Wanderlust: The One Where I'm in Lyon

Bonjour, mon amis! Forgive me for forgetting to blog about my first day in Paris yesterday. So I arrived in this beautiful city around 11am on the 21st of August. Still felt kinda crappy with all the adjustment I had to do for three different time zones. -_- Anyway, it was a normal taxi ride to the our hotel, Mandarin Oriental, until we started passing by some buildings with old architecture. Before I knew it, I see Arc de Triomphe from afar and I am amazed at its beauty.

I took this photo from our cab.

We were greeted well by the hotel staff. We even get to enjoy free internet for our whole stay, which is why I am able to update my blog. Anyway, we didn’t waste any time. After a quick and refreshing shower, my dad and I walked around the area and found ourselves amazed at the beauty of Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries, Musée de Louvre, Seine River, and St. Germain area. I took tons of photos to make sure I got a good shot of each “famous location” in every angle. Typical me. Good luck to me when I want to try and edit all my photos. Here’s a sneak peek to some of the photos I took (they haven’t been edited either).

(click to enlarge) From Left to Right: Musée de Louvre, L’obelisque at Place de la Concorde, and Seine River

After walking around and exploring these areas, we had lunch at Les Deux Magots. I had the Croque Monsieur and my dad had the Croque Madame. The dishes looked pretty simple, but I really enjoyed it just because the cheese tasted incredibly good. I don’t know, I guess I’m a sucker when it comes to cheese. We headed back to the hotel after this because we wanted to rest. It was around 3pm. We ended up taking a nap close to three hours because we left the hotel again at 6pm to continue our tourist-y activities. Damn you, jetlag.

Croque Madame on the left and Croque Monsieur on the right!

We went around Place Vendôme and other places close to it. We stopped by Galaries Lafayette, which is considered France’s largest department store. We ended up buying some duck and pork paté, baguette, and brie cheese to eat for breakfast (P.S. I tried it already and they taste fantastic. I have a new love for paté!). We had dinner at Chez Clément after and I finally satisfied my craving for duck confit!! HOORAH! I think I will get fat in France because they tend to serve a lot of deep fried potatoes and frites… my weakness.

Lastly, my dad and I headed to one of the most romantic places in the world…. Le Tour Eiffel aka The Eiffel Tower. <3 I was totally reminded of Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf…. No idea why though. Weren’t they supposed to meet on the top of the Empire State Building back in NYC? I am confused. OHWELL. Anyway, I took a whole lot of photos. Every angle of the tower just looked magnificent, especially at night. For every hour, its lights will also start flickering for a few minutes just to even fascinate more the very amazed people already. It was just beautiful. We didn’t bother going up because the hotel concierge told us that tickets are fully booked for the next three months. That sh*t cray.

The Eiffel Tower

And I guess that concludes my first day in Paris! Stay tuned for the next post as I will blog about the suuuuuuperrrrrrrr beautiiiiifuuuuuuuuuul Château de Versailles. 😀

–R