parisian - part 3

(this is like a journal bout my life in paris - altho a week,hehe.. everyday ill write bit by bit so, if u mind, read from below please..its continuous. so if u read from top, u'll be a little bit blurred.. it starts from sheer experience..parisian, tq)

we're going shopping!! (7-2-05)..
yawn~today's monday and it was the first weekday we were in paris.. i could see people going to work. french go to work reaslly late u know, it's like what the hell, the sun rises in the east - duh~, the sun rises at 5.30am so by 8 it's supposed to be like 10 or 11 here, but at 10 am, there were still thousands of people at the metro station(metro is not bus stations k?its like a tube or subway - more like lrt) fleeing everywhere to get to their workplaces.so, at about 830am, after a yummy2 breakfast (it was easy to remember what we ate bcoz everyday would be the same tho - eggs..bread.. cornflakes..baked beans - typical malay breakfast in oc (pa bukan orange county ek..haha - tuh citer ko), we straight went down to mr pascal. u remember mr pascal don't u, the french guy working at the receptionist.. i asked him where was the flea market and he tought me how to get there or specifically what stations we needed to excess. (during our 8-day reign in paris, i was some sort of family touristguide..hehe, bcoz aku ni kaki jalan, so i was not scared to roam around the stations and understood the maps and asking the parisianman for directions..hehe. my dad would alwiz be like ,"arien, r u sure?"..haha,it was easy tho..the trains were efficient indeed altho in paris itself they have 3 different huge transportation companies. the metro was the biggest train line, mer was the older version that could get u to the outskirts of paris and the bus was another choice. the metro itself had 14 different lines or routes (so there were many interchanges..every 100metre of walk = one station indeed - no wonder paris xbyk kete sgt).

now i realized.. i did not even start the journey,haha..too much mumbling about the transportation..hehe. ok after getting to the right track, we went strait to cour st emmilion - the nearest metro station from our place - 3minutes of walk maybe. we bought a week pass (u could go to any stations for a week and it costs about 14euros, quite ok) so that it would be easier to travel around. actually, i spotted the pamphlet of the flea market the day before (sunday), and was interestedla - to buy u guys nye souvenir, bajet murahla sane..wakakak.. so, my sibs and i were very excited to get there to get some really good and valueformoney souvenirs. after a 40minutes metro ride to the northern skirts of paris, we finally arrived at the flea market. that was the first day going to the town, or places where there was a lot of people - our town was quite isolated, and small so not many people seemed wandering around. the place was hefty - not a correct usage huh? the place was HUGE. it was like a 5x5km space with mane markets of different sections.. like 15 markets in an area. every market sells different stuffs. there were marche(market rite..) that sold antiques - probably a lot of the markets sold antiques,very expensive ones, and old..of course, books, clothes, souvenirs, apparels, and other unique stuffs. many people were there, so crowded (tp it was interesting, cam 15 ptaling street kat area2 cm tuh..but all selling different stuff.each market had its own area and signboards, ade yg by the road sides and ade gak in buildings, very old,eerie buildings, but it was really awesome.smart a die buat)..we started walking and surveying the stuffs there - perhaps to find the nicest and cheapest one..



so,we spent at the flea market about 3-4 hours, walking around, windowshopping, eh i think there was no window so i'll change the phrase ... browsing (aha!rite one), we bought some souvenirs, keychains, shirts, my mum bought for my grandma a tray, we had a good time there..many of the stuffs i bought were from the flea market..quite cheap but don't ever convert it to msian rm or u'll find it quite out of the way..hehe! sori a kekawan, byk brg dr pasar kutu jer..wakaka, tp bes kan??huhu..while buying the stuffs we used as many french phrases as we could. poeple there do not like english to be used, but as for tourist, it'll be ok..despite of that, it we use french first, they will be more frenly. so, as a guide..ehem2..haha, the first thing my sibs and i usually say is 'bonjour', 'parlez-vous anglais' - pronounced as pa-ley-vu-ong-ley..do you speak english..hehe,and if the guy says yes, we'll continue with primary school english as if - 'give-me-2...this-keychain'..haha, u try and speak to them an sat english level and they'll be like..huh, wut language are u speaking..ehe. so learning basic french was a must back there, thanx to french for dummies..

we had earlier planned to go to the core of paris later, we wanted to go and browse in the exclusiveness of Galeries Lafayette Department Store; built in 1912, the legendary Paris department store. and also Printemps(pghon-tompt);was built lavishly in 1923 with a magnificent stained glass dome, has one of the world's largest perfume selections in the beauty department. so, as the name goes, these two 'giants' were eventually stood side by side in paris, in an area i presume. after finishing our time in the flea market, we fled to the centre of paris..

-the end-