Paris - Day Three

Photographed:

- Cimetière du Père Lachaise

- Tour Eiffel

- Palais du Louvre

Not Photographed:

- Place d'Italie

- Lunch at New Hoa Khoan

We had a bit of late start on the Saturday and we started by heading towards the Place d'Italie and it's shopping centre. This was just an excuse to wait for a descent lunch time and eat again. We went to my favourite Chinese restaurant in Paris, in China Town - 13eme arrondissement - a little bit hidden but always busy. It's more of canteen so be prepared to share a long table but you will be rewarded with real Asian food and it's simply delicious. I use to always eat their Singapore noodles and fried dumplings, this time I went for a boh-bun - Vietnamese dish - and pork and coriander dumplings. It was so good, I definitely recommend the boh-bun.

I was hoping for a sunny weather to take pictures but the sky didn't seem willing to clear up (and it didn't until we left) so we went to the cimetière du Père Lachaise anyway. It was nice in the sun but quite chilly in the shadow, we had to rush towards the end as the sky was getting black and low. We didn't take a map and walked aimlessly between the graves. It might sound weird, visiting a cemetery but it is quite a unique place. We saw a few famous people, Honoré de Balsac, Gérard de Nerval and a lot of not as famous French actors. We didn't get to see Oscar Wilde or Jim Morrison but I had seen them before and Tom didn't mind.

After a rest in the bedroom, we went to the Tour Eiffel at dusk. We wanted to see it lit. We had a stroll, it wasn't as busy as I feared, we passed on climbing the stairs as I think my fear of heights would have gotten in the way. We took pictures for tourists - I weirdly don't consider myself as a tourist in Paris, after all I lived there a few years - a couple insisted in taking our picture. At a 45 degree angle. So the tower fits in the picture, but it does without the 45 degree angle. We were confused.

We then strolled along the Seine and saw Paris night lights slowly wake up. We went up to the Palais du Louvre, completely deserted and quiet, the pyramid glowing in the dark.