Paris The City of Light, The City of Love, The Capital of Romance and Art. Nice, isn’t it? That’s the Sunny face of Paris :P
There are many things you can do in Paris. It’s a big city divide into 20 administrative districts (“arrondissements”). The number of the arrondissement is indicated by the last two digits in most Parisian postal codes (75001 up to 75020). If you see the map carefully, you’ll find that those 20 arrondissements are arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral.
Arrondissements of Paris
To make it short, tourist most visited landmarks in Paris are usually at
1st Arr = Da Vinci Code started in this district :P This is the ultimate Paris must-see spots; you’ve got the Tuileries, Pont des Art, Place de Vendôme, Rue de Rivoli, Place de la Concorde and of course the great Louvre.
4th Arr = Centre Georges Pampidou & Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris
5th Arr = Pantheon, Quarter Latin
7th Arr = Romantic. You have Eiffel Tower, Invalides, fancy and rather expensive French restaurant but no clubs). This is a very very safe area because all the embassies seem to be there.
8th Arr = Sightseeing + shopping + party. Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe, shopping centres, branded boutique, fancy lounges and clubs.
Between 9th and 18th you have Montmartre area, Sacre Coeur, then the famous Moulin Rouge (you do know that rouge = red, right?) and Pigale area.
I wont be strolling around Pigalle specially at night, but i do love Montmartre. In fact, I’ve spent almost a whole day just strolling around this area. It’s classic, it’s full of cultural sightseeing, it’s the place where great artist were gathered.
Take a look at Place du Tertre where Picasso, Vlamenck, Derain, Soutine, Modigliani, Van Gogh and countless others lived and worked in these narrow streets.
You could see the architecture of Basilica of the Sacré Cœur or Musée de Montmartre is in the house where the painter Maurice Utrillo lived and worked in a second-floor studio.
Last but not least, it’s my best spot to find souvenirs with good price and lot of options :)
metro
metro
outside metro Anvers
the tourist
the souvenir shops
And the bassilica
the carrousel
Danbo goes to Paris
This is a very nice place to spend your time
selfie family
Danbo and Pierre or Phillipe?
Again, another selfie family :)
selfie chicks :)
Hi Haley :)
Paris, specially Montmartre, stairs are everywhere
see? so comfy
even for this guy
yea, the birds taking a nap in Sacre Coeur
The cleanest WC i’ve tried. Even Lafayette’s was… ewww
Where do I stay?
I was staying at 11th Arrondissement, between Belleville and Couronnes Metro. It’s not a tourist area, colourful, multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Lucky me, I stay within the Moslem society, so it’s easy to find or asking for halal food. Yayyyyy \^_^/. There’s even a mosque (but don’t expect it to be a typical mosque in Indonesia).
Rue de La Fontain Au Roimarketi wont run out of food :Por place to have coffee and watching people passing by
About a decade ago I spent almost a month at Paris. For business trip. Still remember how we rush every morning to catch trains to Anthony. Since we lived around Porte Maillot (zone 1), it need about 1 hour+ to be at Rue Jacques Rueff, Anthony (zone 4).
Around 19h afternoon, we’d be back to zone 1. Usually I will spent the night wandering around St Germain or Quarter Latin, usually with Mas Hanny. The rest of the group choose to go straight to nearest McD and back to the hotel. If I have nothing to do (usually Friday night) i walked a long Champs Elysees, from Arc de Triomphe to Louvre back and forth. You could walk through Place de la Concord to Jardin des Tuileries until you reach the Louvre pyramids, or turn to rue de Rivoli and come back via Quai des Tuileries following the river banks of Seine.
There were funny things also. We ended up having dinner in an Indonesian Restaurant (the owner from Surabaya) in rue de Vaugirard where we actually wanted to go to Pigalle *rofl* Edhiem phone fell of the metro platform and he jumped down to take it while people were screaming. It was Siemens something, the most expensive phone at that time (well compare to what displayed in stores around Paris). My colleagues brought so many bread from hotel breakfast for snack and lunch because they couldn’t eat salmon steak everyday like I did. Hey, it’s big yummy salmon steak with delicious french fries and I like it. I asked nobody to eat what i eat :P And it’s only 10 Franc (or less, i forgot about it).
This September, I’ve got a chance to visit The City of Light again. Air France now has direct flight from CGK to CDG with 2 hours transit in Singapore. But i miss ANA :( The (japanese) food, the entertainment, smiles and hospitality of the cabin crew. Well, Air France is OK, but nothing special actually.
Inside AF259
Ouvert, Sortie, Pousser will be familiar with that
in-flight magz
looong queue at the immigration
CDG
CDG 2E arrival Hall
Landing at CDG around 7h, very long queue in the immigration with only 5-6 officers on duty. Took me 1 hour to pass the immigration. FYI, French immigration is well known as the “friendliest” immigration for Schengen visa holder. Try to enter via Frankfurt, you’ll be asked many questions.
long queueCDGCDG 2E arrival Hall
Basically, there are 3 ways for you to get to downtown Paris:
By taxi, you’ll enjoy the ride, watching the view from the suburb of CDG area until entering the classic city of Paris. But it will cost you about EUR 50 or more. I used it a decade ago so not for this time.
By bus, it will cost you EUR 10, and the stop point is at Paris -Opera. There are also EUR 6 bus with stop point at Paris-Nation or Paris Gare de l’Est. Not my choice. Travel time is about 80-90 minutes and I’m not planning to wandering around Nation/Gare de l’Est with my luggage.
RER B. This train will take you downtown in 30 minutes, cost EUR 9.75. I can stop at Les Halles and change to Metro 11 to take me to my AirBnb apartment. But I choose to stop at St Michel – Notre Dame instead.
The RER B station is located 1 floor below the arrival hall. It’s easy to find it, just follow Paris by Train sign. If you’re wanting to buy a simple train ticket to Paris and you have a [label style=”red”]smart chip credit card[/label] or [label style=”red”]Euro coins[/label], you can use these [label style=”green”]green Billetterie[/label] vending machines to purchase such tickets. Don’t worry, there are also vending machines where you can exchange your 5-10-20 euro notes to coins.
Paris by Traingoing to train station downstairBilletterie for purchasing ticket to downtown Paris
And this is what i’ve got… vending machines are not at service. I thought there are strike from SNCF employee. Employee/labour strikes happened quite often in France. Heard some officers said that RER might not operate that day so we have to use bus. Arrghhh!!!
en service but not in service
After getting your train tickets, you can continue to turn towards the train platforms which will require descending another set of escalators or stairs onto Level 1. The Paris Train platforms are marked as “Voie” (“platform”) 11 and 12 and also show “RER B Paris par Train“, the Regional Express Network trains that operate between Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Paris city centre.
My RER was got delayed because of the incident, so i have to wait until 12h to get on the train. Such a waste of time. But finally we knew that there were accident in Le Blanc Mesnil that interrupt the RER B traffic from/to CDG2.
So, spent my lunch time around Notre Dame and rendezvous with Winstem an hour after that. I’ve managed to ‘smuggled’ packs of tea for him hehehehehe :) You wont find Teh Poci in there :P
me & winstem across Louvre
After that, me and Winstem go to 96 Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, the place where i will stay for the next 7 days. Thanks to Airbnb :)
that’s my dinner, a tripod long sized sandwich….being a Parisian, live in a small but very nice flat & neighborhood.
Bon retour au Paris, la ville de la lumière, la ville de l’amour
These are some photos from my X100s
Notre Dame de Paris, time has no effect on it
Typical tourist outfit, no French dress like that
a French lady with a baguette
a Honda et Paris :)
I feel secure with this backpack, Paris is full of pickpockets
Hmm,
this song suddenly come up my mind
i bet you’ve never heard this song
but this is the “theme song” :)
Someone Like you by The Summer Set
Cause the little things don’t mean much to me My girl, I’d cross the whole world for someone like you Oh oh, no matter where I go, oh oh, My unpredictable girl, you’re impossible girl, You know that it’s true, oh oh, no matter what you do, I’d cross the world for someone like you
Ramalan cuaca di Jepang itu menjadi suatu hal yang menyenangkan tapi sekaligus menyebalkan.
Menyenangkan karena ramalannya akurat, paling ga selama seminggu kami di sana. Kalo disebutkan suhu udara antara 2-11 derajat, maka kisarannya ya sekian. Kalo dibilang hari itu akan bersalju, ya saljunya turun beneran.
Menyebalkan juga karena ramalannya akurat. Hari terakhir kami di Kyoto ramalan cuacanya adalah hujan. Dan hujannya beneran terjadi, mulai jam 2 pagi sampai jam 8-9 malam ga berhenti. Great. Berantakan deh itenerary hari itu.
Acara mengunjungi beberapa kuil termasuk imperial palace terpaksa dibatalkan. Karena percuma saja atau setidaknya tidak akan maksimal karena banyakan spotnya kan outdoor seperti Zen Garden, arsitektur bangunan dan sejenisnya.
Kyoto seminggu ini dah dingin, sekarang ditambah hujan seharian pula. Bakal berabe nih kalo kepala sampe keguyur hujan lumayan lama. Akhirnya kami meutuskan untuk mengunjungi Kyoto Handicraft Center serta blusukan di Nishiki Market dan sekitarnya saja. Melihat rute awal sih spot terdekat adalah Nishiki, jadi kami mengambil bis ke arah Shijo-Kawaramachi.
Alih-alih menemukan Nishiki Market (mengikuti saran Google Maps), kami jadinya malah blusukan di Teramachi dan Shin Kyogoku.
Jadi, shopping center-nya Kyoto itu ada di seputaran Shijo-Kawaramachi street. Di sana kamu bakal nemu berbagai macam toko termasuk mall gede seperti Takasihimaya, Marui atau departemen store kaya Daimaru. Merek-merek fashion ternama juga punya butik di daerah ini.
Nah Teramachi dan Shin Kyogoku adalah 2 lorong berdampingan. Aslinya sih pedestarian jalan yang panjang dan beratap ala pasar baru. Kalian bisa menemukan berbagai macam toko mulai jual baju hingga doujin. Restoran dengan menu eropa maupun menu Jepang. Toko suvenir juga banyak terdapat di sini lho, jadi Kyoto Handicraft Center langsung kami coret dari daftar :) Ternyata, Nishiki Market itu adalah sebuah gang yang terdapat di antara kedua jalan ini.
Nishiki menjadi unik karena di sepanjang lorongnya kamu hanya akan menemukan kios-kios bahan makanan (khususnya yang tradisional Jepang). Ga heran kalo Nishiki dijuluki sebagai “Kyoto’s Kitchen”. Gangnya sempit dan selalu ramai pengunjung. Kamu bisa icip-icip juga di sini karena banyak juga kios yang menyediakan sample atau menjual makanan panggang yang bisa dinikmati sambil jalan-jalan. Selain itu, Nishiki Market ini umurnya juga sudah sekian abad (kira-kira mulai sekitar abad 13) dan sampai sekarang masih menjadi pasar yang penting bagi Kyoto.
Karena lapar, kami coba makan siang di seputaran sini. Pilihan jatuh ke restoran yakisoba bernama Mr. Young Men. Harganya sih terjangkau, sekitar JPY 700 untuk satu paket yakisoba + okonomiyaki. Tapi dari sisi rasa, ini masakan Jepang di rating terbawah yang saya rasakan seminggu ini. Masih enakan gyudon di pengkolan dekat hostel. Dan okonomiyakinya kalah jauh dibanding Issen Yoshoku. Tapi tempatnya sih nyaman dan stafnya cukup friedly ^_^ Although they have tripadvisory sticket, i just cant order anything else coz they’ve got pork in the menu :(
Menjelang sore, pas iseng-iseng buka facebook ternyata ada koleha yang ingin nitip gitar via Facebook Messenger. OK, gitar yah? No problem. Sayangnya orang-orang kalo mo nitip itu selalu bertele-tele dan waktunya mepet. Jadi kalau kalian nitip sesuatu ke teman ada baiknya semua informasi yang diperlukan itu sudah kalian kumpulkan. Barangnya apa sampai merek dan tipenya, tokonya di mana dan harganya berapa. Yang saya dapat setelah tek-tokan beberapa kali hanyalah gitar klasik Matsuoka M75.
Untungnya beberapa malam sebelumnya sewaktu kelayapan di Kawaramachi saya sempat melihat ada toko musik. Sialnya waktu kami samperin kesana, saya disorientasi dan tidak menemukan toko tersebut. Hehehehe, memanfaatkan teknologi (ingat pocket LTE router yang saya sewa di postingan sebelumnya) saya dapat menemukan toko musik lainnya yang jauh lebih gede dan lebih lengkap. Sayang lokasinya agak jauh dari halte bus. Jadilah ditengah hujan kami jalan kaki nyamperin toko musik bernama Watanabe itu.
Toko Musik Watanabe, KYOTO
Satu lagi, you have my number so just call me or sms/whatsapp/line me. Facebook Msg is not helping terlebih kalau balasnya sekian belas/puluh menit kemudian.
Akhirnya setelah menggigil kedinginan di pinggir jalan nungguin konfirmasi yang ga kunjung datang, kami memutuskan pulang sajalah. Helpless kalo gini caranya. Padahal Matsuokanya lagi ada diskon gede dan sudah termasuk hardcase. Yah, maybe next time…
Dari sini kami langsung menuju Kyoto Stasion untuk mencari oleh-oleh khas Kyoto. In Japan, souvenirs were born to be eaten. And in Kyoto the choice of edible souvenirs is staggering. There’s creamy green tea pudding, sesame flavored cookies, and innumerable pickles and dried fish. I dont wanna go to iSetan up there but we have Porta and many other shops down here.
Nah suvenir tadi berupa yatsuhashi. Kue yang terbuat dari tepung beras ini aslinya mempunyai rasa kayu manis (cinnamon), namun kini variasinya kini macam-macam. Ada green tea, wijen, ogura (kacang merah) dan masih banyak lagi. Jadilah saya beli paket rasa kayu manis + green tea + wijen + ogura. Buset deh, 5 bungkus yatsuhashi doang beratnya kok kayanya dah lebih dari 2kg sendiri yah? :P
ngebungkus 2 paket sushi untuk sarapan esok hari :)
