Backpacking Paris II - romantic?

My 2nd and final post about Paris. This shows how much (little?) I liked Paris. :p

It had always been a dream, visiting Paris. The well-knowned-to-be romantic city. Photos, movies, magazines, novels. Romantic stuff happened only in Paris. Even the air is filled with romance. Or at least that was how I've been brainwashed since young.

Visiting it has only proved that it was all only a myth. Yes, a myth.

No doubt, the architectures were beautiful. The art galleries had been amusing in all ways. Met Da Vincci's Monalisa too. Smaller than expected. And I guess the staffs were so sick of people asking where Monalisa was, arrows showing the way to her was ALL AROUND the Louvre. haha. The pastries were fantastic. Of course, never forgetting to promote my daily servings of toasted (grilled? waffled?) paninis, too. *yummy!* hehe.

oh. Moulin Rouge and the sex shops were fun too (if you don't compare it to Amsterdam, of course). BUT.... (There's always a but)

It might have stayed a beautiful fairy tale for most of the tourists who were there on tour. Staying in lavish 5 star hotels, chauffeured around, dining at the high end resarurants, they would never find out the ugly facts of Paris. Never knowing how muddy the road was when walking to Chateau de Versaille. Or how dirty the neighbourhood was at Mont Matre. Or how strange-smellng the undergrounds were. Or how unfriendly and rude the ticketing lady was at the bus stations. Oh and how scary the 'hand tying' people were at Sacre Coeur, too. I assume they know more languages than anyone else in the world, changing from Japanese to Korean to Chinese when seeing aseans like us.

And so, there goes my 'romantic' Paris. Down into the drain. BUT, of course, if you haven't been there before, by all means, GO! Just have your eye sticked to all the beautiful and tasty stuff, and Paris can still be beautiful afterall. In a way, romantic too. Maybe. :)

For me? I still want to go there again. To seek out the romantic bits of Paris.