Europe Trip - Day 4 (14-Sept-2012)

Day 4: Paris and Brussels

A Sinful, freshly baked breakfast !

After our experience with yummy croissants and raisin roll from the boulangerie next door, we decided to skip the expensive breakfast at the hotel today. Also it was meant to be a relaxed travel day and I was hoping for some rest to my sore ankle.  We got a variety of croissants, buns and also 1 large macaroon ( chocolate flavor ) which I had heard was a Paris specialty. We ordered coffee from the hotel and finished the very sinful breakfast.  As we missed requesting the hotel in advance for a late checkout, they couldn't accommodate it and we had to checkout by 12 and store our luggage in a safe place. We decided to pack, leave our luggage with them and explore Champs Elysees. I wanted to see the Louis Vuitton store as I had heard so much about it. I had also heard that there are long queues to enter the store! We had a brief photo stop at the Arc de triomphe ( to capture it in the daylight ) and proceeded down the Champs Elysees.  It was a delight to recognize many brands as we walked past. My first stop was the Swatch showroom. It was a huge store with a huge collection but I was keen on buying myself a white watch. Though I spotted it here, I thought of buying it from Switzerland, so we left the store. This was a mistake as I never found such a big Swatch store in Swiss L

Arc de Triomph 

The multi-storeyed Louis Vuitton store

Very soon we spotted the flagship Louis Vuitton store! And I was overwhelmed by the size and a bit hesitant to enter. Hubby had his famous dialogue ready – You don’t have to pay to See, its free!”  So we went in and looked around a bit (especially the price tags!! ) for general knowledge ! We missed seeing the top floor with the designer ceiling.

We then had a quick look at the Mercedes showroom which had interesting collectibles, small models, USB sticks etc.

The Mc Donald's store was very tempting to grab a bite, but it was heavily crowded, so we took the metro back. As it was the last day in Paris, we decided to have Crepes one more time and headed towards the crepes stalls around Eiffel. We decided to try the cheese crepe which was a bad idea as the lady stuffed a whole load of grated cheese onto the crepe and nothing else !! We couldn’t finish it L. Thankfully we also ordered the regular Banana nutella crepe, so that offset the heavy cheese taste.

 We called a taxi to the Paris Nord station as I didn't want to lug the baggage across metros and stairs at the stations. I was really having a bad ankle by then. The taxi arrived promptly and took us to the station in about 20-30 mins. There was a huge mechanical display board ( I found that very fascinating ) but we had to wait for a long time for it to display the platform for our train to Brussels. Quite a huge crowd gathered over time and I got nervous trying to be cautious of our luggage !

Display board at Paris Nord station

Finally the platform was displayed and we rushed to the train- the high speed rail Thalys. This was our first train in Europe and I was pretty excited as I had heard so much about the efficient European trains. Not to mention the scenic countryside views as you traveled  We quickly settled down on our reserved seats ( All train tickets had been booked on raileurope.co.in ) and also placed our luggage on the racks near the entrance. The seats looked so comfortable, I couldn't believe it was 2^nd class. Hubby wanted to catch up on  updating the trip journal while I wanted to catch up on sleep ! But the train whizzed past and we were nearing Brussels in a little over an hour.  At times the train sped so fast that we had our ears popping. I later read that the train can reach peak speeds of 300 kmph. Wow! We were wishing that we could travel Bangalore-Chennai in an hour like this. There were no border checks on the train, just the ticket checking. We were to stay at Brussels with my friend’s family for the next 3-4 days. As planned, my friend’s husband was waiting for us at the train station.  After relaxing a bit, we headed out to see the Grand Palace and Manneken Pis.

One of the various waffle stores

And it was a rainy evening once again on this trip! Also we had left the umbrellas in the car, so we hoped that it wouldn't be a big downpour. We stopped over on the way to the palace for the quintessential Belgian waffle. Samples of all the flavours were on display and we were spoilt for a choice. Finally I chose a waffle with strawberry and chocolate topping and hubby chose strawberry, chocolate and cream. We received the waffles but it didn't have any cream. When we pointed it out, the store person very generously painted the whole waffle with cream ! He even offered to do it for the other one ! We decided to share this serving of cream itself. Needless to say, the waffles took us to a new height of pleasure, surpassing the crepes at Paris ! It was hot, soft, slightly crispy and had very fresh strawberries.  

Fresh Waffles 

Grand Palace square

Manneken Pis

With renewed vigour we took some pictures around the Grand palace square and walked in search of Manneken Pis.

After some search on Google  we found our way to the little statue. But not before we passed through a narrow street lined with chocolate stores, with most of them displaying several miniatures of Maneken Pis. Only after we saw the statue, we realized that some of the miniature chocolate models were larger than the statue itself, which was a small one on the corner of the street! Maneken Pis literally means Little Man Pee in Marols, a Dutch dialect spoken in Brussels (also known in French as le Petit Julien). Apparently he has over 700 costumes which are on display at the Grand palace. There is a board displaying his dressing schedule for the month. At that time, he didn’t have any costume on.

Costumes schedule

From Wikipedia – “The costumes are managed by the non-profit association The Friends of Manneken-Pis, who review hundreds of designs submitted each year, and select a small number to be produced and used.” Wow!!

One of the various chocolate models of Manneken Pis

There are several legends behind the statue. One of it is that of a little boy who put out a fire by urinating on it and thus saving the city from burning down. Another is that a wealthy merchant’s son went missing and he was later found urinating in a garden. The wealthy man got the statue and fountain built as a mark of gratitude for the locals who searched for his son.

Our next stop was for souvenirs. We picked up some magnets and a miniature model of the little boy for our collection. Our friends decided to treat us to some lovely Indian food at a nearby restaurant which was a perfect end to the day!