Jeanne’s first trip to Malaysia

This is Jeanne’s first trip to Malaysia to meet my relatives there. The weather is extremely hot and the journey there is rush and tiring.. but once we meet everyone, the tiredness is no longer on top of the list… hee

Gong Gong first meet with Jeanne!

The next morning, Julian was eager to play something which is forbidden in Singapore… Firecrackers! We wanted to play with him last night but it was already too late.

Sand poppers!

While kor kor was busy playing, Mei mei was busy crying… as usual…

Jeanne cried and cried and cried… so much during the trip that no one dares to carry her for long… Everyone say they will understand if we are

Wen Xuan and Shao Xuan checking out how to play…

Shu Gong with Ju lighting the firecracker…

Daddy with Ju…

Lunch with everyone at Chin Foo’s girlfried’s family restaurant…

Ju busy with his “building work”.. haha

Family shot but short of jiu jiu who is in army training.. sob…

After lunch we went to da bo gong’s home as he will give us a lift back to Singapore. Da bo gong’s hobby is gardening. He has lots of different variety of fruits and vege and flowers in his garden…

Ju watching how da bo gong plant something new…

Harvesting the grown beans to bring home and cook.. hee

I like this… All things bright and beautiful!

Jeanne enjoying the breeze in daddy’s arms…

Haha.. finally not crying but SMILING!

Paris – Day 14 & 15 (Going home)

Going home!!!!! Yeah! 

Ju helping to fold clothes for packing…

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Task accomplished!

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Ju packing things into the plastic bag and trying to tie a knot with the bag handles…

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Ju packed all the little things he could find into the zipper compartment within the luggage… Daddy got to remove everything while Ju is busy later with his own things.. haha!

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Next day morning at airport! 

We are in Paris during this H1N1 season… Singapore seems to have much more cases than France on the tracking list… 

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Resting in the lounge while waiting for our flight…

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On the plane!

Ju keeping himself busy looking for little things around to pack into the side compartment beside him…

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Thank God John and colleagues managed to finished their work one week before schedule and John was able to fly back with Ju and I. Initial plan was for Ju and I to fly back earlier as we could not get a seat for the day John is flying back. John manage to get a seat for the day we are flying but need to sit separately. 

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Bye bye Pairs!

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Ju fell asleep while waiting for the lane to take off…

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In the sky… How peaceful and beautiful it looks above the clouds…

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Home Sweet Home! 

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Paris – Day 13

Sunday… Went for mass in morning and bought pastries back to hotel for breakfast.

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Lunch at mac… Ju got his happy meal!

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Ju fell asleep at the train station after lunch…

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There was a group of buskers performing in one of the metro stations… We like their music so much that we bought a cd from them.

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Today we are bringing Ju to a Children Amusement Park called Jardin d’ Acclimatation. The park includes an archery range, house of mirrors, miniature-golf course, narrow-gauge train, pony ride, puppet theater, shooting galleries, miniature road system for children operated by the Paris police, an art museum for children.

This is Les Sablons Metro Station where the park is located…

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The side entrance…

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Nice entrance tickets…

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Upon entering, there was a playground with swings for kids to play freely…

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Ju queueing up for flying fox. He was so excited trying it out as it looks very fun and challenging.

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Ju shouted “Daddy let go! Daddy don’t hold me!”

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Summer flowers again… bees bees everywhere…

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Train ride… We did not know we have to buy tickets for the ride and boarded the train happily until the staff asked us for tickets. When we say we did not know that we need to get tickets, he gave us a big smile and gave an “Oh no! But it’s ok!” handsign to us and moved on to the others. Nevertheless, we bought our tickets after the ride and gave it to him.. Pai sei!

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Strollers were all parked on the first carriage.. 

Along the way on the ride, we passed by grass patches where there were lots of families and couples picnic with mats, lying on towels on the grass. Quite many of them in bikinis sun tanning. Don’t think I had ever seen that with Singaporean in bikinis sun tanning in Botanic gardens! haha! Really different cultures!

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Ju being the road sweeper, sweeping with a leaf, gathering all tiny leaves and branches together on the road.

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Walking through the amusement park.

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Ju found a pine tree with mini pine cones on it… touching and counting them…

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Lavenders

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Not sure are these pears…

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Interesting plants!

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The mini zoo in the park…

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Cute duckies with permed hair…

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Ee-ore… Donkey

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Found a spider with eggs on a tree

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Pigeons again!

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Pony rides… There was no age limit for this but Ju did not want to try. He said “The horse will eat me”. So, we stood aside and watch the ponies poo instead.

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The weather today is warm like Singapore! Standing in the mist zone is a great cooling idea… 

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Wet play… Ju wanted to join them so much but we did not bring a towel and it is about less than an hour to closing so we gave it a past. It was good that Ju did not insist even though he wanted to play here so much.

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Ju saw people eating this and said ” I want to eat mushmallow ice cream!”. So, we got one for him.

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Ended the visit with a few more rounds of flying fox! Ju was very proud of himself that he can go through it without daddy holding on to him, but daddy was running after him to protect him.

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After that, we went to the Eiffel Tower which we had been telling Ju about since before flying to Paris, but had not been there for the past 2 weeks.

When we walked up from the train station, this is the view.

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Ju practicing and mastering his skill of pushing his storller down the steps as daddy was taking photos.

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Entertained himself by sliding down the ramp again and again…

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A ride on the carousal at Eiffel tower.

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The J Family!

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Yum! Popcorns and banana choco crepe!

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At the Eiffel Tower, Ju’s first reaction was “Daddy mummy look! There is pigeon on Eiffel Tower!!” So, this is the bird!

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The elevator that brings people up and down the tower. Wanted to bring Ju up but the queue was way too long! 

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A snap of sky beneath Eiffel…

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A snap from the centre of underside of tower…

So many perspective of this tower… yes!

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A plane flying past “above” the moon

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Eiffel day, Eiffel night!

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Eiffel souvenir shop… Bought a toy camera for Ju…

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We were dead tired after walking around Eiffel as we lost our way trying to find food and train station. We ended up walking back to Eiffel, take a train to our hotel and had our very late dinner at a fast food restaurant.

Double decker RER train…

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Paris – Day 12

Saturday… Yeah! John’s day off! 

Will be bringing Ju for walk around city area…

Some graffiti we came across while walking to get some stuffs from Italie 2. In Singapore, these graffiti will be called as vandalism get fined for it… 

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It is very to find water points like that around the parks. It used to be water points for horses in olden days. Somehow they maintained it till today and people will come and collect water from here for drinking.

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Italie 2…

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A shop selling nature and creative stuffs.. bought some planting stuffs from here.

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Outside Italie 2, Ju running around. Weather is cool and comfortable.. seldom get to sweat here.

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Train station outside Italie 2. 

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Took a train to city…

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It is really not easy to find toilets here… not even in shopping centres. The only places we can find toilets are in restaurants and fast food restaurants. These signages will lead us to some coin operated toilet stands around but they are quite dirty. 

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Bought ice cream for ourselves in Galleries La Fayette.

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Ice cream in bread… Nice!

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Went to a rooftop terrace on Printemps shopping centre and took a few pics of the view of city.

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The open space on the rooftop terrace invited Ju to run all he want again.. hee.. He fell but did not cry.. stood up on his own.. and went to rest on a bench after that.

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Trying out a roller blade shoe… 

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Musee du Lourve… The national museum of France. Nearly 35,000 objects from the 6th century BC to the 19th century including Mona Lisa and many other famous works are exhibited.

We did not go into the museum as we had already visited it during our previous trips. So we spent our time walking around the area relaxing.

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Lots of people resting and relaxing at the water front area outside the museum. Saw lots of people soaking their feet in the water…

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Ju also gave it a go…

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So did John and I, soaking our feet in the ice cold water. It was a great free spa for our feet after walking half of the day.

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Even dogs enjoyed it!

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Can you see the row of live statues?

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The police or security guards around here roller blade around to do their patrol.

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View of the vicinity opposite the museum…

 

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Walked to Jardin des Tuileries, on our way to Champs Elysee for dinner.

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I like this… Carefree reading on the cool grass… 

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Ju on a statue with nak nak! haha!

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Ju colecting pebbles…

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Laying out the pebbles on the grass.. 

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For our family!

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Summer activities… Amusement park within the garden.

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Trampoline in the amusement park..Ju chose this over ferry’s wheel and had a great time  jumping and falling! 

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Racing car… Ju’s favourite!

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Moving on to Champs Elysee…

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Arc de Triomp…

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Dinner… PIZZA! 

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This is a bottle of olive oil with chili soaked n it. Ju say it is “gei ji” – wolfberry

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We were wondering what is Ju going to eat over here as he usually does not take pizza well.. but we got a surprise! The pizza was so nice that Ju ate 3 pieces! Cant help taking lots of photos of him enjoying it.. haha!

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This is the way to eat the egg yolk.. suck it out!

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Paris – Day 11

Friday… Brought Ju back to Cite des Enfants to fulfil his wish of going back since he did not have enough of it during the 1 and half hour the other day. 

Construction site for toddlers…

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He prefers to join the bigger kids for more challenging works.

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This time he is already familiar with the ground, went straight to dress up on his own before entering the work site…

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Using his whole body energy to push the auto gate control up.

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Ju is stuck in the crowd of kids going up and down the stairs, but I think he likes it.

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Building his own wall, higher and higher

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This is the puppet area in another corner…

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After the one and half hour session ended, we went to explore around the vicinity and found this fallen maple fruit on the ground.

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Maple tree..

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A park behind the building across the river. It was drizzling so we did not went over. 

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Went back to hotel for Ju’s dinner and waited for John to come back. We then took a train to a suburb area at Bourg-la-Reine for dinner. It was at a restaurant which john and colleagues will go to during every trip.

The building structures in the suburb looks different yet more cosy than city. 

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This is the family run French restaurant we are going to.

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The interior of the restaurant

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Escargot (Snail)… 

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John’s colleagues ordered Tournedos Rossini… Foie Gras (Duck or goose liver) with beef

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Restaurant owner serving our meals…

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John ordered dried beef… A swiss speciality that looks like ba gua or dried ham… served with smoked baguette and butter…

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Ju likes daddy’s dinner… ate 2 piece of the meat and enjoyed the bread with butter

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Mine… Confit de canard again… hee.. quite dry… still prefer the one I had at Cafe Canon…

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Going to train station…

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Bourg-la-Reine train station

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Waiting for RER train… Ju likes to take this train more because it is bigger and I guess it feels more special for him.

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Paris – Day 10

Thursday… John finished work slightly earlier and we went out to catch Paris “late night shoping”. Shopping centres here usually closes at 6.30pm everyday except for Thursdays when the closing time will be one hour later..

Ju watching and imitating the traffic police at work..

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Summer along Seine river.. Paris Plages (Paris Beach) is a yearly free summer event which turns the Seine’s urban riverbanks into sandy shores complete with palm trees and lounge chairs. It includes a pool area and activities for children, a business section with Wi-Fi and newspapers for sale, and nighttime concerts. Being here sets us into a mood of vacation. 

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A water dispenser where people come and fill up their bottles for drinking or washing..

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The artificial beachfront…

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Ju also want to play but we did not bring extra clothes for changing.. He was disappointed..

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Along our way to BHV Department Store… saw this lady sitting among a huge flock of pigeons..

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Outside Centre Pompidou… 

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Oh yes… Pigeons again! Haha! Looks like its more susceptible to get bird flu than H1N1 here.. We seldom see kids running after birds like Ju here.. Maybe only Singaporean tourist do that.. haha!

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Le Centre Pompidou… One of the most spectacular buildings in Paris.It has an easily accessible public library, art exhibitions and a French National Museum of Modern Art.

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Dinner at Flunch, a French food fast food chain. 

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9pm after dinner, on our way to Metro train station…

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A poster display in the metro stations where will stop by and say ” So many underwears. I also wear underwear!” 

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It is very common to see people boarding the train and start playing music… 

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After that asking for contributions…

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Paris – Day 9

Wednesday… Stay in hotel…

Ju watching chamber maid cleaning the room..

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Rolling himself on the cool bed…

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This snap was caught while Ju was taking his nap in the playpen. Wonder what was in his dreams.. haha!

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Eating tiny strawberries from France…

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Dinner at a French restaurant nearby… Me ordered my usual Confit de canard… John ordered this Chicken breast satay.. Nice!

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Ju ate the baguette provided while we are having our dinner… He dug out all the soft part and left the “skin” in the basket

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Paris – Day 8

Tuesday… Yeah! Today I am going to bring Ju out alone to Cite Des Enfants… Kids Science Centre… It is meant for kids between 2 to 7 years old. The challenge is in taking train and asking for directions within the science centre… but I did it! haha! So proud of myself lah! The train stations here are not children friendly at all. Majority of the stations have lots of stairs, no escalators or lifts to take. Even going through the entrance gantry is a challenge with a child and stroller. I wonder how does people on wheelchair move around.

Arrival at Cite Des Enfants…

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Queueing for tickets… thank God the ticketing staffs can converse in English. She said the next session starts at 2.40pm which means I have an hour to wait. I did some homework before coming so I knew the ticket consist of a 3D show which we went to watch at the end of the day and Ju broke his 3D spectacles, so embarrassed when I returned the staff the broken pieces. I guessed broken specs should be something common among kids because he gave me a smile and said something in French which I did not understand… hee

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We went for lunch at a cafe while waiting. The menu was all in French. Staffs cannot understand English. I ordered a dish called “poulet roti, frites”. I thought it is chicken burger but turned out to be my favourite fried chicken with fries… Heng!

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Yeah time for play! The lady was speaking french and kids were sitting in groups like that around…Ju also sat together with them… I realised later that they are actually groups of school kids on excursion… Oops!

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Entrance to the play area! Wow! Everything were low at kids level and the kids just knew waht to do once they stepped in! All the kids went “crazy” when they were inside.. haha! I love this place too… If Singapore has something like this…

Instructions for parents…

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Senses section…

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Law of gravity…

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Phonics…

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Mazes… Recently Ju likes to do mazes on papers alot. This is a chance for him to be the mouse looking for cheese.. haha! Before entering the mze, he said “Hmm.. I can smell the cheese!” and went in…

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Water play!

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Fishing for coloured chips

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Construction site… Ju loved this corner! Unfortunately he did not get much time to play here… only stayed there for about 10mins then a staff came and announced session ended… Think we will go back this weekend again to finish up the remaining sections which we missed…

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There is a crane for kids to operate… Foam bricks for kids to build and play with…

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Everyone busy at work!

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End of work!

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Paris – Day 7

Monday… It has been a week here and I had not ventured to bring Ju out by train on my own… Today continue to stay in hotel to rest. Physically tired from Sat and Sun outings…

Brought Ju out to buy pastry for breakfast… sugar doughnut…

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Evening when John finished work, we went with his colleagues for dinner at the chinese roast duck restaurant for dinner. Along the way, we past by a shop selling all sorts of frozen food and bought a box of frozen mango to share among everybody… The mango is not very sweet but nonetheless still nice… Ju finished one full stick all by himself!

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After dinner we went to a supermarket at chinatown to shop… Ju sat in his stroller quietly drawing and we saw 2 full pages of circles… Ju proudly announced “See daddy mummy! I can draw circles!”

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Back in hotel… Ju playing with his lego and created a few things… So cute! Got car, house and a garden… This is the first time he build a car with his lego!

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And he played with it along my laptop cable… and he called it…. Cable Car!

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Paris – Day 6

Sunday… Breakfast was a strawberry tart we bought yesterday.. Even though left overnight, abit soft but still tasty.IMG_8785

After that we attended a french mass at Church of St Anne which was situated across the road a short walk from our hotel..

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The interior of the church

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After mass, we walked around in the church and Ju said he wanted to light candles for God, Joshua Kor Kor and baby Jude…

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After the 3 candles, Ju can’t get enough of the lighting of candles… So, we ended it off with one tall candle for everyone we know…

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Mailbox in Paris…

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The bakery opposite the church where we bought all the nice pastries from…

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Look at the variety… can we ever resist this?

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Bought something from the bakery… this is the way they pack it for taking away… look like our nasi lemak

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Walk back to our hotel… Ibis hotel… 2 stars hotel. John brought clothes out for self service laundry washing while Ju and I nap in hotel. Poor John stayed in the laundry shop for a good 2 and a half hours!

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When John came back from laundry, we made our way to a place which we liked and had visited during our last trip… Bercy village… The atmosphere is different from other city areas in Paris… Feel like Chijmes in Singapore. Unique shops are gathered there with French and English restaurants. There is also a park outside the shops and restaurant area named Parc de Bercy.

We headed to the park first…

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A wide pond with ducks and ducklings waddling… boundless… kids running around… Ju loved the free space all around and the wooden bridge across the pond… Its really scary to see him run so fast sometimes… I was tired chasing after him and keeping track of him to and fro the river, along the pond…so John took over to look after this energetic boy.. But indeed Ju was really happy running around, if only I can be like him…

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Duckies…

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Duckie houses…

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Summer flowers… My favourite white daisy…

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A walk through the park… Ju balancing himself on the line and collecting fallen tree barks… Kids are so amzing, they see things that we don’t usually take note of…

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Resting on the cool grass like the people around us… hee

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Bercy Village…

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Busy Sunday…

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Dinner at a french restaurant… Forgot to take photos earlier so these pics show our food half eaten.. hee

John ordered Confit de canard (Preserved duck)… The pile of something under the duck drumstick is our salted vege (Giam Cai)

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And mine… BBQ pork ribs…

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Dessert… Nutella banana crepe

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