Jade in The Palace: Bienvenue à Paris!

Hey guys! My 4 day trip to Paris is over T.T why holiday always flies like a jet plane?? Paris is a beautiful beautiful city. The fact that Paris is beautiful, I believe is no longer a secret for a lot of people. I didn't have much expectations though to be honest, because I have heard some 'not so good' things about Paris, e.g how 'unsafe' the city is from pickpockets, how 'unfriendly' the Parisians are, and how full the city is with loud and clueless tourists. But I have to say I was impressed with the city. Let me conclude it for you.

The Parisians - During my 4 day trip in Paris, I found that Parisians are friendly. The people on the streets, staffs at dept.stores, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, even taxi drivers were all very friendly and helpful despite of my pathetic french skill . I only found that mostly people who work at public services were very unhelpful and unfriendly and unwilling to speak even a word in english ( which is such a shame because they are supposed to help -.- ) But anyway, the parisians are not that bad. It could be because I live in germany where the people are not considered the friendliest :p

The Metro - Okay, I was not impressed with the metro. I think it was even worse than the London's. I live in Berlin where public transportation is excellent, so Paris metro was a bit a shock for me. They were mostly on time though, but almost always so full-hot-and dirty, very old wagon ( but some lines have new wagons which are good ), too many exits and entrances per station so it is very difficult as a tourist. And the worst among all, is that you have to walk a very looooong endless tunnels every time you want to reach the train or transfer.

The Tourist Attractions / Sightseeing - Louvre, Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Cour, what else? I am not the kind of person who love sightseeing, for me, taking must have tourist pics in front of the most famous landmarks is enough. I didn't go up the Eiffel tower, I didn't enter Louvre ( which I actually really wanted to , but didn't have time ), I didn't go to Sacre cour, so I don't really have much to say. But I did enter Notre dame church which is beautiful! the entrance is free so make sure you don't miss it! And if you want a good pict in front of eiffel, go to Trocadero station, best view is at night when the lights are on.

Disneyland - a must visit! 1 day is def not enough. I only managed to finish the disneyland park but didn't have time to visit the disney studio as they were closing at 6pm. It was a dream comes true. I am always a disney kid inside out, I grew up watching disney movies, I remember every scenes in cinderella and sing all the disney soundtracks, so being able to finally visit Disneyland was really a dream comes true for me. The park is huge! So wear comfortable shoes and bring empty water bottle as there are a lot of free water stations you can find all over the park. The 5pm parade was also soooo good I had tears on my eyes.

The Shopping - All the luxury boutiques at rue st.honore, rue cambon and rue fabourg are must visits. They have wonderful window displays and chic parisians walking down the pavements. The Hermes boutique is unbelievably full of asians and arabs ;p. Chanel boutique is huge and they have their own perfume and beauty corner. Most of the staffs in the boutiques are relatively friendly and helpful too. Printemps beaute and Galeries Lafayette beauty floor are also must visits. Printemps' NARS counter was the highlight while Dolce&Gabbana beauty counter at Lafayette was a dream home for me.

Champ Elysees in other hand, was not very special. It is very paris but also very full, crowded, and overrated imho. The huge sephora there doesn't carry a lot of brands from the US. 90% of what they have are available in Germany as well so I didn't really spend a lot of time there . It was also very very very full and the stuffs were all busy, so save your time and better go to Lafayette or Printemps.

Food - Paris have good steak and wine and pattiserie of course. L'aduree main store ( including a huge 2 storey restaurant ) in champ elysees is a must. The interior is soooooo paris and grandious and beautiful. Staffs were very friendly and tea and desserts were delish. Brunch on street cafes is also a must do.

I didn't find any 'drugstore' in Paris and I really wonder where the parisians buy their drugstore make up. There is a few selection of drugstore make up in lafayette but they are very over priced and there were only bourjois, lafayette own brand, maybelline and loreal and all of them are almost the same price as MAC. They have a lot of pharmacies though, but most pharmacies only carry skincare and medicine, no make up. So I saved the money and went for high end brands. I bought Amour Blush, Killing me softly cheek palette, and hyde park satin lip pencil from NARS, a set of 3 perfumes from Laura Mercier and Vulcano Eyeshadow quad + perfect luminous liquid foundation from Dolce&Gabbana beauty. Of course, reviews coming soon!