Jardin des Tuileries

Oh my, I accidentally left this post out. Jardin des Tuileries is a garden adjoining the Louvre Museum. We were there on our first day in Paris.

The Tuileries Garden covers about 63 acres and is originally designed by landscape architect Andre Le Notre in 1664.

The building behind this garden is the Tuileries Palace which was built by Catherine de' Medicis, the widow of Henry II of France begining in 1564. Note that I said BEGINNING. Buildings in France never really get completed. It's a bit like Nee's kitchen. They keep expanding.

From this view, you could actually see the Eye of Paris in the background looking back at you.

Daylight is long during summer in Paris. This was now around 7pm but the sky was still blue.

This natural disorder of time was definitely a good thing for Malaysian tourists like us. It meant that we could squeeze as much as we could out of one day, as museums & other places tend to stay open late till about 10pm.

But it wasn't as good for people who wanted to pak toh (dating/ make out) at night cos the night just didn't seem to be coming.




I don't know why certain statues come with poses like this. Maybe it's something to do with what he sat on.

This one looked like a typical Malaysian who would always be under some kind of protective shade away from the sun & can only survive in air-conditioned malls.

These were defintiely NOT Malaysians. Uh-Uh.

If Malaysians were to sit out in the sun, people would just call them crazy. Cos the only time you'd be under the sun if when you're a labourer, or a supervisor, or an engineer working at a construction site.

The garden actually ended at this fountain, which was followed by the Place de la Concorde, which was one of the major squares in Paris.

Built in 1755, this square was THE place for chopping people's head off. And those weren't any ordinary heads. King Louis XVI lost his here. Queen Marie Antoinette also lost hers.


It's strange that whenever you have a public square in Paris, it's bound to end up as a place for chopping heads.

But thankfully, in place of the guillotine now stands an obelisk (a gift from the Egyptian government) at the centre of the whole square.

The obelisk is 3,300 years old, & it arrived in Paris in 1833. Ever since then, it has been subjected to all types of abuses. It's original cap was stolen in the 6th Century BC. A giant pink condom was rolled over the monument by the French AIDS society in 1992. And Alain Spiderman Robert climbed to the top with his bare hands in 2000.


The building on the left is the American Embassy (OOOOOOH) while the one on the right is the Hotel de Crillon, where Marie Antoinette once spent afternoons there relaxing & taking piano lessons (AAAAAAAHHH).

All this, starting from the Louvre Palace, to the Museum, to the Tuilleries, stretches onwards till it hits the Champs-Élysées & the Arc de Triomphe. But this was also the point where we started heading back to our hotel. Otherwise, we'd be walking till the next morning.