France and Netherland

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I spent my Easter holiday in these 2 countries. Last time I visited Paris was in 2006 and I recalled that I said to my wife that we would certainly visit this place again, which we did this year. Our route was to Paris by flight and spent 5 days there, then we went to Amsterdam by train and back to HK therefrom.

We took a mid-night flight to Paris, transit at Munich. We arrived at Munich airport in the morning and it was amazing that the waiting area in Munich airport has free coffee machine. After that we took an hour or so flight to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. This was the first time I stepped in this airport as last time I left Paris by Eurostar. The airport was quite old but its design was still modern to me, inclined electric walkway with up and down, inter-crossing escalator network, etc. quite funny.

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Our hotel is close to Gare du Nord station. We heard a lot that it was a district with lots of pickpockets, but due to its convenient location, we picked this hotel as our base as this gave us a very convenient travel network.

Gare du Nord literally means "gate of north". It is a big transportation hub at north Paris. North here means the north of the old Paris, as there are a lot of city area even northward than this station. This station has direct train to north part of Europe, which fits our schedule to Netherlands a few days later. It also has a bus terminal, 2 lines of MTR and is just a 10-minute walk to another train station Gare du Est (East gate) which can catch a train to Reims.

The station is huge and nicely built. Our hotel is just opposite to the main entrance.

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After we checked in our room, we walked to our first spot Sacre Coeur. This is one of the churches that almost all tourist would go to visit. It situated at District 18 and close to Gare du Nord (at District 10). The most famous part is that it has a long staircase in front of the Chapel and the whole building is at a high level, so that you can overview the whole Paris there.

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The weather was kept on changing but the church was crowded by tourists. On a nice weather day, people would sit on the staircase to enjoy a panoramic view of the city of Paris.

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A Panoramic view from the entrance of the Church.

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After the visit to Sacre Coeur. We went to Place de la Concorde. A big square with a Obelisk. This was the place where Louis XVI was beheaded during French Revolution.

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I don't know when there are a lot of ferris wheel built all over the world, London eye, Hong Kong, now Concorde Square. There was a Belgium flag for the terrorist attack a few days ago.

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The Obelisk is at the center of the square and the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden) is just next to the square. It connects the square to the Palace du Louvre. We walked in the garden to have a look.

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The garden is huge and it is a good place for hang out. A relaxing life style. You can face the pond and Palace and chat with your friends, or you may just sit and look at the Concordo Square / other buildings, which is still enjoyable.

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Our next stop was to Place de Vendome. We went there because my wife wanted to see an exhibition by Chaumet. They were showing some jewellery there.

They are beautiful and finely crafted.