the hotel was very modern. very sleek brown cool furnishings in the room and reddish lamps and cool bendy metal bedside lamps that shone pale green lights. bed was nice and comfy and there was an lcd tv screen with so many channels!

our tour guide was brilliant. hes from the netherlands and is very funny and humurous and always ready to help us and asking about how we are and finidng out about us =)

paris is such a pretty city. its even more beautiful during the winter. the trees are all thin with twig like branches and line almost every street, making for a very fairy like atmosphere with thier soft thin branches in almost every picture you can take. another thing i loved about paris was that EVERY SINGLE buidling had like balconies and those balconies had such pretty black railing designs. no idea what they are called but some are very very intricate and twirly and cursive. very pretty.

like every other tourist to visit paris, we visited the eiffel tower, cathedral of notre dame, the louvre, moulin rouge (WOW) and every other monument and statue or place of interest in central paris. we drove down champs ellysee (however u spell it) and there the trees were all strung up with blue christmas lighitngs, some of which were animated. at the end of this long long famous road was the arc de triumph which was extra pretty at night with all the orange light framing it. (actually everything looks much nicer at night) we sat on the river cruise that took us round the little island city within paris surrounded by the river seines with a billion bridges crossign it. (really, there are so many bridges in paris) even though the boat when very very fast and it was so damn cold wiht hte wind and everything, the sights were not to be missed. almost every famous building could be seen from the river, captured by beautiful orange/yellow floodlights.

the eiffel tower at night is magnificent. its lit up from the inside with orange light and every hour on the hour they have a spectacular blinding sparkly light display on the tower. in the day time, it is also awesome, but not as WOW. we took the lift up to the second level. and boy was the wind blowing. the views were excellent, except for the slight haze/fog. our local guide pointed out all the sights and gave us historical and other interesting information about each one, except i was off taking nice pictures of the view =)

next it was off to the louvre for hte second part of our first day in paris, and the place was HUGE. packed packed packed with tourists. in the main entrance under the huge pyramid, there's even a shopping area with branded shops (not those touristy kinds) and even a restaurant/food court area. the paintings are wow. its hard to believe that such talent existed so long ago that they were able to make such masterpieces with the technology and knowledge that they had then compared to what we have now.some of hte pieces were HUGE! paintings the size of walls were common. mona lisa had a wall all to herself and even a baricade around her. for such a small picture, it sure was very hard to get a good shot at her. some roooms were plain while many others were beautifully decorated with ceiling and wall murals and golden trimmings on doors, door frames, windows, etc. aside from the paintings, there were also whole sections on statues and structures. we went through the section that was depicted in the da vinci code. but i didnt get to see half the paintings described in there. only the mona lisa =( i really wanted to see all the other paintings too. i wonder if htey were in the same wing how come we didnt get to see them. hmmm. and also, the wing looked different from what i remember in the movie. i think it could be because that day it was FILLED with tourists.

anyway, after the louvre we ahd some tinme to go shopping on our own and we went through the side street just next to the louvre which was filled with touristy shops. the first shop we went into was VERY VERY VERY BAD. BAD service, RUDE people serving and worst of all they are out to cheat tourists. yes. very sad to say that i actually paid 6 euros for a magnet and then went into hte next shop and saw it for 2.5 euro. and den i went back to the shop and wanted to change it to a little nice hat thing that had hte long flaps down the side to keep ur ears warm, which they said was going for FIVE euros. and then the person said "no no, this is 6 euros too. you want to change? fine, here take it. bye.' SO RUDE. she just snatched the magnet from me and chucked it on the shelf nearby. i hope they bankrupt themselves one day. >.< (i went further on and saw the same type of hat selling from 3 to 6 euros. DAMN)

as the local parisian guide loved to say, they love their perspectives =) which is very simply, monuments/statues/famous building all lined up in a row. usually, its a row of 3. they have lots of that all over paris.

at night we went on the optional outing to hte moulin rouge!!!! that was AMAZING. we not only just SAW it. we went in, had dinner and sat through a fantastic performance. the inside is PACKED with tables and chairs. every inch of the ground floor is sitting area and all the tables are arranged around the stage. after dessert, the lights go down and the performance starts. its like watching fireworks. u never noe wat comes up next and u never noe when it'll end. tall long limbed girls in sparkly feathery sequinned head-dress and dresses and costumes dance around on stage to original moulin rouge music to a loose story line. half hte girls were topless half the time. but seriously their costumes and thier head dress was so over the top and wow that you hardly notice that they were topless. the guy dancers were equally good looking. all the barbie and ken variety. all of a certain height, of a certain body build. VERY flexible can do all kinds of splits and high kicks and twirl and hand stands and somersaults. wow. the show starts off with a mass stage performacne by everyone on the troupe i'm guessing as they fill the side stages too. and the circular stairs on the side stages. they're all in shiny silver full body suits and at the end of hte song the girls bend over and rip off their pants in one go and reveal endlessly long legs and thin strip of silver underwear. and that is the start. further on in the show, there is a 1945 WWII section complete with yummy uniformed men and diner waitresses. there is also a pirate themed performance which included a single lady (naked except for thong and head gear) jump into a slowly rising transparent tub of water with real live huge snakes swimming around inside. she twirls herself into the middle of hte snakes and winds the snakes around her and swims around with them very elegantly. other than that i dunno what her performance was supposed to mean. she just swam around alot with them and hten after awhile the tub slowly sank back into the stage. there was also a circus themed performance with 6 miniature ponies!!!!! they were led onstage by 6 dancers and then led off after they did their walking around and criss crossing. one pony was very stubborn and did not exit correctly on the stage and it kept draggin the girl off in another direction. of course moulin rouge is not moulin rouge without their world famous can can. in which they stand in a line, lift their ruffled skirts and kick their legs high to that well-known can can tune and the guys jump, somersault and do splits in front of hte line. very very cool.

in between all these mass dance performances, they had small performances by individual acts. like this couple who were like acrobats? or just very flexible people. they were lifting each other and supporting each other on like arms, heads, feet etc. and there was this ventroliquist that was hilarious. very funny. and anotehr guy who did very interesting things juggling. not only could he juggle with his hands. he launched small ping pong like balls into hte air from his mouth one by one and juggled them using his mouth and his hands. it was . . . .wierd. but interesting.

all in all, that night was unforgettable. the ending was brilliant. everyone was decked out in pink ostrich like feathers sprouting from thier heads and pink furry tails sprouting from the frame that they were carryig on their backs. they looked like a pink ostrich. or a fat pink famingo. a stage descended slowly from the top and the 3 lead dancers were sitting elegantly on top. when the stage stopped they made their way down and behind them all the other side acts came down to take a bow. all the while the pink ostrich girls were lined up on the main and side stages and dancing to the exciting fast music that htey used for the ending.

photos up soon. or maybe not at all. haha. blogger photo uploading interface is very lousy. 5 photos at a time only. bleaghh.

the hotel was very modern. very sleek brown cool furnishings in the room and reddish lamps and cool bendy metal bedside lamps that shone pale green lights. bed was nice and comfy and there was an lcd tv screen with so many channels!

our tour guide was brilliant. hes from the netherlands and is very funny and humurous and always ready to help us and asking about how we are and finidng out about us =)

paris is such a pretty city. its even more beautiful during the winter. the trees are all thin with twig like branches and line almost every street, making for a very fairy like atmosphere with thier soft thin branches in almost every picture you can take. another thing i loved about paris was that EVERY SINGLE buidling had like balconies and those balconies had such pretty black railing designs. no idea what they are called but some are very very intricate and twirly and cursive. very pretty.

like every other tourist to visit paris, we visited the eiffel tower, cathedral of notre dame, the louvre, moulin rouge (WOW) and every other monument and statue or place of interest in central paris. we drove down champs ellysee (however u spell it) and there the trees were all strung up with blue christmas lighitngs, some of which were animated. at the end of this long long famous road was the arc de triumph which was extra pretty at night with all the orange light framing it. (actually everything looks much nicer at night) we sat on the river cruise that took us round the little island city within paris surrounded by the river seines with a billion bridges crossign it. (really, there are so many bridges in paris) even though the boat when very very fast and it was so damn cold wiht hte wind and everything, the sights were not to be missed. almost every famous building could be seen from the river, captured by beautiful orange/yellow floodlights.

the eiffel tower at night is magnificent. its lit up from the inside with orange light and every hour on the hour they have a spectacular blinding sparkly light display on the tower. in the day time, it is also awesome, but not as WOW. we took the lift up to the second level. and boy was the wind blowing. the views were excellent, except for the slight haze/fog. our local guide pointed out all the sights and gave us historical and other interesting information about each one, except i was off taking nice pictures of the view =)

next it was off to the louvre for hte second part of our first day in paris, and the place was HUGE. packed packed packed with tourists. in the main entrance under the huge pyramid, there's even a shopping area with branded shops (not those touristy kinds) and even a restaurant/food court area. the paintings are wow. its hard to believe that such talent existed so long ago that they were able to make such masterpieces with the technology and knowledge that they had then compared to what we have now.some of hte pieces were HUGE! paintings the size of walls were common. mona lisa had a wall all to herself and even a baricade around her. for such a small picture, it sure was very hard to get a good shot at her. some roooms were plain while many others were beautifully decorated with ceiling and wall murals and golden trimmings on doors, door frames, windows, etc. aside from the paintings, there were also whole sections on statues and structures. we went through the section that was depicted in the da vinci code. but i didnt get to see half the paintings described in there. only the mona lisa =( i really wanted to see all the other paintings too. i wonder if htey were in the same wing how come we didnt get to see them. hmmm. and also, the wing looked different from what i remember in the movie. i think it could be because that day it was FILLED with tourists.

anyway, after the louvre we ahd some tinme to go shopping on our own and we went through the side street just next to the louvre which was filled with touristy shops. the first shop we went into was VERY VERY VERY BAD. BAD service, RUDE people serving and worst of all they are out to cheat tourists. yes. very sad to say that i actually paid 6 euros for a magnet and then went into hte next shop and saw it for 2.5 euro. and den i went back to the shop and wanted to change it to a little nice hat thing that had hte long flaps down the side to keep ur ears warm, which they said was going for FIVE euros. and then the person said "no no, this is 6 euros too. you want to change? fine, here take it. bye.' SO RUDE. she just snatched the magnet from me and chucked it on the shelf nearby. i hope they bankrupt themselves one day. >.< (i went further on and saw the same type of hat selling from 3 to 6 euros. DAMN)

as the local parisian guide loved to say, they love their perspectives =) which is very simply, monuments/statues/famous building all lined up in a row. usually, its a row of 3. they have lots of that all over paris.

at night we went on the optional outing to hte moulin rouge!!!! that was AMAZING. we not only just SAW it. we went in, had dinner and sat through a fantastic performance. the inside is PACKED with tables and chairs. every inch of the ground floor is sitting area and all the tables are arranged around the stage. after dessert, the lights go down and the performance starts. its like watching fireworks. u never noe wat comes up next and u never noe when it'll end. tall long limbed girls in sparkly feathery sequinned head-dress and dresses and costumes dance around on stage to original moulin rouge music to a loose story line. half hte girls were topless half the time. but seriously their costumes and thier head dress was so over the top and wow that you hardly notice that they were topless. the guy dancers were equally good looking. all the barbie and ken variety. all of a certain height, of a certain body build. VERY flexible can do all kinds of splits and high kicks and twirl and hand stands and somersaults. wow. the show starts off with a mass stage performacne by everyone on the troupe i'm guessing as they fill the side stages too. and the circular stairs on the side stages. they're all in shiny silver full body suits and at the end of hte song the girls bend over and rip off their pants in one go and reveal endlessly long legs and thin strip of silver underwear. and that is the start. further on in the show, there is a 1945 WWII section complete with yummy uniformed men and diner waitresses. there is also a pirate themed performance which included a single lady (naked except for thong and head gear) jump into a slowly rising transparent tub of water with real live huge snakes swimming around inside. she twirls herself into the middle of hte snakes and winds the snakes around her and swims around with them very elegantly. other than that i dunno what her performance was supposed to mean. she just swam around alot with them and hten after awhile the tub slowly sank back into the stage. there was also a circus themed performance with 6 miniature ponies!!!!! they were led onstage by 6 dancers and then led off after they did their walking around and criss crossing. one pony was very stubborn and did not exit correctly on the stage and it kept draggin the girl off in another direction. of course moulin rouge is not moulin rouge without their world famous can can. in which they stand in a line, lift their ruffled skirts and kick their legs high to that well-known can can tune and the guys jump, somersault and do splits in front of hte line. very very cool.

in between all these mass dance performances, they had small performances by individual acts. like this couple who were like acrobats? or just very flexible people. they were lifting each other and supporting each other on like arms, heads, feet etc. and there was this ventroliquist that was hilarious. very funny. and anotehr guy who did very interesting things juggling. not only could he juggle with his hands. he launched small ping pong like balls into hte air from his mouth one by one and juggled them using his mouth and his hands. it was . . . .wierd. but interesting.

all in all, that night was unforgettable. the ending was brilliant. everyone was decked out in pink ostrich like feathers sprouting from thier heads and pink furry tails sprouting from the frame that they were carryig on their backs. they looked like a pink ostrich. or a fat pink famingo. a stage descended slowly from the top and the 3 lead dancers were sitting elegantly on top. when the stage stopped they made their way down and behind them all the other side acts came down to take a bow. all the while the pink ostrich girls were lined up on the main and side stages and dancing to the exciting fast music that htey used for the ending.

photos up soon. or maybe not at all. haha. blogger photo uploading interface is very lousy. 5 photos at a time only. bleaghh.