After falla hunting all over Valencia, we had to rush down to Paris as we had to go to OFII for our visa application (our friend J had kindly helped us with this, many thanks to her). We stopped by the towns of Perpignan and Vichy but as those were just places for us to rest our feet for the night, we don't actually know what's available there. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Millau Bridge which CS was totally fascinated by, as for me I was more taken with the view than the bridge.
The 800m high Millau bridge!!!
The OFII trip itself was rather interesting. Our appointment was at 9am but being kiasu Singaporeans, we arrived an hour earlier instead. There was already a queue outside the office though and for a moment I felt like all those people applying for PR who queue super early at the ICA building, haha... Anyhoo we finally managed to enter the building and what do you know, blur me forgot to bring my passport out!!! Of all the days to be forgetful, I had to choose that very day.... CS very nicely did not say anything except that he will go back to the hotel to get my passport while we wait for our turn. So while he dashed off to get my passport, I waited, and waited and waited for them to call our names while at the same time praying desperately they will not call our names til he returned. I also indulged in some people watching while waiting and it was fairly interesting. There were quite a few PRCs, Africans and Caucasians, some totally dressed up while some came in sweats and t-shirts. Some of them were very well-prepared and came with books/ ipods while they waited while there were those like me, totally blur and with no understanding of French at all, except maybe 'bon jour' and 'merci'. In any case, our names got called and CS wasn't back yet and that was when I first experienced the pain of not being able to express myself. I spoke no English and the lady spoke no French so it was a nightmare trying to explain to her that CS left to get something and that he will be back later. Luckily the rest of the people who were waiting took pity on me and they helped me explain that CS will be back later. The other nightmare came when she asked me to give her some documents and I didn't have that one 'document of residence' which was required. Again, another chicken and duck moment and the kind strangers helped me explain once again. The lady was unconvinced but nevertheless allowed me to go for my medical examination.
As we had met J the night before, we kind of knew what to expect but I was still a little surprised cos I thought some kind of tests (blood test, urine test, some kind of test!) will be involved but they basically took height and weight, tested eyesight, asked some rather basic questions, took a chest x-ray and that was it!!! Maybe cos we were applying for a French long term visa (which I have already explained why we needed one), it seemed that everyone there kind of expected you to be able to speak French. After all that, it was another long wait to see a doctor who will go through the chest x-ray and ask some basic questions again.
CS returned by the time I completed my medical examination so I waited for him to get his done. Though we had no official place of residence in France, I asked CS to try giving them our hotel receipt which luckily the lady accepted, but for him only and not for me since it didn't have my name on it. Another nightmare trying to explain that we were husband and wife and living together, luckily in the end she also gave up and allowed CS to write a letter to state that I'm staying with him at that address. After that long ordeal (and paying 340 euros each!!!), we finally received our visa allowing us to stay in Schengen regions for more than 3 months. Oh the relief when we finally received it....
After the morning that never seemed to end, we thought that we would take it easy for the rest of the day but we ended up doing way way more...
First, we went to visit a 200year old kitchenware shop that CS was quite excited about (Dehillerin). The shop has been around forever and the staff is famously snooty, apparently some guy asked for a specific knife and when the staff asked him what he was using it for, they said it was the wrong knife for that purpose and refused to sell it to him! Luckily for us, no one was horrible to us and we were able to wander around the shop and just look at all the stuff they have. It actually reminded us of Sia Huat, but it's obviously way older and with things arranged just the way they were 200 years ago.
We then stumbled onto Bourse de Commerce de Paris where they had this interesting ceiling with a very large dome. The paintings were rather nice (I think I have run out of adjectives to describe paintings by now) but I kind of got a neckache after a while. We then decided to go to Sacre Coeur since it supposedly offers the best view of Paris and you can see the Eiffel Tower from there. It's a bit of a walk uphill from the metro but you can take a furnicular up. We wanted to climb up the tower but after circling round the place, we just couldn't find the entrance. The church itself was quite beautiful and there were heaps of people that day so there was a certain buzz. People were just sitting all over the steps and basking in the sun, it was kind of nice actually. There wasn't much of a view though cos it was kind of foggy that day, oh well...
Bourse de Commerce de Paris
Parisians enjoying their sun
After that, we walked around Montmare for a while since I wanted to find the cafe where Amelie was filmed. There was a group of old musicians playing near the carousel and we stopped for a while and listened to them. They were quite good, the singer has that scratchy old voice I liked. We finally managed to find the cafe after a while but everything was rather overpriced, so we didn't go in. From there, it was a short walk to the Moulin Rouge where we took photos of the famous windmill!!! There was a long queue of people waiting to go in, I really wonder if the show is THAT good.
Can, Can!!!
And then, after the super long day, we went to the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie which J recommended. It was Wednesday night so free entry! Yeah for free entries, I think Singapore museums should do this more often. There was an exhibition about the Vietnam War which I quite enjoyed though some of the photographs were rather disturbing. We probably enjoyed the temporary exhibitions more than the permanent one, some of the photos were just too weird for us to understand.
And that, was how we spent our first real day in Paris, whew...
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