Trip to Europe

In February, Joanne and I went to Europe! We went to Paris, Nice, Florence, and Milan.

Night Duomo — FIGURE 1 The quintessential view of the *Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore*, my favourite photo of the trip.

1 Friday, 2023-02-10: arrival in Paris

Upon arriving at Orly airport, we checked into the Victoria Palace Hotel.

Hotel view — FIGURE 2 View from the hotel balcony.

FIGURE 3 The bustling *Rue de Rennes* in the evening.

Brasserie L'Horizon — FIGURE 4 The *Brasserie L’Horizon* lit up at night was quite nice.

Then we had dinner at L’Escargot Montorgueil. The food was alright.

2 Saturday, 2023-02-11

We went on a walk and then to the Louvre!

2.1 The morning walk

The Felix-Potin building — FIGURE 5 Right outside our hotel is the Felix-Potin building which looks quite cool. The *Tour Montparnasse* is in the background.

The Orsay — FIGURE 7 The main entrance and ticket booth of the *Musée d’Orsay*. We would be going inside the museum several days later, but not now!

2.2 The Louvre

In general, I don’t take pictures of artworks because:

it is better to just admire the masterpieces in person without worrying about taking photos,
they are often blocked by other people, and
extraordinarily high resolution scans are available on, for example, the Google Art Project.

The Mona Lisa room — FIGURE 8 Well here is the obligatory picture of the Mona Lisa.

FIGURE 9 View of the pyramid under very terrible lighting conditions.

Statues room — FIGURE 10 The room of statues is really nice.

After that, we had dinner at the Michelin-starred Accents Table Bourse!

3 Sunday, 2023-02-12

We originally planned to go to the Musée d’Orsay on this day but it was closed for some reason. Don’t worry, our tickets were refunded. Instead, we ended up walking around Le Marais.

Cafe Blanchet — FIGURE 11 The very floral *Café Blanchet*.

FIGURE 12 A Fiat 500 on display outside the trendy design boutique *Merci*.

4 Monday, 2023-02-13

4.1 Montmartre

In the morning we went to Montmartre. We took the funicular rail thing up and then walked down. We didn’t go inside the Basilica Sacre Coeur but it looked quite nice outside.

Vigipirate Land Rover — FIGURE 15 The Vigipirates help keep the tourist attractions safe. This Land Rover was parked next to the *Sacre Coeur*.

View from the hill — FIGURE 16 From the hill it was evident that the air quality was not too great.

4.2 Sightseeing in the city

For lunch we went to the Michelin-starred Restaurant Auguste. I thought it was very delicious but Joanne was a bit sick and couldn’t taste anything.

The Orsay from across the Seine — FIGURE 18 The Orsay again, but viewed from across the Seine. It used to be a train station.

FIGURE 19 The Eiffel Tower is but a pale silhouette due to the air quality.

FIGURE 20 The *Arc de Triomphe* was partially occluded by all the *bagnoles* rolling around the city.

In the evening I took a boat ride on the Seine.

Passy metro — FIGURE 21 There were many sights to be seen on the boat ride but this shot of the Métro heading towards Passy station was my favourite.

For dinner we went to the Michelin-starred Jacques Faussat.

5 Tuesday, 2023-02-14: travelling to Nice

We took a TGV to Nice, and then checked into Le Riviera Collection hotel which is relatively cheap.

5.1 The train ride

FIGURE 23 Some houses during the train ride. I wonder how much power those solar panels can generate? Pretty interesting to see a *rhumerie* there too. I wonder if their rum is any good.

View from the train — FIGURE 24 View of a highway viaduct and some distant mountains.

5.2 Walking to the beach

Nice-Ville Gare — FIGURE 25 The Nice-Ville station looks really cool. It’s really old or something.

A building in Nice — FIGURE 26 The pedestrian streets are very lively and pleasant.

An entertainer at the Opera — FIGURE 27 An entertainer across from the *Theatre de l’Opera*.

Quai des etats-unis — FIGURE 28 The *Quai des États-Unis*.

We looked at the sunset (not pictured) which was very nice.

5.3 Old Nice

FIGURE 30 The *Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice*.

For dinner we had some really delicious Peruvian food at Yose.

6 Wednesday, 2023-02-15: a Nice hill

On this day we went to the Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas de Nice and then climbed the hill, the Colline du Château.

FIGURE 34 We explored Old Nice further because it is just so nice.

6.1 Travelling to Florence

We took the train to Florence. Well, we’ve got to maximize usage of the EU Rail Pass, right? But there was no direct high speed rail so we had to take several slow trains before gtting on the Frecciarossa.

14:50 TER86057 departs Nice-Ville
15:42 TER86057 arrives at Ventimiglia
15:57 RV3375 departs Ventimiglia
18:17 RV3375 arrives at Genova Piazza Principe
18:35 FA8591 departs Genova Piazza Principe
21:29 FA8591 arrives at Firenze Campo Marte

En Voyage — FIGURE 35 I didn’t take this train but it looks very cool.

At night we checked into the Casa Howard Firenze - Residenza d’Epoca.

7 Thursday, 2023-02-16: Florence

In the morning we walked around the city, checked out the Duomo, ate some steak, and did some shopping. Too bad it was overcast so it didn’t make for any good photos.

In the afternoon we went to the Uffizi museum. I had never known there were so many ways to paint baby Jesus and it was really eye opening.

Bazaar — FIGURE 39 Renaissance-era structures are now used to sell cheap trinkets to tourists.

In the evening we climbed the dome of the cathedral. It was quite a workout but the view was amazing.

8 Friday, 2023-02-17

FIGURE 41 The *Ponte Vecchio* on a misty morning.

River arno bank — FIGURE 42 Some houses along the River Arno.

We climbed up the bell tower, the Campanile di Giotto! In my opinion, a better view than from the dome.

FIGURE 43 The *Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze* as seen from the bell tower.

8.1 The Piazzale Michelangelo

Dusk Duomo — FIGURE 45 The quintessential view of the *Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore*.

Right after taking those pictures I dropped my NISI Natural Night filter on the ground and it smashed into millions of pieces. Oh well.

For dinner we had a delicious Florentine Bistecca at L’Ortone.

9 Saturday, 2023-02-18: travelling to Milan

On this day we travelled from Florence to Milan by train. Unfortunately we were sick so we just slept once we got there.

FIGURE 47 The *Milano Centrale* train station is very beautiful but due to being sick I couldn’t take a photo with my real camera.

10 Sunday, 2023-02-19: Milan sightseeing

Galleria Vitorrio Emanuele II — FIGURE 48 Entrance of the *Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II*.

FIGURE 49 Obligatory *Duomo di Milano*. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go inside, and it was rather overcast anyway.

Arco della Pace — FIGURE 51 Acro della Pace. Somewhat smaller than the *Arc de Triomphe* but less crowded and fewer cars.

FIGURE 52 The *Bosco Verticale*. Look closely and you’ll see some cherry blossoms but it is rather barren otherwise due to the time of year.

11 Monday, 2023-02-20: Back to Paris

First we bought some Chinese food. Who knew there was so much delicious Chinese food in Milan?

FIGURE 55 Here is the TGV Sud-Est that we took back to Paris. A little dilapidated but still very fast.

Then we checked into the Hotel Parisianer which is very close to the train station.

12 Tuesday, 2023-02-21

Intersection of Rue Reaumur and Rue de Ciery — FIGURE 57 Intersection of *Rue Réaumur* and *Rue de Cléry*.

We finally went to the Orsay. It was amazing! However, the huge crowds of people in front of the Van Gogh self-portrait was a bit annoying. Overall just a little bit too crowded.

13 Wednesday, 2023-02-22

In the morning I took some line scan pictures of trains while Joanne went shopping, then we had lunch at EnYaa, then we went home!