Paris - Day 1 - Part 2 - Marche Poncelet

Not too far from Boulangerie Paul, there is a market known as 'Marche Poncelet', this market sells local produce. We are very intrigued on how the local produce is sold in a market, so this is an opportunity to experience it. A short walk with the GPS guidance, we reached the market.

 Mushrooms, melons, oranges, so neat, and also price tag, too bad I don't know french.

Spices and tomatoes, all the different types.

Sea food and I think escargot on the bottom left.Various prawns/shrimps and oysters.

I have feeling the prawns are cooked, prawns are never orange in colour unless half cooked. Live prawns will be better.

Various oysters and also scallops, looks presentable.

 Scallops, considerably larger ones, yummy.

Here is the professional prepping the scallops.

And of course the cheese, hmm a house fly on it too.

And more cheese, is Parisian cheese crazy ? And foie gras too.

And the meat and is that sausages ? Saucisson is sausage in french.

Saucisson Aux Noisettes with google translate is it sausage with hazelnuts ? Someone help me with the french translation of the sausages. I can see lots of sausages too.

Lots like quite a good slices of ham( should be the leg portion).

Jambon is indeed ham.

More seafood, how come the crabs look half cooked ?

For the asians, the crab must not be half cooked, quite bizzare, will it still retain the fresh ocean taste ?

Hmm all looked cooked to me, wondering where is the raw seafood is ?

 Sea urchins ? I thought only the Japanese eat these.

Basket of avocado.

Mushrooms, now is the mushroom season.No idea what type of mushroom are those.

Strawberry and mushrooms.

Another Paul boulangerie

Probably we are also slightly late, so not many stalls left to see. But it is definitely nice to roam in the market. If one joins the market intro class by the famous 'Le Cordon Bleu' culinary institution, the chefs will walk through the market and probably explain what is it and how to cook it.

Soon we should check out the metro. Probably check out some local attractions first.

Paris - Day 1 - Part 1 - Breakfast

After arriving at the hotel and dropped off our luggage, as hotels in Paris typically allow check in after 2pm, we started out venturing. So it's time to bring out the guns. The travel plan in paper with the GPS unit on, we went searching for Paul, the famous boulangerie a.k.a.bakery. The bakery is just about 800 metres from the hotel at Rue Pierre Demours, and so we walked and of course 'armed'.

Some kind of art.

There is a Monoprix near the hotel, which sells food and clothes, this is handy.

The streets of Paris, like the flowers.

We just marveled at the building.

Such a nice feel to walk the streets of Paris during autumn, a bit sunny would be better.

After two minutes of walking, we finally reached Paul.

Very antique feel to it.

Hmm, we better sit inside, not like the Parisians, the worker is just inside.

A choice of different breakfast items.

Too bad we were too late for breakfast set, have to settled with a la carte menu items. Still there are plenty of yummy pastries

Apple pie on the top left, so many to choose...

'Emporter' means take away and 'sur place' means dine in. Dine in is more expensive. Yummy , yummy.

Tarts, macarons, mille-feuille, yummy yummy.

So much to choose from ... what should I get ?

A fruit tart and the famous croissant with 2 big cups of tea.

Buttery crisp croissant with tasty fruit tart.

Fine quality Dammann Freres Ear Grey tea, to kick start the day

The tea is definitely 'Noir parfume' or black perfume especially after 13 hours of long distance flight.

The fruit tart, so nice.

So into the food, the ambiance is stunning also.

Such unique decor, like the blue colour wall with trimmings.

It's a flower shop opposite Paul bakery.

Paul at Rue Pierre Demours

The lovely flower shop.

Had a wonderful breakfast, so it's time to go venture further.

Paris - The planning

Who says traveling free and easy is the correct term to use ? I'd say it is a misnomer. Hours and hours of planning and head wrecking and finally here is the travel plan and destinations to cover.

Google map of the places of interest.

The blue pins denote the completed point of interest, while the other symbols denote the incomplete ones. I would summarize that this trip has been fairly successful and interesting.

It started with scouring the tour agents for cheaper ticket and finally we have settled for Singapore Airlines flying direct from Singapore to Paris. Alternatively, you can fly Emirates, however, it will incur a rather long stopover at Dubai. This will probably make the travel more tiring. Also, Singapore Airlines will reach Charles De Gaulle airport earlier. So the decision was made to stick with Singapore Airlines.

 Changi airport terminal A2 waiting for boarding

 

 Flight SQ334 departing in an hour.

The SQ334 flight departs Changi airport at 2355 hours and reaches Paris CDG airport around 0700 hrs, the flight time is 13 hours and Paris is 6 hours behind Malaysian time.The airplane will be the Airbus A380, currently the world largest passenger airliner, with around 400+ passengers.

Super airliner Airbus A380 with double deck.

The SQ334 A380 seats 3-4-3(not football formation) in a row and the seating space is roughly the same with Boeing 747, the only improvements that I can notice are the sound insulation and the in-cabin pressurization. All the jet engines sound are muted even during take off which normally tends to be the loudest. The higher in-cabin pressurization will provide better air environment comfort especially during high altitude flight. So you will no need to 'pop' your ears so many times during descent, and since the air is more pressurized, you don't feel out of air during high altitude flight.

Flight almost reaching Paris from in-cabin entertainment console.

Another an hour and 28 minute to reach.

And finally, Paris CDG airport the long escalator walkway. 

 The screen on the left showcasing famous Paris attractions.

 The long escalator walkway to customs and baggage claims

 The screen on the right.

 The customs were fast but the bags were slow. After going through the hassle of getting on the train, switching trains and finally to the hotel, I would advise to take the taxi, it should not be as taxing as to carry the big luggage between trains. However, I want to make a note here, we took the RER B train from the Aerogare 2 to the St-Michel-Notre-Dame stop, switched to RER C train and got off at Pereire-Levallois stop, it costs €9.50 per trip per person. However, the journey took about 1.5 hours. The train station assistants were actually quite helpful and able to converse in English.

Finally the Hotel Courcelles Etoile is just 30 metres walk from the exit of Pereire-Levallois stop. Probably, if I ever go to Paris again, I will opt for a hotel that is nearer to the attractions.

Hotel Courcelles Etoile(***), 184, Rue De Courcelles, 75017 Paris

Trusty travelling gear

Traveling free and easy is definitely not easy. One has to be equipped with the gadgets to travel fast, light and hassle or frustration free. My most trusted gadgets shown below.

My trusty old camera now equipped with much better lens, power bank to keep the GPS alive, USB cable to charge the GPS while walking around and lastly a good guide book.

The GPS is extremely useful especially when loaded with city maps. Mine is the older version of Garmin, model 1350T and it is compatible with cityXplorer maps. Only a few model as of now supports the enhanced pedestrian mode. Using the GPS with the pedestrian mode will enable navigation through public transit such as metro, buses and even airports. Along with it, the cityXplorer map will also have transit schedules too, so you will roughly know how long you will reach your destination, so it is a good gadget to have if you are traveling free and easy in a big city.

The power bank is also needed in order to keep the GPS running. The GPS battery lifespan is roughly 3-4 hours. After that duration you will have to turn back to your maps and waste a lot of time and frustration to navigate through a city. The power bank has 5000 mAh, which means theoretically I can charge my GPS roughly 4 times before it runs out of juice.With the power bank, you can have your GPS running practically all the time, unless your travel time is more than 16 hours. The power bank weighs about 140 grams. which is really handy to bring it along for traveling.Using the usb cable, I am able to 'charge' the GPS while walking around in the city.

A good guide book is needed if you intend to travel free and easy. The nice spots, attraction places can be 'programmed' into the GPS to navigate you to the destination, while you enjoy walking and sight seeing without the need to open up the map or ask for help. Also, the GPS can also list down adjacent attraction places that might be overlooked by the guide book too. A good guide book and a GPS with cityXplorer map are the ultimate guide.

Finally a camera for those who likes to take photograph. A good fast lens really help to ease the need for tripod, although a tripod is best for taking low light condition, but traveling with a tripod is not easy, it is heavy and cumbersome. The tripod cannot be taken as hand carry item in a plane, it has to be checked in.

So good luck on your travel.