agency, replacement trains don’t show up on the screen…. Don’t ask me why lol!)

After paying a bit of a hefty fee of £44, I was finally able to get the ticket for the train at 12:24. This gave me about an hour to kill in the station, which involved me buying a small sushi from M&S and calling my mum on the phone. (‘I told you to go to the station earlier!’ she said. 😓) I was surprised by how packed it was at the gate by the time I went over. And there was a little story saga when I bumped into the lady who sorted the new ticket for me (she was ushering people forward at the passport control). She instantly recognised me and said, ‘Oh, you again?’ To which, I said, ‘I am not late this time!’ 😂 (which earned a ‘well done’ from her lol!)

First thing I ate as I stepped foot into France (or rather the train did lol!)

While there was a slight minor delay with the train, but things got moving pretty fast after and I snatched an empty row that no-one ended up sitting on. 😏 The train ride was only 2 hours and to be fair, it felt even less. The train was moving so fast that I was swaying from side to side as I walked down the carriage to the mini bar!

I could literally feel the heat by the time we arrived in Gare du Nord station. It was a warm day in Paris (and part of me is now dreading about the fact it will be getting hotter in the coming days 😓), and I wasted no time to get to the hotel first. The feel of air con after 10 minutes walk from the station was well worth it!

However, I was starving by that time (having only ate a sushi and two madeleines throughout the whole day), so I was honestly ready for a big meal! I searched up places to eat nearby online and found Terminus Nord which is right opposite Gare du Nord station. It is a classic French restaurant opened since 1925, and I was most definitely in the mood for some classic French dishes.

Crêpes Suzette flambéed in Grand Marnier and Lime Sorbet

If you are wondering, this was not the first time I ate snails (In fact I had it many times before. For some reasons, they were common in many European restaurants in Hong Kong…) The duck breast and the crêpes suzette were both delicious, and I was quite surprised by how much I liked the latter. (It was one of those dishes I always knew about but never had lol.) Here is also a video of the server doing the flambé for the crêpes in front of me. 👇

To end the day, I leapt to the supermarket after for some sweets and drinks in preparation for the upcoming hot weather.

I’ve never seen this version of Haribo in the UK before. Is it only available in France?

Anyway, that’s it for now. Hopefully, I will be sharing more with you all over the next few days. The adventure has only just begun! 😀