Paris

Finally! Last installment of entry for my three weeks honeymoon. It's been more than a month since we came back from the trip and I am already missing the trip! Haish.

Anyway I was so glad Paris was our last stop cause we shopped quite a bit there. There was no way we could carry our shopping loot in Paris from country to country haha. We spent 6 days in Paris. At first I thought we shouldn't have spent 6 days there cause what to do except see Eiffel Tower and shop right? But thank god we managed to make use of all 6 days wisely.

Love our hotel there! I really do. Although the elevator could only fit one person and we had to send our luggage up and down one by one, I like it nonetheless cause it was walking distance to Eiffel Tower, no kidding! I swear we went to Eiffel Tower every single day we were there. Not only that but the room and toilet were so nice. Next to the Metro station too, very convenient!

Day 1 - So from Manchester Airport we reached Paris and took a cab to our hotel. Paid €70 okay. Last city, by then our bags super heavy ready so we thought just take cab la! Cannot take it ready haha. Once in hotel we decided to go Galleries Lafayette. What else but shop right. Queues everywhere especially to enter Chanel and LV. Longchamp was so crowded and the sales assistant were also not very helpful. First day ready burnt a hole in my pocket. I can't remember what else we did! I think after that we went to Champs Elysees. Like Orchard Road. I guess we shopped until we forgot what we did.

Galleries Lafayette for shopping, hehe.

Our Lebanese dinner at night.

Day 2 - We walked to Eiffel Tower cause that was where we had to take our hop on and hop off bus. We paid the bus driver straight and went to quite a few places that day! But sadly we missed the bridge where they have a lot of those love locks thingy. Our first stop was Musee du Louvre. Very long queue but queue moved fast. €12 per ticket. Actually my main reason was to see the famous Mona Lisa hehe. There were other paintings and statues too la but half of them are naked and we didn't understand much cause the explanations were all in French haha. But! There was an Islamic exhibition too so not too bad la my €12 quite well spent haha.

Then we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. Long queue but moved fast cause it was free. It's a place for worship so I don't think they would charge people? There were a few people in line to meet the pastor at the confessions 'cubicle' though. I wonder what they confessed. :/ Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe. What else. Zai must-go in every city.

We went up Eiffel Tower at night! Such a pretty sight I tell you. But the wind was very, very strong my hat almost flew off. And the stronger the wind, the colder it gets. So imagine how cold it was.

Eiffel Tower by day.

On top of hop on and hop off bus. Haha look at Zai!

Louvre!

Mona Lisa behind us.

Super crowded.

Islamic Arts.

Halal kebab for lunch. By then we were very hungry ready.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

Pretty stained glasses all over inside.

Goodies. Yum.

Eiffel Tower by night.

I told you the wind was very, very strong! I had to hold my hat.

View from the top.

Day 3 - Had lunch at an Indian restaurant. Whenever we felt like we had a lot of time, we would search on halal places to eat and find our way there. We went to Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower again. Haha! We wanted to catch the tower sparkle at the hour. We missed that the night before. We also had Pierre Hermes, Laduree and Paul for macarons and pastries. Laduree has more non-alcoholic choices for macarons though.

Indian lunch.

Arc de Triomphe

We ate this slowly. So sayang to eat them all at one go haha.

Sparkly Eiffel (ignore my silly face heh).

Day 4 - Disneyland! Easy to get there. We took a train all the way. We were there from the opening time to the closing time just to see the fireworks. You know how tired we were?! My idea of Disneyland was meeting Mickey, Minnie and their gang. Say hello to the Disney princesses, take a ride on the carousel and spinning teacup, see the fireworks at the castle at night. But his idea was taking the high speed roller coaster in the dark, going up tower of terror and more roller coaster rides. -.- Save me. We went on Christmas day and it was crowded.

No one in train yet, still too early.

Castle by day.

Silly me!

Another park next to Disneyland Park.

Zai took this alone cause I had enough of thrill rides.

Hi hi hi! Starstruck! Hahaha.

Look at Zai's disinterested face, poor thing.

Our Mediterranean buffet lunch.

Snow White and prince.

Castle by night.

Pretty spinning teacups which Zai hated.

Fireworks!

Day 5 - Went last minute shopping. We went to Galleries Lafayette again. Spent €1.50 to enter a high class toilet at Printemps. Cannot tahan ready needed to use the toilet badly so I didn't care. Sit at their cafes. Had Lebanese lunch. Went to Christmas market.

Lebanese lunch again.

€1.50 toilet hah.

Damaged. But not all ours la. And Zai got me one of the above. Guess which? Hee.

Poor him, literally. Hahah happy me! But actually we were kinda bummed that we got to leave the next day. 

Day 6 - Time to go home. Our flight was at night but we went to airport straight after we checked out. Got our tax refunds sorted, had lunch, had our excess baggage sorted. Haha. This part I must tell you. We tried to trick the counter person by making sure our check in luggage was within the weight limit. So we over stuffed our hand carry luggage. We didn't think they would also weigh our hand carry luggage but they did. -.- So yeah, we had to readjust our baggage weight and ended up paying for 7kg excess. Cost us a few hundred euros. Yeah whatever we got back as tax refund we used to pay for our excess baggage haha!

We bought an extra luggage. We really shopped. :/

All our bags!

Either our last or second last flight meal. 

Okay la some tips.

Tip 1: Buy the Disneyland tickets in advance if you intend to go. One day in advance also can. We didn't know which day we should go so we only booked the day before at the hotel lobby. You will save time on queuing to buy the tickets. Same goes for the Eiffel Tower tickets but for this one, we booked way in advance. Even so, we didn't get our preferred timing and day. Mostly fully booked. If you don't buy in advance, be prepared to queue up for long in the cold if it's winter. :/ Same goes for Louvre museum. We didn't book in advance so we had to queue in the rain.

Tip 2: Go toilet before leaving hotel. If not be prepared to pay €0.50 to €1.50 for a toilet visit. Haha. We did that but I drank too much that day, really.

Tip 3: Get a travel pass if you're gonna travel by public a lot. We got a three day pass cause the other three days we didn't travel much. Per train ride is about  €1.50 I think? Depends on how far. We saw some people not paying also cause they could just enter the train station via the exit route so you can try to do that if you wanna save money haha but no guarantee you won't get caught. That was what Zai did when his 3 day pass ticket didn't work and we were lazy to change for a new one.

Tip 4: As usual, if you think you wanna see a lot of places in a day, take the hop on and hop off bus but I made use of the bus lesser than in London. I think I saw many more places in London with the bus.

Tip 5: If you want to have more options of halal food, find a hotel in the 'Muslim district' not sure where exactly though. We didn't know until the hotel staff told us when we asked about halal food around our hotel area. 

Tip 6: Be prepared to pay for excess baggage if you're the type that over-pack (like me) and shop a lot. Heh. Especially for us, cause our trip was for 3 weeks! Then buy excess baggage in advance, at least it'll be cheaper than paying on the spot. We were so confident we could trick the person at the check-in counter but failed. -.-

I decided to have a separate entry on my purchases. Too many things to include in one entry I can't focus. Haha. And also travel tips, not professional tips k. :D