Sightseeing in Paris... Day 1

The first day, we went straight to RER station Auber. We could see the Pariscityrama office from the station itself. The train ride was uneventful, and it was only about 30 minutes ride to Paris city centre. We got the two day L'Open tour tickets and off we went to the green line (there's four lines altogether, green (the famous spots), blue (bastille), orange and yellow (sacre-cour area)). With the hop on hop off tickets, we could see Paris at our leisure.

Despite the chilly wind, we went up the open top bus. The view was fantastic, the kids loved the experience. The first stop was the Louvre but we didn't get down there. We went to Notre Dame Cathedral first. There was a cue but it's a moving one, so it wasn't so bad. We spent about 1/2 hour there and afterwards went outside to the street shops to buy some souveniers. If I remember correctly, this is one of the cheapest place to buy souveniers. Since it's our first day, my husband cautioned me not to go overboard.

It was quite comforting to see the same printed paintings on display (from my college days). Each costs 2 euro. Since I am not very particular about arts, we didn't buy any. Next, we hopped on the bus for the blue line. We didn't stop anywhere, just took lots of pictures while listening to the commentary via headsets. The kids were sleeping soundly anyway. Even my husband slept, can you imagine, we were in the middle of beautiful Paris and my family slept through it...Hehehe...

Next, we hopped on the orange line (going through Champ E'Leysees area). By that time, we were getting hungry and instead of appreciating the sights, we were scouring the area for halal restaurants. We met a family of Indonesian muslims and we went together to find a halal restaurant. We saw a halal pakistani restaurant but when we went near, it was closed. I knocked on the door regardless and asked where we could eat. I was directed to go to a pizza place where we could eat the vegetarian or margharita pizza or walked a bit further to a kebab's place. We opted for the pizza while the Indonesian went to the kebab's.

After that we went back to Val D'europe and did some more grocery shopping. My husband managed to find a halal section where he went crazy and buy lasagne, burgers etc...Hehehe...We ate rice and brahim's...so nice even though the rice was a bit watery...