Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour Paris!

Paris, France

5 - 9 February 2020

Salut! Je m'apelle Mark. Enchantè de vous recontrer! Finally arrived in my last European destination, Paris, France! I can't believed until now that I have travelled this far. Paris? Yes it's real! 

I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on that night after visiting Barcelona. Transportation here is good and very convenient too! Lucky for me that the public transport strike happened before my visit is finally gone and all the trains are fully operational. As soon as I saw the Eiffel Tower from my airplane's window before we land, I became really excited and told myself, "This is it, this is real, I am now in Paris!"

My first night was just travelling from the airport to the city, finding my late dinner and getting prepared for the next day's itinerary. I woke up very early, had my french breakfast and went to first place on my list, the Eiffel Tower.

I'm very thankful on that day that it was a chilling sunny day and seeing the sun behind the Eiffel Tower is a wonderful experience to start my day. For a perfect view of the city, I went to Trocadero before heading to the tower.

Being closer to the tower is simply amazing and I really can't imagine myself looking under and being thankful to all the blessings I have.

I Spent few minutes walking around Champ de Mars before I went to their famous shopping district, the Champs-Élysées. The view is very beautiful and I can't stop taking photos as there are lots of interesting angles of the tower.

A 10 minute walk + train ride, I reached the Arc de Triomphe. It is one of the most famous monuments in Paris situated at the western end of Champs-Élysées.

Walking past the monument is the famous shopping area and you can see in every corner all the famous Paris fashion brands. Since I'm not here to spend so much, I just did window shopping, it's free! Haha! 

It's already lunch time and I'm still full from my breakfast and decided to head my way to the happiest place one earth, Disneyland Paris! It is an easy one hour train ride from the city.

This is my third Disneyland visit aside from the ones in Hong Kong and Tokyo and I would say that the feeling is always like my first time. The park is very huge and very crowded given that it's a weekday visit. I enjoyed walking around, meeting Disney characters and taking some few rides. I didn't stay much longer to see the fireworks display at night since I need to visit some other places in the city.

Going back to the city, I arrived outside the famous Notre-Dame de Paris. It was closed at that time due to the fire incident happened few months back.

Paris sunset is very beautiful as I walked past the Pont Neuf bridge. I took some photos and headed my way to my last place in my itinerary, the Louvre Museum.

Louvre Museum is the world's largest art museum and if they say it's the largest, it is really large and you need to have some energy to finish the whole museum. I literally didn't notice that I had spent more than three hours inside on my second visit the next day! It is a central landmark of the city located in the right bank of Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement.

I had my first french dinner at the Carrousel Du Louvre and it was pretty nice. Before I head back to my hotel, I went back to Eiffel tower to see its beauty at night.

I don't know what happened to me but I felt sick that day and I didn't manage to take photos that much but still I tried doing what's on my plan and kept going. I ended the night quite early to rest since I have few more places to visit for my next day.

I went out early in the morning to witness the sunrise at the Sacré-Cœr. It is such a lucky day again  for me  and this time, I get to see the city's birds eye view.

Sacré-Cœr, known as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris is a minor and a roman catholic church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

It is situated at the top of the Butte Montmarte and has one of the most beautiful panoramic view of the city. Here I get to see again the Eiffel Tower.

The rest of the day of from lunch to afternoon was pretty nice and I visited places such as Hotel des Invalides, Place de la Concorde and Grand Palais. 

View of Eiffel Tower from the Place de la Concorde

Fontaine des Fleuves

Hotel des Invalides

Of course Paris visit would not be complete if you haven't tried their famous desserts!


Macaron, Eclair and Mille-feuille by Ladurée

In the evening I went back to the Louvre Museum and spent more than three hours seeing the most famous arts in the world such as the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

It's the last day of my stay in Paris and I don't want to waste anytime. Since my flight back to Singapore is still in the evening, I went out of the city of Paris early in the morning to visit the principal royal residence of France, the Palace of Versailles.

I spent two hours visiting the museum together with the garden outside. It is indeed a perfect place to end my Paris visit as it contains such a wonderful collection of arts. 

City of Versailles

The time has come to end my European travel photography. It is such an amazing week of photography for me and such an experience of a lifetime. I would definitely consider myself to visit this city again and explore more about of its rich culture and history. I can say that travelling almost one day just to visit these amazing European places is definitely worth it.

Connecting flight at Frankfurt Airport in Germany

Thank you so much to all of you who have spend time looking and reading my blog.
Till my next destination, see you all!

itravelbymaplrn.blogspot.com.sg

markanthonylim|photography2020

Canon 5D Mark IV

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM