Paris Est Trop Froid Pour Moi

Hmm, did I get that right? In any case, I meant to say that Paris is too cold for me. This reminds me of my first trip to Fonty (when I first came here from Amsterdam to check out the apartments). Then, I was so cold and so unprepared that I ended up paying for an INSEAD sweater. It also reminds me of how mum and dad must have felt when they visited me at Madison Wisconsin during winter of 1996. Then, it was so cold, they simply stayed indoors.

The cold also makes us more sleepy and tired – I think. During our honeymoon in Dec 2003, we arrived into a cold and slightly darker Europe (compared to Singapore where the days still last till 6pm). And we ended up sleeping a lot more. In Amsterdam, I vividly remember sleeping after lunch, waking up before dinner, going for dinner and then sleeping after dinner. We were very happy because we had no eye bags during the trip.

This time round, things haven’t changed much. We were supposed to wake up early this morning to visit Montmarte and the artists’ row behind the eglise. But we ended up waking up close to lunchtime. Fortunately, we had so much slack in our itinerary that we managed to still go to the Sacre Coeur. The conclusion – I think we’d have a hard time following any conducted tour in winter.

Our itinerary for the day was as follows:

10:30 am – Woke up. Louis woke up with aching arms from carrying two bags of laundry around downtown Paris and pulling a 29kg bag past Galeries Lafayette
12:00 pm – Went to E.Dhillerin at the Chatelet, followed by lunch at Au Chien Qui Fume.
2:00 pm – Montmarte artists’ row
4:00 pm – Nap
7:00 pm – Dinner at GR5 - a raclette place
9:00 pm – Back in hotel room

Quite unexpectedly, I’ve enjoyed the simpler French food rather than the more elaborate sit-down meals. For example, the chausson au pomme that Eve bought from Fouchant and the macaroons that we bought from La Duree were most representative of good French food, I felt.

Oh yes, and I wanted to mention this – that between Eve and I, I’m simply useless where it comes to navigating Paris’ streets and metros, while Eve is the expert. She remembers most of the places here and is able to find the transfers so easily. I simply follow her – which explains why I will never learn to navigate Paris – c’est la vie!