It was a day of walking on another 0°C day. It so happened that our pre-planned itinerary was mainly to explore the areas around our hotel. We did intend to take the metro for a stop or 2 for some places so it did not affect us much by exploring on foot except for the last venue.
A hot coffee was the best treat after a 1.3km morning walk.
Police were everywhere
A walk in the park – Jardin du Luxembourg
Had lunch at La Table in Jardin du Luxembourg
Lunch
The usually busy Rue Royale was blocked that day
Finally we reached Boulevard Haussmann
The beautiful Christmas decorations in Galeries Lafayette Haussmann.
Craved for some hot soupy dinner after a day out in the wintry Paris streets.
So we were happy to have found this Chinese eatery on our way back to the hotel.
What our step tracker reported to us at the end of the day 🙂
Used to make a couple of work trips to Le Havre many years ago and each trip was about 2 weeks.
I visited Honfleur during one of the trips, about 17 years ago. Though it was a weekend day trip, it left a good impression of the Normandy region.
So for this holiday, I decided to introduce Normandy to my travel partner amid our visit to Paris😄 And yes, he gladly agreed to the idea of exploring another French city, besides Paris and Lyon. Planned to make a day trip to Rouen, which is the capital of Normandy and only 1h10min from Paris by train.
However on our second day in Paris (3 Dec), we got a text message from Am. (our Paris friend) in the evening, informing us that the 5 Dec strike would most likely start on 4 Dec at 7pm.
And our day trip to Rouen was planned for 4 Dec, leaving Paris at 7.50am and taking the 8.12pm train back to Paris. Outbound was not a problem but it would definitely affect our return.
We went to our hotel front desk, they were helpful but, like any others, they did not have an idea what would happen the next day (4 Dec). Due to the uncertainties, they encouraged us to cancel our trip which we were very reluctant to do so.
After discussing with hubz, we decided to go to the train station (Gare Saint-Lazare) as planned to find out more details about our returning ride. We would expect a long Q at the SNCF ticketing office but no, it was very calm and there were only 2 people in front of us. The lady was helpful and advised that the safest Paris-bound train timing would be 4pm. She explained that the strike would officially begin at 7pm but it might start even earlier but they were not sure at all. So we changed to the 4pm train. Actually we were not allowed any changes on day of departure but guess they tried to be flexible as well so we were thankful. Well that would mean we would have about 7 hours in Rouen, 4 hours lesser than originally planned but definitely better than cancelling the whole trip.
Arrived at Rouen just before 9am. When we stepped out of the station, Rouen-Rive-Droite, we were surpriised by the coldness. Based on the frequent temperature checks done before the trip (an average of 7.5°C for the last 7 days, with the warmest being 12°C), we did not expect a 0°C morning haha. But we were happy as the weather was very good, with no rain.
Cold morning in charming Rouen. In the background – Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, the tallest church in France.
A very French breakfast at Le Bovary. Chanced upon this cafe when we just needed to get in to a place to thaw ourselves after an almost 1km walk from the station 🙂
A happy man after the French breakfast that came with a cup of hot coffee!
Le Gros-Horloge behind me
We spent about an hour in this home decor store. It was a pity that we could not buy more due to the unknowns of our next flight.
Enjoyed just walking around before lunch 😍
Reserved lunch at this 2 Michelin star restaurant – Gill. We went for their 3-course Business Set Lunch at €45. Truly worth it.
Amuse-bouche
Amuse-bouche
Amuse-bouche
His starter – prawn salad
My starter – mushroom agnolotti
His main – stew beef
My main – Saint-Pierre fish in Thai style
His Normandy cheese
My pear tart
Our 4 Surprise desserts from the pâtissier
A very pleasant dining experience.
The restaurant was full and we saw that everyone was having their business set lunch. But the restaurant manager and her service team definitely did not compromise on their service. And the food was very good.
After a very fulfilling lunch, we needed to burn some fats and the best way would be to continue exploring beautiful Rouen by foot. And the Christmas Market was of course the highlight.
Christmas Market in Rouen Place de la Cathédrale
Tea break at this pretty café, Dame Cakes.
On our way back to the train station, we managed to get some boxes of caramels. It was something I had planned to buy but somehow forgotten all about it because there were just too many things to see and too many places to go within the 5 hours (excluding the 2-hour lunch).
Goodbye, Rouen.
Thank God that we were still in time to catch a train back to hotel when we reached Gare Saint-Lazare past 5pm.
The metro station was packed with fast moving crowds in all directions due to the evening rush hour plus every one of us was trying to get to our destinations before the train / metro stoppages. It was quite an experience.
This time round, cheap airfare brought us to Munich. When we had decided in having Europe as our year end trip and started to look out for fare deals by Singapore Airlines, we found one to Munich.
Mid November to December is usually the blackout period (school holiday and festive month) for any promotions, so S$1,100 / passenger was a very, very good fare.
We would usually visit maximum 2 countries in a trip and as I would want very much to visit our friend & her daughter in Paris, soon after purchasing our SG-Munich-SG tickets, we bought Munich-Paris-Munich ones as well. And I was looking forward to it!
This was our “welcome gift” from our friend about 10 mins before our plane took off from Singapore.
Landed at Munich airport at 6.30am on 2 Dec. As we were making our own flight connections, we gave ample time for immigration checks and baggage collection. It was a very smooth process so we had a lot of time for a light breakfast before checking in for the next flight. In the background, it was a small scale Christmas market set up between the 2 terminals.
As we arrived at CDG airport at 11.30am, we were able to take the express RER B train from the airport to Châtelet – Les Halles. It was a very pleasant ride as we were on an almost empty train (total 4 passengers including us in our carriage) so had no problem at all with our luggage which consisted of 2 big + 1 small.
Took only about 30 mins from CDG to our hotel at Châtelet – Les Halles.
Stayed at Novotel Les Halles for its good location (which we came to really appreciate in the later part of our stay) and their service was superb as well.
We had a smooth early check-in which gave us some time to roam about before heading to our afternoon tea which we reserved for 3pm.
So good to be back to the City of Love after 13 years
Finally I got to visit my favourite tea brand which I fell in love with since 6 years ago.
Mariage Frères Marais 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg 75004 Paris
I had the Afternoon Tea Parisien and he had the Le Burger Parisien
I chose the Christmas Tea – Noel In Love (blue tea). Earl Grey Provence for him.
Choosing a dessert from the Patisserie Chariot
Tea shopping
Our loot!
After our afternoon tea, we had a walk around Le Marais which included some more shopping and a coffee break.
Boot Café
There was a very small Christmas market next to the hotel, at Forum Des Halles. Had our first mulled wine for the trip.
Had an early night since we only caught about 6 hours sleep in total for the past 40 hours.
Had a great holiday in Paris last week and the massive strike hit right in the middle of our 5-day stay.
But everything went on well for us even though our original Paris-Munich flight on 6 Dec was cancelled. Alternative arrangement was made for us and we reached Munich as scheduled.
Now we are on our last night of our 10-day winter holiday. Enjoyed thoroughly though it was a challenge to wake up at odd hours for some days.
KellyL's world 