Europe trip - 2.5 days in Paris

50 days, 9 countries, 17 cities/towns, countless friends and unforgettable memories. That pretty much sums up my Europe trip in a sentence. A trip I had planned since law school. A trip I finally realised after years of dreaming. It’s now time to pen down my travel experiences.

The first question I always get is this: how much did the whole trip cost??!! It cost me approximately RM16,000, which includes my return flight tickets to Paris and back. This was when the MYR was valued at about RM.0.22 to 1 euro. I believe I can safely say that I managed to pull it off with a pretty low budget.

Now, this leads to further questions. Where did you stay? What did you do? How did you travel around? Well I could just lay it down for you in table. That is not what I am going to do. Instead, I am going to put you through the ordeal of having to read a series of write-ups on each city/town I visited. Of course, this is assuming that you have a very curious mind and plan to travel Europe one day as well. Or perhaps you are just really bored and enjoy scrolling through beautiful and breath taking pictures. Kidding (partly).

Alright so let’s get to it! My long awaited flight departed from Kuala Lumpur on the 11th of August. I left to Europe with the most annoying person on earth, whom is fortunately my best friend. Kidding (partly). We arrived in Paris at 6.40 am on the 12th of August. We were extremely fortunate to have had a place to stay in Paris. We stayed with Inti-Loys, a very dear friend, whose apartment is about a 40 minute walk from the city center.

We had about 3.5 days in Paris since our train to Interlaken, Switzerland departs on the 15th of August. I would highly recommend getting 10 Metro tickets which cost 14.10 euros (it costs 1.70 euros each if bought individually). One ticket allows you to transfer between the metro, trams and buses for 1.5 hours. It is possible, and even delightful, to walk around central Paris. In short I don't think there is much need for public transportation if you stay in or close to central Paris. You will only need them if you are running late, feel lazy, or just too drunk to walk (in which event it would be too late for the metro anyway).

A good tip for any city: always try and catch a free walking tour on the first day of arrival. It gives you a good idea on how to travel within the city and also which locations you must visit. Additionally, you get to ask the tour guide any question at the end of the tour (the tour guides are extremely friendly). This is Place St. Michel, where the Sandemans tour in Paris starts

The tour lasts about 3 hours and it takes you through the main locations in Paris. This includes the Notre Dame, Tuileries Gardens, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and many more. However, the tour only takes you through these places to explain about the history and details of such places. It does not include the interiors of the same. Here are pictures taken during the tour

After the tour, you would have an informed idea of where you would like to visit. Trust me, if you are going to pay over 10 euros to visit a place, better be sure its worth it. The tour ends nearby the famous shopping streets of Paris (rue de passy), so we took he chance to do some window shopping. Two guys, so it lasted for hardly 15 minutes.

The louvre was our next destination. A few tips here. Try and visit the Louvre on a Wednesday or Friday as it opens until 9.45pm. Many tourist do not know about this and tend to leave by 6pm. Enter the Louvre at around 5.30pm and the crowd will slowly start to subside. If you visit the Louvre anytime before that, the queue and the crowd inside will eat a large chunk of your time. The Louvre has thousands of paintings. It will be impossible to look at each of them even if you spend the whole day. Decide on which paintings you want to see and spend your time on these selected artworks. This way, you will really get to appreciate the artworks and about 4 hours would be sufficient. Here you go, the famous Mona Lisa (be ready to wrestle with countless tourist to even glance at it if you are in during peak hours)

We came back after that and had an early night as we had a full day trip to Etretat the next day (will post up an article just on this place). We spend the 2nd night having dinner in the garden in front of the Eiffel tower with Inti. Truly amazing and a must do. Wine, cheese, bread, meat, breath-taking view and good company.

We decided to take the third day in a slower phase. We started of early with the Eiffel tower. The queue was quite short at 8.30am. We chose to walk up 2 floors and then take the lift to the top. Magnificent views of Paris.

Next stop was the Pere Lachaise Cemetary, the largest cemetery in Paris. Would not have spent much time here if given the second chance, but it was interesting in its own way.

We decided to head to the Catacombs next, where we had to queue for about 2 hours to get in (12 euros to enter). That's what happens if you head to a tourist spot after 10am. It was well worth the wait (perhaps not the entire wait) and money.

We got back early that evening to cook for dinner and to prepare for a very long and awesome night with Inti and his amazing friends. We got back at 6am and had a train to catch later at 6pm. Let's just say that our last day in Paris was spent travelling in our dreams. We made a quick visit to the famous Love Bridge (in front of the Louvre) so my friend could place a lock (for his girlfriend)

All in all, I felt Paris was a great city despite many opinions to the contrary. However, it is a city to be explored with someone special. It was the only city during my travels which I felt an aura of romance permeating through the environment. Perhaps the term "city of love" had a psychological impact. But I think its more than that. A big thanks to Inti (3rd from left) for being a absolutely fantastic host! Next write-up will be on the beautiful town of Etretat in Normandy.