Hotel de Ville & Chinatown

Hotel de Ville (City Hall)
The weather was great, a sunny day but still a bit cold. Ahh, it felt so great to lie on the grass, looking up to the blue sky and just enjoy the surroundings. You won't be able to get a chance to do this in Singapore since it is always so hot and humid.


A big TV in front of Hotel de Ville, it was rugby again.







There are quite a lot of shops to explore around Hotel de Ville, I will come again next time to look around in my own sweet time. As usual, can't shop with guys. :)

Centre Pompidou
It houses a modern art museum and a library. We just walked pass the building to see how special it was. It was indeed really different from the usual "old" buildings around Paris but I wasn't impressed, it was like a factory to me :P






Old metro sign

From Center Pompidou we walked to St Sulpice which was three to four blocks away. We went through St Germain des Pres which were dotted with cafes and small one-of-a-kind shops. In one of the street corner, there was a group of buskers playing jazz, I really liked the ambience here.

St Sulpice
The church is still under restoration but it is open for public. My purpose of coming here was because there was something here mentioned in the Da Vinci Code. But I completely forgot what it was hehehe...





Chinatown / Vietnamese Town
From St Sulpice we took a train to Porte d'Ivry. There are many small Asian grocery shops, but the biggest ones are Tang Freres and Paris Store. The Tang Freres is housed in a big warehouse and selling all sorts of Asian stuffs. They also sell cooked foods like roasted meat, char siew, roasted duck etc. We bought quite a lot of chinese vegetables like baby bak choy, kai lan since we couldn't find it in our nearby supermarkets. I'm glad I don't need to eat lettuce and broccoli everyday hehehhe... Their vegetables are fresher so it's worth to come again next time. There are so many Asian herbs and spices here so if I have to stay here for a long time, I guess I won't miss much.



Pho 14 (Pho Banh Cuan)
Based on what I found out on google, we decided to try the Vietnamese beef noodle soup here (EUR 7). It was so shiok, the soup was so tasty which made me think there must be a lot of MSG. But after a few hours I didn't feel thirsty at all which means it must have been cooked with real ingredients. When we left, the queue was very long. Glad that we came here early. There are so many Phos and Vietnamese restaurants which I think it is more appropriate to call it Vietnamese Town rather than Chinatown.

I will definitely come again for more. :)