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| Eiffel Tower, Paris |
Introduction
Paris is referred to as “The City of Light” (or La Ville Lumiere in French) as is of course, very famous for its Eiffel Tower. I remembered watching some Malay drama and the Eiffel Tower was in it. Definitely was in great awe of how beautiful the tower stands, plus the night flashing lights.
So, when we (Atiqah and I) were planning for our Europe trip this Summer 2016, Paris was straightaway included in the list!
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| Plane's flat-lay |
Background
Our university requires us to do an OIP (overseas immersion programme) for 28 days in the University of Glasgow, Scotland after our 1st year of study and it falls on the 18th June to 16th July 2016.
We therefore also planned for a 10-day pre-trip cuz why not? It’s the UK - of course we need to explore other cities!
We therefore also planned for a 10-day pre-trip cuz why not? It’s the UK - of course we need to explore other cities!
10-days Pre-Trip: Paris, Brighton, London
28-days OIP: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool
1-day Post-Trip: London
1-day Post-Trip: London
Accommodation
Touched down in Charles de Gaulle Airport (Paris) on the 10th of June at 2pm. Firstly, I wanna say that the 16-hours flight was a massive killer to my backbone and neck. Secondly, I was uber uncertain with the 6 to 7 hours time difference + sahur timing + iftar timing cuz you know, the nights here are very VERY short (about 6 hours only). But we then studied that we can actually follow the Makkah timing for fasting (about 14 hours, same as Singapore) since the fasting hours here in Paris is about 17 hours long. *jaw-dropped*
Photos: Paris Apartment - Ground Floor/Entrance
Source: Sab, Airbnb Host
For accommodation, we have chosen Airbnb cuz it is cheaper than hotels + it is the real experience of how living in apartments is like. BUT BUT, our apartment in Paris is shockingly small (well actually we are not supposed to freak out cuz our Airbnb host did warned us about this). Good thing its only for 2 nights so I guess that’s still bearable? BUT what’s not too pleasant is that we need to climb up the 7th floor via a narrow spiral stairs AND THERE’S NO LIFT. I swear we almost fainted carrying our big luggages up while fasting (but I eventually broke my fast halfway by the stairs cuz I REALLY CANNOT TAHAN LOL). On a side note, I still can’t believe Atiqah and I did it all by ourselves *pats self*.
Accessibility wise, our apartment is a walking distance to one of the attractions called Arc De Triomphe. Metro station is fairly near too. Travelling isn’t much of a hassle there as places are easily reachable via metro/RER (train).
Places Visited
We mainly focused on covering the attractions, the Chatelet (a famous street shopping place) and also the grand mosque of Paris. For the attractions, we have booked the Big Bus for SGD 46 (its like a hop-on hop-off where they will just shuttle you to the places of interest and you can just alight and board the bus anywhere you wish to). I totally recommend the Big Bus as it is hassle-free, saves time and you can kinda experience Paris in a day. And oh, pease sit at the upper deck for the breeze and good view!
Photo: Big Bus Paris
Food-wise, we honestly did not explore any eatery (at all) cuz we were fasting. We have prepared a sufficient amount of food to last us throughout, so yeah, that’s enough. Anyways, the places that we went to in the end were the Arc De Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Musee du Louvre, Tour Montparnasse, Chatelet and the Grande Mosquée de Paris. For the remaining attractions, we only took photos from the Big Bus since we were in it most of the time LOL.
Photo: Arc De Triomphe
Photo: Eiffel Tower
Photo: Pavillon Sully, near Musee De Lourve
Photo: Tour Montparnasse Panoramic View
Photo: The Grand Mosque of Paris
My Sentiments
Paris is no doubt is nice city with lots of beautiful attractions but I don't think I would come back, just 'cause I feel that experiencing Paris once is adequate (unlike other cities, heh). I am quite surprised (and thankful) that despite travelling with Atiqah only (small group & no male supervision), we did not encounter any rude or atrocious incident. I personally was warned by many that Paris is not really a safe city and was a bit paranoid by what I hear from people.. but Alhamdulillah all is fine & nothing bad happened to us. All in all, I really feel grateful to have experienced Paris and therefore, one city off my travel bucket-list! YAY.
Watch Atiqah's Paris Vlog:
TILL MY NEXT POST ABOUT BRIGHTON.