fête du cinema

France has the festival of cinema
Once a year
Its the 4 days
Where you can watch any movies in the cinemas
For euro3.50 instead of the usual price of euro11
the festival starts on sunday to wednesday
And new movies are released on wednesdays
So it is a good chance to catch up on movies!

They should have such festival in singapore
With the always increasing ticket price
But I guess with the amount of singaporeans
Going to cinema each week
The cinemas need not have this festival
To attract people to the cinemas

Anyway we spent the whole sunday 
Watching 4 movies!
Coincidentally, 3 out of 4 movies are sci-fi
The husband's fave genre
We started at 950am
And ended at 10pm

We watched zero theorem,
Edge of tomorrow,
A million ways to die in the west
And x men!

Similar to singapore,
The food and drinks are so expensive in cinemas
That we smuggled snacks in,
Had lunch outside 
And buy stuff at the supermarket nearby..
Eg a bottle of cold coke is euro1.95 outside
But at cinema's counter it costs euro3.30
At the cinema's vending machine, it's euro3.30!
But we did bought a popcorn
Cant have a movie day without popcorn!

We were expecting different advertisments 
Before each movies
But they were the same!
Imagine watching 4x....
@,@

Is a little sad that 
the french movies have no subtitles
I do hope by next year 
We will be able to go for french movies!

Gay Pride 2014

Since a few years,
I had been attending the SG Pink dot event
to support LGBT movement in Singapore.
However, with my shift to paris, i wont be able to attend the event.

So, this year, we decided to attend the gay pride!
Unlike in Sg, the gay pride is a big event walk through paris
and a crazy party!

Despite the rain
the atmosphere was still fun and loud
A drastic difference from pink dot
which feels like a peaceful picnic and catch up with friends session

I am amazed at the openness to walk in the main street,
strong messages shouted by the groups
or signboards held by people
or the elaborated customes and dress up
nevertheless, the amount of alcohol and possible drugs happening
husband and i had fun following the crowd
and party along with the loud music..
we do look forward to the next year gaypride!

sadly, the atmosphere seems worse in SG
with some christians and muslims parties supporting the opposite
well for me, 
Everyone has the right to love and be loved...

whats cooking?

Coca cola ribs
Tastes sinfully good
The cola managed to tenderise and glaze the ribs
But re-did same recipe with chicken 
and it didnt worked :(
Maybe I should had use cola chicken recipe

Fake nasi lemak
Rice with coconut milk and ginger
But no pandan leaves here
Fried chicken that disappoint me
But husband love it
Curry vegetables
Cant believe I miss the sambal chilli
To go along with this...

Beef wellington
This idea to taste it since
I watch gorden ramsey's hell kitchen
I was constantly thinking
How it will taste
And husband surprised me
By deciding to try make it
It was probably the most difficult dish
We tried to make at home
From making pastry
To chopped mushroom
To wrapping
To baking
More than 3hours to complete it

In the end,
I think our pastry were too thick
That the meat ended up undercook
But presentation and taste were perfect
And it taste better when we reheat it
For dinner the next day
We are toying with the idea to make it
For the family on Christmas..

fête de la musique (festival of music)

Annually on the longest day of the year
With sunrise at abt 530am 
and the sun sets abt 1030pm
Which is the offical day 1 of summer
There is fête de la musique in france

Basically streets are available for musicians,
Bands, choirs...
To perform for the public for free
I guess for some good locations or stage,
They have to reserve or be invited

Nevertheless,
Its a great idea to bring music to the public!
We are lucky that this year,
It happens on a saturday!
Although we didnt venture to central of paris
For the big concerts and parties
It was nice to walk around near home
Watching a concert
Choir in a garden
Dj spinning in another garden
Some bands playing along the walkway
Some bands inside bar

We wanted to spend only 3hours out
But ended up having a drink
And stay out till 12am
And there were still many bands etc going on
I think metro was free or extending hours

My first fête de la musique!

Ethiopian food

Paris is similar to singapore
In the sense that you can find food 
of various cultures 
From chinese to thai
To kebab to indian
To japanese etcs

However, is the first time
I heard of Ethiopian resturant
I am unsure whether sg has it
So husband decide I should try it

It was a relative small restaurant
That people around us were speaking english
I guess is a little touristy
We ordered 4 assortment dishes for 2
At about €18 each

The food was served in a big metal plate
Husband say more people = bigger plate
And we are to eat with our hands
With sourdough crepes

Coming from sg
I was comfortable with eating with hands
But I can expect tourists to feel weird
Anyway we had various meats 
Cooked in spices and sauces
I think it taste like fusion of 
malay and indian food
Curry and rendang not spicy
But with more spices

Overall,
I enjoyed the meal
And kinda helped me not to miss sg food!

friends from singapore

I was looking forward to meet joyce & husband
Never expect a chance to hang out in paris!
They are only here for 3 days
So I was happy to be squeezed
Into their plans!

They arrived on sunday
With stuff from singapore for me!
Thank you for shopping for me!
Husband and I went pick them from hotel
And we head to notre dame!

Is the first time
I see so many tourists at notre dame
Maybw because of summer holiday
And was a sunday
We visited notre dame
And took a long way
To find a cafe that wasnt full!
Ended up in marais
And a small cafe
For some fois gras and cheese
Thereafter a long wait to chatelet
Before they went back for a needed rest

Never expected a long walk
With their jetlag
But hope they seen a new side of paris
And I truly enjoyed the singlish
And ongoing conversation

The day before they returned from swiss
There was a strike in paris
Although their train was affected
We are glad to have helped them
Find another train to paris
It must be scary for tourists
To experienced the strike
Which happens few time per year
Im lucky not to have experienced it

Sadly, they had to buy a new train ticket
And unable to get refund from the station
I think if we spoke french
We could have done it
Times I wished that I spoke fluent french

On thursday, I picked them from the station
And we heard to val d'europe
Which is a station from disneyland
We had lunch at macdonalds
And spent time shopping at the big mall
And the outlets village!

Is the first time I visited
Despite many people told me
About factory outlets in paris..
I think is similar to the one in jb
All brands has about 20-40% sale
Still too expensive for me
But we bought a small long champ
At euro30

Thereafter,
We decide a simple dinner
So we went shopping at supermarket
To get stuff for a simple dinner
And more chatting
In their room

And it was time to say goodbye
Im gonna miss having friends here..
People, come visit me soon!!

KFC

I knew there was kfc
But seems silly to take the metro
Just for fried chicken
And previously in barcelona,
Aven & I saw that kfc only sells chicken tenders
Not the usual chicken pieces
So I wasnt keen

Anyway that day we were near kfc
And decided to tabo some home
Husband cant remember the last time he ate kfc
When we went in, there was a big crowds
Quite chaotic
The menu ranged from burgers to fried chicken 
Fried chicken comes in original and zinger 
Choice of chicken tenders, pieces and hot wings!
Yay to chicken pieces with bones!

Since everyone was buying in buckets
We bought a bucket home
4 chicken pieces (zinger) and 10 hot wings
With ketchup and mayonnaise provided
Is costs euro16++, not cheap..

In the end,
It was finger licking good.. Hehe
The hot wings were more spicy
And the chicken pieces were less spicy than sg
Husband and I truly enjoy the sinful meal
But we make sure no kfc for a while

I am happy with fried chicken
But seems too difficult to order
When I dont speak french..

Ps next day, we suffered the consequences
In the toilet (poo poo)
Due to too much oil and spiciness
Haha

The Bouillon Chartier

After our chocolate museum
We were to the nearby famous covered walkway
Apparently there are a few in paris
Basically a short walkway
With glass roof
And shops along the way
Mainly old book stores

And husband decided to bring me 
to an old old old brasserie
Which I assume a brewery
But was surprised to see a nice cafe!

It is known for cheap food
Eg eggs mayo at €2.80
Fast service, or rather finish your food fast
Sharing table with strangees,
Bill written on the table cloth..

Lucky for us,
We arrived at about 3.30pm
No lunch crowd
And got our own table

We ordered egg mayo and shrimp mayo
But looks like mayo is the main
While egg and shrimp were side
An a beef stew with macaroni
Which I forgot to take photo of it

Nice decor and food
But I can imagine how noisy and uncomfortable
It will be when crowded!

Ps I googled and the place is opened since 1896!

chocolate museum visit

We were considering to visit the science centre
Or the chocolate museum
In the end, we decide a short day out
And went to the chocolate museum

I was happy to be treated with free chocolates
For tasting at the entrance
That we walked a few times back
To grab more chocolates!
I think we were not supposed to do so
But it was relatively empty
That no one cared

However, halfway in our tour
Many tourists group came in
And the place was packed!
I was happy that explanation was in english
And easy to read
It was about history, making 
And making of chocolates in the world
With display of models, videos and materials

We went for the demostration workshop
Which was about 15 mins
On the making of chocolates
Conducted in english & french
The kitchen smell fabulous!
And more tasting of chocolates!

As the musesum was quite packed
And husband was getting bored
We went to collected our hot chocolates!

We paid extra €3 for each hot chocolate
I was a little disappointed 
There was no little cafe
Or sitting area
It was more the shop area to drink them
And it was just a machine disperse hot milk
With a chocolate spoon stirer

But the flavours were interesting
We chose the spicy hot chocolate (mayan)
And spices hot chocolate (spanish)
Glad to be a couple that we can share
And I end up prefering husband's spanish choice

We did shop a littpe
But I managed to persuade the husband
Not to buy any chocolate
A little expensive for my pocket
But overall,
A good place to spend an afternoon!