Paris, London and Christmas in Norwich - UK

Paris - Sights & Food

We flew into Charles de Gaulle airport from Venice. We were expecting to walk through customs and immigration as we crossed national boundary. However, it was treated as a domestic flight due to the European Union treaty which allows free travel between the Union States. The added advantage is the unified currency of euro, otherwise we would cost more with hassle of changing money several times.

We went straight to the train terminal which cost about 8.40Euros one way to the central station at Gare Du Nord. The ticket Vending Machine takes credit cards.


The Airport Train Terminal

We took several changes to reach the Metro lines that took us to Pigalle station. It was a good thing that Jon can read and speak French, we would be a pretty lost without him as most Parisian do not speak English.

I am still trying to locate the photos we took in Versailles where I "drove" for the first time in Europe - not really, just an electric car in the Garden

Iconic Eiffel Tower


Sacre Coeur


The Louvre Museum Where the famous Mona Lisa painting was kept. Also where the Da Vinci Code Movie was shot


Eiffel Tower at night from the bridge - reflecting the water of the River Sans


Skyline on a Misty morning from Sacre Coeur and Montmartre


Alsace Departmental Store - The Building and Architecture is so Beautiful & majestic, and the Streets and Boulevard in Paris are very wide - a big contrast to the narrow streets in Rome.


Monte Marte - Art precincts - where we live near Pigalle Station - also very near to the Red-light district where Moulin Rouge was situated


Arc-de-triumph at night


The famous Champs Elysees - wide Boulevard and expensive Shops

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PARIS FOOD

Fried Frog Legs


A Duck Dish ordered by Jon in French - the meat looks quite rare!


Cheese Fondue


Snail dish - escargot


I know it is now June and Christmas was like 6 months ago. But I always don't find the time to tidy up some of the photos we took and hence such a delayed post.

We continued our Trip from Paris to London on the Christmas eve by taking the Euro-rail across the undersea tunnel. It was Christmas eve and we were told to expect all public transport shut-down after 2-3 pm. So we pre-booked and hired a car from London.We also managed to checked into Travelodge at very cheap price of 19pounds per room. The rooms are very clean - in fact brand new because they have just converted the place from an office building into a budget hotel. They have neat and nice rooms - smelling of new carpet. There are tea and coffee making facilities, TV and nice en suite but no bar fridge or telephone.

We got a nice Nissan car 2.4 series as the small car we booked was not available.It was a god sent as we had quite a bit of luggage between the 4 of us.The Budget Car Rental guy ( A Bangladeshi)wanted to charge us for more, but we insisted that it was their fault for not having the car we wanted. As parking is sky high in London, plus the congestion charge for inner city driving on working days, we were fortunate to find a public parking for 2 pounds over nice since it was a public holidays. We did not even have a decent map as we were cheap skate - we googled online and printed some pages before hand.

Any way we spent our first Christmas in winter in Europe - in this country town of Norwich. Carol's cousin Pansy & her husband David were fantastic hosts.... White Christmas at last



One of the many "Tudor" Style building - One of our Bed & Breakfast place looks like this


Pansy found a Childhood Photo - the Genetic resemblance of the Yap Family clan - rounded faces.


Enjoyed a traditional Christmas Dinner - Complete with Puddings and Turkey etc


A shot taken at the Norwich Church


The Famous London Tower Bridge - Our Travelodge is only Walking distance away...


The Parliament House


The Guards outside one of the Palaces or Downing Street? Memories getting more hazy now...


We watched some West-end Musicals - The Sound of Music and Les Miserables
We missed many photos opportunity as Sarah took the camera and went out with Jackie on her own in London. The Eye of London, and several sights were not in captured.

Old Classmate - Francis and Grace’s visit

It was pleasant surprise to meet Francis after 26 year! He one of the few classmate in TAR College Building Technology Course – BD3 -class of 1981.

He has truly “prospered” in the classical Chinese sense of added kilos and having being warned by him that I won’t recognise him at first sight, I must admit that if I meet him in the street, he would look like a total stranger to me.

It was good to spend a couple of days with them and taking them to see some of sights around Melbourne such as Philip Island, Mornington, Yarra Valley and to see the devastation left behind by Black Saturday’s Kinglake Bush Fire.
Below are some photos to remember…..


Nice pics at Silvan Dam Recreational Park - against the backdrop of colourful autumn leaves


I stole this pic from his Album ---> Francis the Evangelist?


Inside the Penguin Parade Centre - the number Penguin that night was very disappointing - there were less than 50 birds seen...


One of the Vineyard at Mornington's Red Hill District


Feeding the roos at Giant Worm Wildlife Park enroute to Philip Island


Another pic of kangaroos feeding


Grace & Carol - At Silvan Dam Park


Francis and me for Old Time sake


I guess I'll make some contrast between the beauty shown above with the shear devastation below - here are some pics of the devastation of the Black Saturday Bush Fire in Feb 7. We visited the burnt-out Township of Kinglake with Francis & Grace.


A child hugging a donated Soft Toy - That was all he had after the fire


A fire front that was 100 meters high and many kilometers wide, fanned by 100 km winds -An immpossible battle to fight indeed....the energy unleashed was compared to several atomic bombs...


Scene of burnt-out hills - as far as the eyes can see-- kilometers away