Header Image


Navigation images

Vantage Paris

Another fun thing about organising my archived photos is the realisation that, over the years, I’ve been very lucky to have seen Paris from many vantage viewpoints around the city. Nearly all of these locations are accessible to everyone all year round, free or ticket-requiring. If you are looking for a place to see Paris from higher grounds (without breaking the bank by hiring private flights), up up you go!

Viewpoints of Paris

1. Eiffel Tower: This is an obvious one, and my last visit there was as a family outing. We were very pleased to have a wonderfully sunny weather, despite strong wind earlier that day which caused closure of the top-most level. It had reopened by then, but the crowd trying to access it was too crazy for us to even consider tackling. The mid-level viewing decks worked perfectly fine for us.

Continue reading »

Project 365 – Week 10

This has been a week of small victories. Getting my carte vitale, progressing positively with my project at work, celebrating the anniversary of my move to Paris, semi-plotting meet-ups with friends who live elsewhere (including Malaysia and Australia!) and pencilling in diary the dates to host them. I love it when things run smoothly. Only one big last administration hurdle for the year looms big – I’m heading to the Préfécture in a few days. Fingers crossed, all will be well.

* * *

Walking down spiral stairs

4 Mar: One of the busiest day yet. It really was home -> work -> home kind of day, without any time for detour. Luckily F offered to cook dinner and deal with all the washing up. And so you are stucked with a photo from Sunday actually. We took advantage of the free monument visit Sunday and went to the Arc de Triomphe. On our way down, I couldn’t resist taking a pause to grab a couple of photos. Since it was relatively dark, I needed longer exposure time, resulting in the ghost-like moving feet as other visitors walked past me to descend the monument.

Continue reading »

Views from la Tour Eiffel

It has been a good many years since I last ascended the Eiffel Tower. If I recall correctly, the last time I went up would be in 2004 with Beejay (his 21st birthday present; a trip to Europe from Andrew and I!) but Andrew assured me it would have been 2006 when he was visiting Paris with me and his then new wife. Either way, 6 years, 8 years, those were a lifetime away. Fast forward and what do you know – us three siblings visiting anew together, them with spouses and kid in tow!

Given the fame of the Iron Lady, to have each deck of the tower filled with visitors is nothing new. But the number of pushy “photographers” trying to jostle for a spot of their favourite views, that’s a whole new level of crazy. It mattered not to them that they were pushing aside a lady carrying a young child but luckily my niece is pretty much the zen-kind of little girl, so she just looked at them curiously then got back to surveying her surroundings.

Continue reading »

Day 338: Giant flag

I have absolutely no idea where there is a giant flag hanging off the Arc de Triomphe. It wasn’t there the day after Armistice Day, and I’m not sure if there has been any date of significance in the French (civil) calendar between then and now. Oh well, in any case, the flag is there today. And have you spot the visitors looking down from the top of the arch? It is a pretty cool viewing point, especially in the evening.

On the home front, I’m finally all unpacked except for my books. It is a bit of a problem, that. I am not sure where I can stash them, and this apartment doesn’t actually come with any bookshelf. I could get one, but it still needs someplace for me to set it up to start with. I guess I’ll just have to read the books I have quickly and then set them free to other new loving homes. Have you checked my latest progress on this year’s big read? I’m getting closer and closer to the target of 100!

Day 100: Arc de Triomphe

… and on Day 100, she went to Champs-Élysées.

It has been a while since I last set foot on this lovely-but-tourist-packed thoroughfare. The funny thing was, as soon as I stepped out from the metro to go above ground, I immediately transformed into a tourist anyway. Especially as I stood in the middle of the road to take this photo, like all the others that came before and will come after me; the only difference being me not posing to have a photo taken with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. :p

I’ve always prefer to be at the other end of the avenue, closer to Place de la Concorde, where there are green spaces rather than zooming cars along a giant roundabout with tens of lanes of vehicles joining in every second. The first time I was inside one of those cars manoeuvering their way out from Étoile, I was so glad it wasn’t me driving. I would probably just go round, and round, and round, and round…


Notify me!

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.