Paris, Part 6

Take a look at the ceiling, its all covered in murals! The entire upper section of the Louvre has rooms that are covered in murals such as this.

Italian Paintings Section.

Can you guess who is in the background? Hehe...

We had a nice dinner before we left Paris. The food was good, but the service was horrendous! The waiter we had was just so rude! I have been told before that the Paris experience is never complete until you get served by a rude french waiter. Haha, I guess my Paris experience is complete then.

Paris, Part 5

Cupid and Psyche.

This is the famous sculpture of Cupid saving Psyche's life after she opened a jar that she was forbidden to open. Sounds like a little like Pandora's Box ya?

French Sculptures Section.

This is my favourite room in the whole museum. =) Its sooo big, and all the sculptures here are made of marble, pure white marble! I spent the most time in this room.

Napolean Apartments Section.

This section shows us the kind of life that Napolean had when he was living in his palaces. Everything is so opulent here!

Paris, Part 4

Louvre Museum.

The Louvre is massive! Its like the largest building I have been in! I walked for the entire day, and still I was not able to cover the entire museum! Imagine a museum that is the size of Takashimaya, and you have a rough idea just how big the Louvre is.

And in fact, thats just the building in Louvre! The whole Louvre is actually the much larger than that. It also includes the gardens and walkway in front of the Louvre building, and the walkway alone takes around 15 to 20 minutes just to walk across!

This is the Egyptian section of the museum...

The Italian Scultures section...

Paris, Part 3

I'm sure you guys can recognize this landmark!

Eiffel Tower.

This is the queue on the 2nd level platform of the Eiffel Tower. To get to the top, you need to take the lift up to this platform, then queue for another lift that will take you straight to the top.

And here, I am standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower! The wind there is so so strong! It was actually hard to smile and pose for a photo because the wind blew so hard that it kept drying me eyes up and forcing me to blink. But, it was worth it! The view is amazing, and besides, its the Eiffel Tower! =)

Paris, Part 2

Arc de Triomphe.

This monument was made for Napolean to celebrate all his victories in battle. In fact, if you went under the arch, you would be able to see the names of all the battles Napolean fought.

I also managed to climb up the arch! There are spiral staircases that run up the pillars of the arch. Its a long climb though, 284 steps in total.  

Pont Neuf.

I don't really know what is the history behind this bridge. But I do recognize it from Bourne Identity the movie! This was the bridge where Jason Bourne arranged to meet the guy from the CIA.

This is me sitting in one of the alcoves along the bridge. If you look closely, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background. The Louvre is also just behind me on the right side of the river. =)

Paris, Part 1

Went to Paris last weekend. Its a really really really beautiful city...here are some photos of what I saw in Paris. This will definitely be a multi-part entry, as I have TONS of nice photos to show you guys.

Notre Dame Cathedral (Notre Dame de Paris). 

Yes, this is the cathedral where Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame supposedly lived in Victor Hugo's book. =)

There was a playground behind the Notre Dame Cathedral. As you can see, we put Derek onto a giant spinning disk and had some real fun spinning him around until he couldn't walk straight!

Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. 

Apparently, the architect of this building thought it'd be nice and creative to put the internal plumbings of a building on the outside and use it as the skin of the building.

Champs Elysees. 

This is the world's most expensive and famous shopping street.

Louis Vuitton's flagship store on the Champs Elysees. 

I heard that the bags here cost a few hundred dollars less than in Singapore or other parts of the world. I guess that explains why there were so many tourists carrying huge bags full of LV merchandise...

Amsterdam!

I went to Amsterdam 2 weekends ago with Derek, Lynette and Tejinder. We took the train from Maastricht to Amsterdam, the trip was estimated to take around 2.5 hours to 3 hours. But we were in for a real surprise...there was problem with the rail line running from Breda to Eindhoven that day. That caused us to have to make massive detours along the rail line...and in the end it took us a whole 6 hours to get to Amsterdam! 

This is a picture of me sitting in one of the trains I took to Amsterdam. As you can see...I had a really bored look on my face. I wish I'd brought more than just those magazines to read man...6 hours can be very very long. 

The Netherlands is a cycling country, everyone owns a bicycle around here. This is me standing just across the river from the train station in Amsterdam. Out of view, but just to the left of where I was standing is the largest bicycle parking area in the world, its a 3 storey parking spot for people who park and ride to work.

And of course, the drugs. You can literally just walk into a shop in Amsterdam and pick up packets of drugs just like how people pick up Haribo from 7-11 back home! Amazing!