A Paris analysis

If there is one thing about Paris which has changed, it’s the people. I feel they are not as hostile to people who speak English as they used to be. Oh… believe me, they used to immediately show you a sour face as soon as you ask “Do you speak English?” or “Parlez-vous anglais?”. Now, however; when I went up to a lady (after memorising left, right, straight in French) and asked “Ou-est Arc De Triomphe?”… she actually answered… “Go stlait here, second ze right, you turn”.

There are many people who travel around in bicycle. You can actually rent bicycles from a public bicycle machine. I have no idea how it works but it certainly augur well for the environment. Well, me and Jules didn’t take up the offer as we weren’t exactly dress for it. Anyhow, I am not exactly a cycling person.

Though Paris has got a very efficient public transport system called Metro, you don’t really need to take it that often unless you have your luggage with you. We walked almost the entire city and only took the Metro at the end of the day when we were both tired and the sky was dark. One thing for sure, you definitely need a good pair of shoes to take you around. Furthermore, like I mentioned yesterday, most of the Metro station give out a very unpleasant stench so…

One thing I respect about the French is their willingness to draw the line between work and rest. Perhaps some will call it laziness but seriously, the French certainly know how to enjoy life.
The above is a picture of Champs-Élysées (pronounced shon-si-lei-si-eh) which I took on a Sunday. Can you see the amount of people there? They are mostly tourist. Champs-Élysées is like the heart of Paris, the street has got almost everything and people flock around this street. But do you know what happen on Sunday? Despite the presence of so many tourists, 90% of the shops there are closed!

Except for the sidewalk cafés which charge you a bomb for mineral water and some terrible crepes, I would say all the designer boutiques and other shops along Champs-Élysées are closed on Sunday. When the French need to rest, they rest. They certainly live up to the motto of “carpe diem”. So the next time you plan a trip to Paris, you know what you will not get on a Sunday.

Having said that, there was this one shop that was opened and these were what they were selling…
They say the French are very good with food. The last time I was there, I squeezed my wallet to try the famous “escargots”. This time however, I didn’t get to try. Don’t ask why, absolute disappointment. Anyway, we didn’t really feast much in Paris due to limited time. We had our first dinner in a Belgian restaurant as the nearest French restaurant to our hotel was fully booked. Yes, a lot of the good restaurants in Paris are booked weeks… and I mean weeksssss in advance. So if you are thinking of a good meal, remember to book way in advance.
The second dinner, we followed the guide book and went to a very nice French restaurant called Chartier. We left our hotel rather late as we thought we would be able to finish dinner and catch our train home with perfect timing. Unfortunately, we got it all wrong and had to rush through our dinner. In fact, we wanted to cancel our order as we thought we were going to miss our train but the waiter was kind enough to get our food immediately. Sorry, rushing means I didn’t take any picture of the food. The waiter earned himself a €5 tip.

By the way, the food was quite good and un-Paris-ly cheap! As we rushed out of the door, we were totally astonished to see a long queue waiting to go in. If only we were there earlier, we would have enjoyed our dinner. Chartier Paris… a restaurant not to be missed. The guide book certainly showed us a good place.
If you were to ask me whether Paris is a romantic city, I have to say ‘yes’ is a hesitant answer. A city of art, yes but a romantic city, not quite. Venice is top of my list for being a romantic city. Perhaps the only thing romantic about Paris is that you will find people snogging everywhere… at the sidewalk cafes, in the middle of the bridge, in the restaurant, in the museum, at the park… and I mean passionately…

Overall, I think Paris is rather over-rated by the television. Of course, I have no complaints if I have the chance to go there again.
P/S: The reason why ‘borang’ became ‘boring’ in my previous post is due to the efficiency of the auto-correct function of Microsoft word… sigh…