Eventually left with only 20 minutes to check out, walk to the station & look for the right platform... & there're more than 10 lines at the station! Thank God we made it in time, in fact 10mins earlier. It's soooo cold to be waiting @ the platform!!!
Cute huh?
Arrived @ Gare Saint Lazare @11am & we're a lil lost initially. Good thing it didn't take us too long to finally locate the hotel. It's actually very near to the station but we mistakenly took the opposite direction. Again, had to wait for about an hour before we checked in. Guess no more surprises due to the prior personal 'inspection'.
When we entered the room, we're surprised but this time it's a pleasant 1. Our room was big! Even bigger than some standard hotel rooms in Singapore or Malaysia. And the bathroom was like 3 times of what we previously had... besides a bathtub, there're 2 toilet bowls (1 for doing business & the other for washing)! Everything's in white, so clean & new! Wow... It's very very much better than we've expected. But the next moment, we're thinking... could they have taken our booking wrongly? Because during our visit to the hotel on the 1st day, they quoted us 2 types of rooms: 1 standard room for €145 & the next category, a deluxe @ €190. We definitely didn't want to pay S$390 for a room per night! So to be safe, we reconfirmed with them the type of room we'd originally booked. The hotel staff, who's very helpful & friendly, immediately understood our meaning & confirmed that they'd given us an upgrade. Hee! So happy!!
Went out @ around 1pm. The itinerary of the day was to explore the touristy Rue de Rivoli, 1 of the most famous streets in Paris. Along this extremely long & straight road (approx 2km), one can see several famous monuments & places of interest. It's great for shopping too & 1 of the end is linked to Champs Elysées with Place de la Concorde being the connecting point.
On the way, we passed by La Madeleine again & Place Vendôme. Bought some souvenirs... Rue de Rivoli is also known for having a string of souvenir shops. Took quite a lot of pictures @ Place du Palais Royal & across the road was the very famous Musée du Louvre! Spent a bit of time in Le Louvre & from there we continued on Rue de Rivoli. Then came l'Hôtel de Ville, the City Hall of Paris. Had a great time shopping around too. One of the purchases of the day - this stylish, zipped-up pink sweater...
Guess the price?? Will reveal @ the end of this post.
It's a laid-back afternoon we truly enjoyed. Covered the whole of Rue de Rivoli by foot. And the weather was great... cold, windy & cloudy.
Heading back to hotel by taking another route, exploring the small & interesting lanes. On the way, went to a big supermarket near Opéra Garnier to buy some chocolates & sweets back for colleagues. Reached hotel past 7pm. After a lil rest, went out for dinner @ a Kebab shop just down the street... it started raining then but we're happy that it stopped soon after, just before we were about to return to the hotel. Well.... 6 hours of walking were enough for our second day in Paris.
And yes, about the sweater.... we bought it @ €3.90. Tatz right, S$8, ie. It's so unbelievably cheap right??? At 1st I thought I saw it wrongly. So this definitely was the best best buy for our whole trip!
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