My 'Les Journees du Patrimoine' weekend

Promised I would explain this. So, Patrimoine means inheritance, and in this case, the inheritance of the country to its people. Thus, all museums and monuments (even the very very important ones, which are otherwise never accessible to the general public, such as the Palais de l'Elysee - Presidence de la Republique) are open and are gratuit (free). The only catch is that the queues at these important places are then unimaginably long.

Last Sat, I had wanted to go to the Palais de l'Elysee - Presidence de la Republique which is the mansion of the French President but upon seeing the queue (walked about 20 min along half the queue before I could see the end in the distance), which stretches from the door of the mansion at Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde, which is one metro station away. Estimated time of queue was 3 - 4 hours!!!

Thus, decided to go to some other places nearby first and come back bright and early the next day. Found Hotel de Marigny which is where the President hosts the important guests from other countries. Well, of cos' the bedrooms, study rooms and dining rooms inside were absolutely beautiful!!!

My next stop was Opera National de Paris - Palais Garnier, the old Opera house of Paris which was magnificent!!! Wide marble staircase, ceillings and walls covered with carvings in gold, big shiny chandeliers and all the grand things.

Last stop of the day, Palais du Luxembourg - Senat, which is situated in one of my favourite gardens, Jardin du Luxembourg. The Senat was elegant and statuesque. I think the Singapore's Parliament House is the equivalent of the Sentat here. And I remember being in the old Parliament building on a school trip back in Uni and while it was solemn and practical, it was not as exquisite as the French Senat.

Legs were screaming for rest by evening since I have been walking since noon. Felt extremely contented with my day of visiting despite the muscle aches.

Didn't make it bright and early enough the next day to the mansion of Jacques Chirac. The queue was just as bad when I got there about 11am. Am quite sorry I had to give it a miss.

Went to the Grand Palais - La Nef instead, which just reopened after 13 years of restoration. The queue was almost as scary as the one at the mansion. I had to walk 15 min to find the end of the queue and opening time wasn't until noon. Took about an hour before I entered. It was good that I had company with me so time seemed to pass quite quickly.
30 min into waiting and my friend pointed out a couple (French) who seemed to appear out of thin air in front of us. I was none too happy as they stood there nonchalantly pretending they had been in the queue all along. I stared hard at them and was going to point them to the end of the queue when the queue moved. But before I could do that, the guy who must have seen me staring at them, said 'Allez-y', which meant go ahead. They then moved behind us and when I turned back, I saw people were shoo-ing them down the line, saying, 'The end of the line is back there! Bye! Au revoir!' And for some time, both were still trying to act as if they didn't understand and that they belonged in the queue until a lot of people got irritated and all spoke up and chased them off. How shameless could they get??? Geehz...
Anyway, back to the Palace. Although, it was quite empty except for 2 big blue globes but the place gave a sense of enormity with its immense ceiling and sky-high glass domes that covered the Palace. It was splendid in its vastness.

Since the Arc-de-Triomphe was nearby, we decided to go there. It was a 50m climb on a spiral staircase to the top. O_o *pant, heave* (I've got a picture of that long spiral staircase for proof!=p) But it was well worth the effort. The view at the top was breathtaking!!! All the major sights of Paris clearly seen. The whole city before us, at our feet! :)

All in all, a very good weekend. Plus the weather was wonderful. I don't suppose I will ever understand how it could be all bright and sunny and blue blue cloudless skies (I can't describe the blueness of this blue. Can only say that on camera, it looks too blue to be real, like a stage backdrop or something.) and all but at the same time very very COOL. The best kind of weather possible!!! Though greedy me wished I could have visited more places. Just imagine, I have a 9-page list of the places that were available for visiting!!!

Can only hope for the next time (probably years later...) when I can come back to visit.