Return From Paris Holiday

It’s been a few days since I returned from my Paris trip, but I’m only blogging about it now since I was quite busy the past few days and also suffering from some Jet Lag. Afterall, this is the first time I have travelled to such a faraway country. Honestly, the plane journey has proved to be not so interesting. It’s at least lucky that I’m flying with Emirates, so I get to watch movies or play games on board the plane journey and food keeps coming, so time passes faster.

Anyway, I did fairly enjoy my Paris trip during particular times such as when visiting the Louvre museum and exploring structures around Paris. The whole landscape of Paris makes me think that it was built for tourism and their city view is really pleasing. Their buildings are strategically located along a whole road and you can view one attraction from another without anything blocking the view. With that said, I do find that for some parts of the city, their structures do not seem to blend well together.

I did like the view from Eiffiel Tower, but I expected much more, so I was fairly disappointed with this metal structure. At night, the Eiffiel Tower lights up and while it’s beautiful, it still does not match up to my expectations for it. On the other hand, the Louvre Museum really overdelivered and stepping into the Museum may be the best thing I have done in Paris. I like the design of the Museum, the artworks, the sculptures, the antiques, the artifacts and most of all, I really loved those Egyptian and Greek Coffins. They looked really cool and I wish I can sleep in one of them hundred years later when I’m dead.

The sculptures were my next favorite and they are something we can’t see on the internet, since it would lose the 3d element. I recalled one which I liked particularly, which is that of a guy and his hunting dog preying on a deer. On the other hand, I find the Venus de Milo uninteresting, so I didn’t really bother catching more than a glimpse. For paintings, everyone crowded around Mona Lisa and I stayed there for quite a long time too, but I still don’t know how to appreciate her. I would rather look at more sculptures.

There are many nice looking buildings in Paris and many of which I don’t know the names. Regardless, they definitely serve as essential eye-candies. Without them, my holiday in Paris would probably be less wonderful. However, for some reason, the famous spots and buildings seem to always disappoint me, like Moulin Rouge or Notre Dame. Perhaps the constant persuasion by others to catch a look at those raised my expectations so high that it’s impossible to meet.

Anyway, when I was in Paris, I felt that everyone around me seemed to be really rich, since they can afford those expensive meals. A simple meal cost me $20+ Euro and I haven’t even ordered drinks. Their portions for main course are also extremely small and the steak is commonly smaller than the mass of my two thumbs brought together. (An exaggeration, but the real size is only around half of a small wallet size) Additionally, it’s not cool to always get super well done steaks.

I was told that their bread is especially nice and that may only be true to a certain extent. Most of the bread has a butter or something fragrance that our local bread does not have, but quite often, their bread is too hard and not baked properly, so the interior texture is not really that great. Their croissants are super nice though and I have that for every breakfast with Turkey ham, bacon and scrambled eggs.

In terms of their weather, the temperature at this time is slightly lower than Singapore. However, the winds come at Tornado speeds, so it’s quite cold. When I was experiencing the strongest winds, a light jump on the same spot will bring me forward by half a step and this is not an exaggeration. I was really lucky that I brought the essential clothing to defeat these mighty winds, so I wasn’t feeling that cold, but there were some heros/ heroines in shorts/ bermudas who almost freezed to death.

Finally, I would just like to conclude that I enjoyed Paris if not for the high cost of everything and I may be going back to visit a few years later, if I’m much richer than I currently am.