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Day 4 Paris
Oct. 7th, 2012 11:39 pmThis morning we made a stop near the Eiffel Tower for photos. Then, we hit the Cathedral of Notre Dame. There was a mass going on at the time (surrounded by tourists though as it was), with the organ music and the Latin. It was pretty cool. I had a heck of a time getting photos of the indoors though, due to the chandelier lights playing havok with my camera's auto-zoom. I ended up taking a lot of shots of the stained glass windows, of which there were many and all very pretty.
After that we went by the Arc d' Triumph. I have to amend yesterday's post at that... the arc at the Louvre was just a miniature version of the real Arc. The real one is much large and at the center of 12 streets radiating outwards from it. Unfortunately the line was way too long for us to have the time to get on top of it; ah well.
Afternoon was all spent at the Palace of Versailles. Very...lavish place. Not a piece of silver in the place aside from the recreation of the breakfast setting (which came from elsewhere) - it'd been all melted down way back when to pay for the military. Most of the rooms were full of paintings and frescos. And everywhere was all gilded gold, giving the very nicely designed architecture an extra layer of tacky. (Reminds me a lot of all the late Ming and Qing dynasty imperial buildings at that, what with the mix of art and gaudiness). I'll have to say the hall of mirrors is pretty impressive. But you can also tell why the mob lynched Louis XVI.
Dinner was arranged for us to have supposedly authentic French meal at some restaurant. I think we should've known better when the price for it wasn't something to give anyone heart attacks. As it turned out, what they actually served was the Chinese version of French cuisine. I couldn't even finish the main course cuz the meat was too tough and...ugh.
(I will have to note though, that you can tell who the up and coming power is on the international arena just by looking around the tourist spots. The vast majority of tourists I've been seeing are Asian...Chinese. The Arc d' Triumph was awash in a sea of black hair and you'd think it was a Chinese structure if it weren't for the fact that we were in Paris. The dinner place was packed with multiple Chinese tour groups by the time we were leaving. I guess it's the place most tours book with to hoodwink the tourists with promise of fancy foreign cuisine.)
Finally, the evening was a show at the Moulin Rouge. I got carded in the manner that both the waiter and the tour guide assumed I couldn't drink yet and offered fruit juice. Of course the drinking age in Paris is 18, which means they thought I was still in high school XD. As for the show itself, I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed there. I was sort of nodding off in my seat halfway through. You could say that's because I lack culture, but I wasn't the only one, and many of the other people who went in our group were saying that it was much less impressive than the shows at Las Vegas, so... Yeah, aside from the fact that the girls were dancing topless, there's not much going for it.
Tomorrow, the long road to Switzerland.
After that we went by the Arc d' Triumph. I have to amend yesterday's post at that... the arc at the Louvre was just a miniature version of the real Arc. The real one is much large and at the center of 12 streets radiating outwards from it. Unfortunately the line was way too long for us to have the time to get on top of it; ah well.
Afternoon was all spent at the Palace of Versailles. Very...lavish place. Not a piece of silver in the place aside from the recreation of the breakfast setting (which came from elsewhere) - it'd been all melted down way back when to pay for the military. Most of the rooms were full of paintings and frescos. And everywhere was all gilded gold, giving the very nicely designed architecture an extra layer of tacky. (Reminds me a lot of all the late Ming and Qing dynasty imperial buildings at that, what with the mix of art and gaudiness). I'll have to say the hall of mirrors is pretty impressive. But you can also tell why the mob lynched Louis XVI.
Dinner was arranged for us to have supposedly authentic French meal at some restaurant. I think we should've known better when the price for it wasn't something to give anyone heart attacks. As it turned out, what they actually served was the Chinese version of French cuisine. I couldn't even finish the main course cuz the meat was too tough and...ugh.
(I will have to note though, that you can tell who the up and coming power is on the international arena just by looking around the tourist spots. The vast majority of tourists I've been seeing are Asian...Chinese. The Arc d' Triumph was awash in a sea of black hair and you'd think it was a Chinese structure if it weren't for the fact that we were in Paris. The dinner place was packed with multiple Chinese tour groups by the time we were leaving. I guess it's the place most tours book with to hoodwink the tourists with promise of fancy foreign cuisine.)
Finally, the evening was a show at the Moulin Rouge. I got carded in the manner that both the waiter and the tour guide assumed I couldn't drink yet and offered fruit juice. Of course the drinking age in Paris is 18, which means they thought I was still in high school XD. As for the show itself, I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed there. I was sort of nodding off in my seat halfway through. You could say that's because I lack culture, but I wasn't the only one, and many of the other people who went in our group were saying that it was much less impressive than the shows at Las Vegas, so... Yeah, aside from the fact that the girls were dancing topless, there's not much going for it.
Tomorrow, the long road to Switzerland.
