Our 1st Speeding Ticket

It came as a surprise that I will be the 1st to get a speeding fine, given that I'm usually such a law abiding road user. Unfortunately, the French doesn't agree on this and gave me a ticket for driving at 57km/h with a 50km/h limit. What is more frustrating is that there are constant changes on the speed limit along the road, and there are long stretches that they don't even bother putting signs on. With such a strict governance on the speed limit, I would expect better conditions and clearer road signs for users, but I can't help feeling that all is a conspiracy theory to get some fund raising for other social benefits. It states in the letter that the fine by law is 135 Euros, but oh...there is an early bird discount if I pay within 15 days from the letter, amounting to just 90 Euros...yippee.But if I do not pay or contest after 45 days, the fine becomes 375 Euros... brilliant, and they work so fast to answer requests in a month or 2. 

Coming from orderly Singapore, the roads in France is simply annoying. Even the roads leading to my kampong in Malaysia are in a better state than some of the roads here. Here, there are ridiculous road mergers, like merging into a fast lane on the autoroute. Missing road markings on 2 way streets, no marking on 1 way streets. Crooked no entry signs that you can't even make out which route it is referring to. 2 islands on a round about, so am I supposed to make an Eight? And they fined me for exceeding the limit by 7km/h on a road with ridiculous filter lanes!

And so I paid my fine on-line using my credit card, it is the most efficient system that I've experienced so far. The system has no other functions except to pay fines, that explains why it is so efficient, with clear English on every page explaining what to do. There are 2 options, option 1: Pay 90 Euro in full now; or option 2: Pay a deposit of the full fine, which is 135 Euro if you want to contest. I guess I don't have much choice given the faith I have in their administration.

The Thinker & The Shaman

It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning in summer, what else to do except to loiter around Paris?

Alrighty...we have ran out of ideas to take the Eiffel with.

We were supposed to visit the architecture museum at Trocedero, but was informed that the museum will be closed for a period of 2 weeks. There were no notices on their website, just at the entrance... brilliant. And so, this is all we did with the museum.

Les Invalides certainly shine under the summer sky

Les Invalides is not within the list of museums participating in Free Sundays, so we opted for some museum hopping in the region instead. We started off with Musée Rodin located just round the corner of Les Invalides.

The iconic Thinker

The Thinker and The Stoner

The Gate of Hell

I was in an adventurous mood that day, I didn't know what got into me to want to try tartare de bœuf. I remembered that I did have a good impressive of raw minced beef on toast as an entrée. When the waitress pressurized us for our order, I found my brain hovering around tartare...and before I knew it, I blurted tartare de bœuf. When I saw the dish, it was like a big can of raw minced beef topped with a raw egg yolk, with 4 types of condiments (onions, pepper, mustard and pickles) at the side. This was the Fear Factor moment for me, I felt that everyone around was waiting for me to "embrace" the dish.

I would say that it is not as bad as it looks, just that perhaps there are too much raw beef in one dish and kinda makes one sick of finishing the whole dish. This is the time when I really appreciate the Student, the "rubbish bin" who can eat anything...:)

Musée du Quai Branly is of course along Quai Branly, along the Seine River. This is the place whereby there is a fancy restaurant at the terrace for some great views of the Eiffel Tower. The museum displays collections from Asian, African, American and Oceania civilisations. A little eerie to visit on a wet and rainy day with the spiritual and religious displays I think.

A Mid Summer Night at Chateau de Versailles

As per tradition, there are countless activities in France in summer. Château de Versailles has their fountain night show every Saturday night during summer (with some exceptional dates). The night show starts from 9 to 11.20pm, and there is a combined ticket price to watch the "Royal Serenade'' at the hall of mirrors. We have 2 hours to visit the fountains before the fireworks at 11pm. Beautiful display of fireworks with orchestra music in the background, fountain display from Apollo's basin and fire torches on the green belt. A grand experience fit for a King indeed.

Practical information for the night show after the jump break...

The Orangery before sunset at 8.30pm

2 idiots waiting for the groves to open... 

This is the best place to view the fireworks - top of the staircase leading to the Latona Fountain

This is the crowd on a mid summer night Saturday! Everyone's crowding around the entrance to the groves.

The show begins at 9pm sharp!

Circuit B consist of fountains like that, with music and water flowing...(the map has got 2 circuits, A & B for the night show)

The night is still young, 9.30pm under the blue sky.

If we were to do this again, we'll just grab our wine and cheese and sit at Latano fountain to enjoy this show which is ongoing for the entire night.

Water display at Apollo's basin

This is along circuit A, a sculpture of Pluto snatching Proserpine and carrying her up to the sky.

This is an entertaining piece along circuit A, water display with music.

The King's garden.

Finale fireworks for 15 mins.