Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Strolling on the Banks of River Siene

28th May 2014

Arriving so early naturally would deny you entry to your room at the hotel. Leaving our bags at the concierge we decided to start a walking tour of Paris.

Chatelet Les Halles was once a market district in downtown Paris not too far away from many of the tourist districts of Paris. The area is now undergoing reconstruction into a modern urban transportation centre with its train station being one of the main ones connecting to the airport and the many other Metro lines of Paris. I can picture this place  one day becoming like Kuala Lumpur's main transport hub of KLSentral with malls, hotels and offices surrounding the station. As it is now there is already a modern shopping mall atop the train station. Construction of the whole project appears to be slow ( stalled??) perhaps due to the economic downturn affecting Europe now.

Just behind the Novotel Les Halles where we were booked to stay is this lovely square this stucture below occupying its centre. As it was still early in the morning ( about 9 am) there were not many people at this square. 




Walking two or three blocks away from the square we found ourselves to be by the banks of the Siene River. It was a cloudy morning with the temperature being in the low teens.  We strolled along the bank of the Siene taking in the beautiful scenery and the lovely buildings along the river. Occasionally cruise boats taking tourists on a boat tour of Paris along the Siene passed by. These boats were not even hall-full - either it was still too early in the day that the tourists have not come out yet or the current global economic slow-down had affected tourist arrivals into this lovely city.










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