Thursday 21/12/2006
We were on ourselves today. All of them were busy, so we had to travel on our own. Decided to go to a few places, but woke up too late at 10am because of lack of sleep. We were darn tired, damn it! Due to the lack of time, we only went to Musee du Louvre (The Louvre Museum). The place was huge, just like any palace in Europe. And that made me think: "How the hell are we gonna finish looking at ALL the paintings here?". Well, anyway, we proceeded, and they were amazing. Well, all looked like unique and beautiful paintings, but I was too dumb to appreciate the "art" of painting; clueless on both the history of the painter and the painting. However, it was all worth it. I got to see the famous ones, especially the Mona Lisa. I was really impressed (although I have no clue why I see people there use their hands to cover and looked at both her halves of her face: fill me on this!).
Arena wanted to go walk around after that (which was around 6pm then, when it closed). So we head down to Champ Elysees again. This time, we got to shop a bit more. Remember I said it was the home of the first Louis Vuitton? We were IN there, and surprisingly, we bumped into some other Chinese Warwick friends. Chat a bit here and there, and we said our goodbyes before we explored the whole building. LV was quite big, with quite a handful of staffs from foreign countries who were able to communicate in their native tongues to tourists like us, and guess what, all of them knew how to speak French (it's SO obvious). You know, till now, I still don't understand WHY people buy LV bags, which all have the same monotonously designed brown leather, with a few new "variations" to the classic one coming out these few years back, although Arena informed me that it's a "must-have" to show that you were "one-of-them" holding that social standing, like being on the top of the food-chain. A-nyway.... I didn't buy anything though. Much of them were too expensive, or useless to me. I got a pastry from Paul, for the first time, though. Really nice, MUCH nicer than Delifrance's stuff. That's why French pastries can't beat anything else on the world (Note: these words came from a person who LOVES bakery-related foodstuff).
It was already getting late then, so we left for home. Dinner was vegetable curry noodles (which wasn't the spicy type) but it was good (Why vege again? My dear Arena told them her favourite food was vege, and still is, in fact). Something new that I haven't tried before: banana "tong sui". They were saying that we also have them in Malaysia (do they?). To cut my ramblings short, it was REALLY sweet, but nice. :P
Friday 22/12/2006
Today's plan was already - ahem - planned by Arena's other relative currently residing on the outskirts of Paris (and I have no idea at the moment how they are related). We woke up quite late, around 10am (it isn't late, since it was when we woke up the previous day anyway), since they needed time to get from their place to ours (yes, we're going for a road trip! haha..). By the time they arrived, we already washed up and had our breakfast.
First stop: Chateau de Versailles, home to the royalties, such as King Louis XIV. Palaces back then were huge right? This too. And I haven't included the gardens. That could easily add up to a few hundred acres! Too bad the Versailles had been destroyed, I don't know, a few times... and it had been reconstructed, so it isn't the original version, but what the heck.
Finally, an audio tour! Well, it is included in the ticket price, so we had to pay for it. I got to finally see the interior of a palace in Europe (and that was just one of it! I want more!). Beautiful arts, grand halls, big rooms... (damn I'm bad at describing stuff => bad in english). Anyway, too bad it's winter, we couldn't walk in the gardens, because there wouldn't be anything to see and we would freeze our toushies off.
We left to their house. We kinda dozed off in their car, because the journey was too long, furthurmore a highway traffic congestion: makes things even better. Took almost an hour to get there, but it was worth it. The houses there were much bigger and nicer; more spacious and reminds me of home. I got to meet the whole family: dad, mom, 2 elder sons and a daughter. The 2nd son had a girlfriend, and when she got in the house, she started greeting the dad in the western style; by that, I mean touching cheeks and doing the kissing sound, you know what I mean. She then did that to Arena (which I can figure she's used to that), and then surprisingly to me. It was my first! I'm not making such a big fuss about it, but it felt weird, cuz the most that I've done is just to shake hands when I first meet someone, and maybe the occasional hug here and there. Cheek kissing? Takes time to get used to.
Well, we were actually there to have our Christmas dinner, since it's close to that occasion, and the whole family would be going to the States for a holiday on the 24th, so they decided to make it on this very day. This was the menu: smoked salmon, escargot, cold cooked king prawns, raw oysters, goose liver pate and peaches to go with baguettes for starters; oven-cooked lamb thigh with mushroom cream sauce for the main course; mandarins, lychees and Christmas cake for dessert. For drinks, I had a cup of white wine to go with the starters, and a cup of Chinese tea to gush the whole meal down after the dessert. Really really really stuffed, just like a turkey for Christmas.
It was hard to communicate with their children (btw, they are all grown ups, all in their 20's, and fyi, the eldest son is 28), since they could only speak Teochew and French, and nothing else. However, the dinner was nice, and it felt special, cuz I could feel that Christmas spirit around.
We left at around 11pm, got back home at about 12am, talked with the family for a bit, then slept.
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