La grande lune de miel en France! - Day 1

The grand honeymoon trip started with the capital Paris :)

A little summary of the layout of Paris city centre - it is divided into 20 districts or what they call arrondisseimens that is arranged in a spiral shaped. A bit like a snail which the french loved so much.
In the middle of the "snail", the Seine river runs through and separates the city into left and right banks.

As we will spend the first and last few days in Paris since, I decided to stay at both sides of the river to explore the various districts.

We started with the nice "upper-middle class" residential Marias district (3rd arrodissement) on the right bank. I picked Hotel Saint-Louis Saintonge mainly due to its location and reviews of it are clean and nicely decorated. Yes I have a thing for traditional stuff.

Despite arriving early on our morning flight, the hotel staff was nice to allow us a very early check in so we can freshen up and kick start our day.

Exterior facade of the hotel

I've long heard about the ridiculously tiny size of Parisian hotel rooms and this didn't fail to live up to its expectation. You can read my review of the hotel on tripadvisor. But it was indeed clean and nicely decorated.

Our double bedroom - clean but very small

One thing I would rave about is its excellent location. There are a lot of fantastic restaurants located in proximity. You can also easily walk to attractions like centre pompidou.

Centre Pompidou - modern arts museum

We were hunting for a lunch place and joined a busy bistro in a corner not far from centre pompidou fulled of french working class enjoying their hearty lunch menu. This is where we were introduced to our first "terrine" - pate (or ground meat usually involving pig organs and pork) baked in a water bath. Usually served with pickles and pickled onions - goes very well with some baguette!

the husband excited to start on his first terrine

As it wasn't our first time in Paris, we have already visited most of the typical tourist attractions (i.e. climbed the eiffel tower, notre-dame cathedral, sacre couer basilica, toured the louvre museum for hours  etc.). Therefore, this time we have the luxury of taking it slow and just enjoy the city on foot.

We decided to walk our lunch off by heading to the river seine and immediately got to pont neuf. If you cross the bridge you can get to the little island (Île de la Cité) where notre dame cathedral is. 

Pont Neuf

Looking to the Ile de la City from the right bank

 

I was interested to check out the street stalls that lined the river bank selling vintage artwork and handicrafts. A tip is that if you see something you like, buy it right away! Do not think that you can always get it from another "tourist stall" because you may not find it again. Also the stalls are only opened if the weather is good!

after some "window-shopping" we found a familiar sight...

Back of the Louvre museum!

Going through the arch into the inner courtyard

Going through pavillon sully at the back will lead you to the outer courtyard where the entrance and glass pyramid are.

We just sat at the fountain and people/bird/dog watched for some time before continuing our stroll...

 ... to the tuileries garden!

 saw many parisians and tourist chilling

Unlike in london hyde park, the deck chairs are free!

 As it was a sunny day, the queue for amorino gelato was pretty long.

I couldn't resist and got a petite cup (yes it's the smallest size) that comes with 3 flavours. :D

and we continued on the straight path...

... to Champs-Elysees where the husband "window-shopped" more than me! Thanks to all the sports shop selling Paris St-Germain and French soccer team merchandises.

Lauduree!

Whereas I only had one place in mind.

 

 When else to try out the new seasonal flavours and my old favourites :)

 

Eventually, you end up at the arc de triomphe which was having a military event that day.
In order to avoid the crowd we decided to climb up and was rewarded with a great panoramic view of paris centre.

Champs Elysee and the Louvre in the distance

Sacre Couer on top of Montmartre

hello Eiffel

 As well as the La Defence area!

It was not an easy climb up for sure. Proud that I didn't have to take rest stops - there were doorways at the side that people rested or for others to overtake.

 

 Thanks to the long summer daylight hours, we decided to head over to montmartre area for dinner.

We considered catching a cabaret show at mounlin rouge but they were fully booked that night. After which we found out that the ticket costs 175 euros per person so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise the tickets were out. 

This was in lonely planet guide book.

We did a short walking tour of montmartre following the guide and came to the old residence of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo. This was where Vincent stayed when he came to Paris.

Nice little park in the middle of Montmartre

If you feel like having succulent but pricey chicken, this is the place :)

We even visited the same pub when the husband wanted to catch a champions league match 7years ago

French onion soup to kick start our first dinner