Day 1 - Paris ~ Montmartre

Finally is our honeymoon! The most eagerly awaiting trip. We have decided to have our honeymoon in Paris - City of Light, and UK - City of Culture.

Our planned itinerary is as per below:

We are going for a backpack honeymoon for total of 16 days. The longest holiday that we had.

We have pre-booked our flight with MAS to bring us to Europe but on the day of departure, due to some technical issue, we were transferred from to SQ.

It doesn't really matter for us because, SQ is a direct flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, whereas with MAS, we need to transit in KLIA. Probably it is much better still? :P

The flight took us ~14 hours. While waiting at the departure gate, we took some pics. Feeling excited as before :)

Checking into our seats and ready to go.

Makan time. It was served at around 12am local SG time. Supper for us.

After 14 hours flying in the air, finally we touched down onto Paris @ around 7am, Paris local time. Took our luggage, visited the tourist center in the airport to buy our Musuem Pass, and off we go!

As we landed at Terminal 1, we need to take the shuttle train CDGVAL to Terminal 3, in order to get to the city. Not forgetting to mention here, our planned trip are based on local public transport and walk. :)

From here, our journey to Joyce Hotel started. 

Upon reaching Terminal 3, we got a train ticket from the ticket booth (Euro 9.50 per ticket), to bring us to Paris Nord Station by RERB(the name of the train).

From Paris Nord Station, changed to La Chapelle Station and alighted at Pigalle Station. The journey is not easy if you are traveling with big heavy luggage. Especially for ladies. Most of the station does not have any escalators. 

Joyce Hotel is located near to Pigalle station (~10 min walking distance) and St-Georges station (~ 5 min walking distance). 

It is better to walk from Pigalle if you travel from the airport.

Finally, we reached.

This is the hotel that we will be staying in Paris. As we reached the hotel before check-in time and our room was not ready, the hotel staff offered to keep our luggage and served us with the Cafe Au Lait - Espresso with hot milk, something to warm our stomach after reaching the hotel. It was cold outside!

After settling down, we got a map from the hotel staff and started our sweet journey. 

Since this is the first day in Paris, we still encountered some jet lag. Thus, we decided to walk relaxingly near our hotel. 

Some nice building around our hotel.

We started our journey towards Basilique du Sacre-Coeur which is located in Montmartre District. As Basilique is located at a hill top, so in order to get there, we went through lots of steep narrow street and hundreds steps of stairs to reach the Basilique. 

Don't be worry.. it is more worthwhile to walk as there are many things to be seen if you walk. We did not regret for not taken the Montmartre Funiculaire to the Basilique. 

Along the way, we stopped by Place du Tertre. This is where all drawing artist assembled. 

It was bustling lively.  

Everyone wished to be Leornado da Vinci or Van Gogh one day.

We continue our journey and finally, we reached Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. Majestic look from outside and inside is so grand. 

Many tourist did the same thing as what I did. Sitting on the stairs, admiring the Paris skyline from the Basilique.

Paris skyline from the Basilique.

The look on the other side of Basilique. Stunning isn't it?

This is the souvenirs streets. Lots of souvenirs for you to choose from.

As the map provided by the hotel is not a detail map, we just followed our instinct and travelled around the narrow street of Montmartre. A sight to behold, managed to catch a glimpse of Chat Noir while walking down the narrow lanes. 

One of the great culture of Paris is to have a cup of coffee, while sitting outside along the street.

Our journey brought us to Le Passe Muraille, which mean the man who could walk through the wall. This statue is to remember the short story published by Marcel Ayme.

This is one is the tourist attraction in Montmartre.

As it was lunch time, this restaurant attracted our attention. This little restaurant is named as Le Poulbot and we were attracted by its delighting design, with lots of flower decoration making as though there is a fairytale world on this inside waiting to be unveiled by us. 

We decided to give it a try as our very first meal in Paris and, it is not disappointed us. It was a cozy restaurant with great ambience and great hospitality from the boss. We took a 3 course meal for Euro 13.10 is really a great deal, which include a starter, main and dessert. 

Our starter... Hot Soup for Connie and Tomatoes Mozzarella for me.

Main Course... Salmon Gaille. Served with Rissotto.

And Dessert... My wife opted for Creme Brule.

For me, I got a delicious chocolate cake. The meal is really tasty and worth every penny.

After our lunch, we decided to get back to our hotel and get some rest. Along the way, we went past Moulin Rouge. The spiritual birthplace of the can-can dance and now one of the famous place for cabaret shows.

We did not visited the cabaret show as it is around 100+ Euro per person.

Some sex shop around Moulin Rouge.

We reached back to our hotel and our room is ready.

Very nice and cozy room at the price of Euro 108 per night with breakfast included.

We got our well deserved rest then and we end our day 1 in Paris.