Well, actually it was last week....no, wait, it was 10/11 days ago (11th)! Wow...time flies. February has always been my favourite month of the year, especially when I was a child. Not only is it the shortest month of the year, a month where every four years (leap year) you get an extra day (so cool), it's also my birthday month, Chinese New Year almost always falls in February, and according to the Chinese calendar, I was born on the 8th day of the new year. As a child, it's all about
ang pow (red packet). You can click on the link to read up more about "ang pow" on Wikipedia. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that I get extra red packets - $$$. :-D And as I get older, Valentine's Day, which is just a few days after my birthday, provided another reason to celebrate.
There was no huge fan fare on the day itself. But since there's so much to celebrate, we decided to make it a trip to Paris! Oui! Oui! :-) We left on Feb. 14 and came back in the wee hours of the morning of Feb. 19th (a direct consequence of flying ultra cheap flights). I must admit that after a not-so-good experience in Milan, I was very skeptical about going to a country where people are known to be "rude" and eat food that I don't particularly appreciate i.e. snails, lamb etc. to "celebrate". But, I must say, lo and behold, Paris is now #1 on my list of cities I would like to live in!! To set the record straight, Parisians were SUPER FRIENDLY!!!! Don't believe the hype (like I did for years)!! As for food, I really have nothing to report. Maybe on our next trip (yes, there will be a next trip). We were on a budget travel so we just bought baguette, cheese, hummus etc. from a grocery store around the corner to our hotel everyday. And every night, we had Chinese take out from the Chinese restaurant just next to out hotel. We actually be-friended the restaurant owner who gave us two silver spoons as oppose to plastic spoons when I asked for plastic spoons with our take out one night. You see, we needed spoons for our cereal in the morning. ha ha. We went there for the sights and not necessarily the food so we didn't mind. The one thing we did indulge in is French pastry. I can confirm that is one "myth" that is accurate. Yummy!
Paris is definitely a metropolitan city, just like Manhattan. What got to us in the beginning is there were a lot of Chinese in Paris and they all speak French! I spoke to a restaurant owner one day and said I found it to be odd that Chinese people spoke French and only French (especially the younger generation). He said it's not odd if you think about the Chinese people who settle in America/UK who speak English. He had a point. And just like in the US and UK, the younger generation has adopted the culture and language in order to fit in, so much so, they can't speak their mother tongue.
The sights....where do I even begin? Dylan asked why I like Paris so much. And my instinctive answer was the grandness of it all, if that makes any sense. It's not only the ancient gigantic structures that makes you gasps every time you come across yet another mega building, it's also the vastness of space, the neatness and order of the buildings that made it so all so wonderfully just my taste. I am not a big fan of crowded cities like Manhattan. But with Paris, it has got the city feel without the sheer filth (which typically comes with any major city) and
sardine-in-a-can-like feel when you walk the streets. And coming from the land of everything-is-so-very-expensive (UK), shopping in Euro (in Paris) proved to be a breath of fresh air! I will have to preface that this will not be the case if you are coming from the U.S., converting USD to Euros. Sorry.
We attended worship service on Sunday at the Notre-Dame church. I must say that is the biggest and oldest church I have attended a Sunday service in! The church was constructed between the 1100s - 1300s. Amazing! Even though we attended the "International Service", it was in French. Between Dylan and I, we probably know a handful of French words! We stuck it out and tried to follow as best as we can.
ha ha.
Without further ado....here are some pictures to feast your eyes upon.
Many of you have known my love for photography in the last few years. And many of you have been my guinea pigs along the way! The reason for Jacqueline Potter "Collection" and not Jacqueline Potter say...jewellery, is because I wanted to leave room for Photography under an umbrella name. Now you know! :-) So without further ado, I invite you to my photography gallery at Jacqueline Potter Collection Photography website.
