Day 15: Paris – A Stroll Down Seine

Thought we’d just have a leisurely day in Paris today. So we headed towards the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden), since it’s Saturday, there are many people playing various sports in the gardens, jogging, tennis, boxing and even saw a guy with some cutlasses.

Yes, there are also people doing Taichi, not Asian people, surprisingly.

The Palais du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Palace), not opened to public I assume from all the military standing guard and staring at you with their shotguns. I think now it’s actually a senate building but they do guided tours once a week though.

Li’l cuties feeding sparrows and ducklings, hehe. 🙂

They could have so much potential with this fountain but no, they decided it just leave it crappy like that. Well, at least you can probably get a goos reflection shot on days of good weather.

The way the French organise their garden is way more impressive than their fountains.

Garden is surrounded by statues of queens and princesses of yore.

EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!

After morning stroll at Luxembourg Garden, returned to area near hotel for lunch.

Eric Kayser shop, I wanted to try everything.

I can’t express how delicious caramel here is. I thought Japan was king of caramrl but WRONG! Sorry, Japan, but this caramel is the best caramel I’ve had in my life.

You MUST eat crêpe in France, both savoury and sweet. We waited at this little shop until it opened like hungry hobos and it was totally worth it.

L’orée des bois: buckwheat crêpe filled with grilled bacon, fresh mushrooms cooked with cream, egg sunny side up and cheese. Simply divine.

Little Breizh: whitewheat crêpe apples cooked in butter, homemade salted butter caramel, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. Ugh, so good. Why isn’t this readily available in all four corners of the world!?

We tried to go back to this shop the next day but it was closed, now I’ll have to live with regret until I can come back to Paris to eat this again. 😦

Heading towards the little island in the middle of Seine river where the Notre-Dame sits.

SANCTUARY!!!

Gothic interior with gothic chandeliers.

Candles for prayers.

The stunning stained glass window.

A wooden model of the Notre-Dame

Every pane in a stained glass window tells a story.

Joan of Arc.

Simple gothic interior.

Hey! It’s Saint Denis, that saint with his head chopped off and he just picked it up and walked away.

Notre-Dame from the back…

…and the front.

Can you see the gargoyle friends of Quasimodo up there?

After Notre-Dame, we headed for the Seinte Chapelle (Holy Chapel) located on the same island just across the street. To be honest, I was just expecting another church but I was so wrong.

First you go through this gift shop, the ceiling is pretty impressive, but nothing too exciting. Su thought this was what we paid €8 to gey into, haha.

We were so amazed when we walked into the actual chapel. The WHOLE ROOM was literally covered in stained glass.

It was like standing in a glasshouse of stained glass.

Each window pane tells a different story.

The stained glass is so intricately detailed.

No wonder this costs €8 to get it, so much work must’ve gone into restoring and maintaining these stained glass.

Simply amazing.

Cute little castle motifs.

I now proclaim this to be my second favourite church after Sagrada Família!

Leaving the little island, we headed west along the Seine towards the Paris Eye of Sauron again.

A baby duckling just learning to swim, aww~❤

This isn’t the actual love lock bridge, but one or two bridges down, but the locks have spread like disease, lol.

You can see colonies of locks forming here as well. And there’s the Louvre in the back.

THIS is the actual love lock bridge, and as you can see, it’s all been boarded up because the locks are so heavy it’s basically going to destroy the bridge eventually so the city is planning to take down the locks. So, sorry guys! Your symbols of eternal love is doing DOWN!

The Monkey King got a little lost on his way to India…

The Musée d’Orsay, which we didn’t have time to visit. Next time…

The banks of Seine are lined with all these really confusing entertainment structures likes these teepees and mazes and we saw people playin table tennis and badminton. Who plays table tennis and badminton next to the river!? What if the ball/shuttle falls into the river??

Walked into some kind of demonstration involving police and firemen. Then we got told by the police “NO PHOTOS!” What happened to free speech and free press? (Even though I’m not one)

The Grand Palais, which we didn’t have time for either.

Golden Pegasus!

This is not Athena, but she reminds me of Athena.

Time for our romantic dinner cruise down Seine.

Waiting to board in the lounge.

Quite impressed by the comfort and we got a really good window seat!!

Food is decent as well!

Just cruising down the river, so classy. 😎

Eye of Sauron! 👋

What our boat looks like from the outside.

Eye of Sauron against the blue sky!

Selfies, selfies everywhere.

Things to do with the Eiffel Tower if you were God.

Why is there a statue of missiles pointing at the Eiffel Tower?? Remind me to Google this later.

Eye of Sauron watching you from afar.

Took the metro back to Champs-Élysées to buy tea. It’s basically the rich street where all the brand name shops are.

Arc of Triumph again, before it lights up.

The extent to which some people go to get selfies with the Arc of Triumph…

Like 8 floors of Louis Vuitton.

Paris’s Disney Store, I like Japanese merchandise better.

Häagen-Dazs, always packed and selling “Les Balles”

Finally got our tea. I’m not gonna drink think, I’m just gonna keep it and sniff it forever.