The day after Efiifel Tower and a dinner in a nearby pub from our hotel while watching Rugby from pub's TV, I woke up in the morning and be ready for check out from Mercure Cusset Opera. Our group was going to Montpellier that day (Saturday, 22 September 2007). Andrew already hold our TGV ticket to Montpellier.

TGV train

Montpellier is located in South France, about 600 km from Paris. Using TGV train, we only need around 3 hours and 30 minutes. It's because TGV is a super fast train with a speed up to 320 km/hour. Montpellier has this mild winter climate and in the summer it's lots of sun, no wonder I felt so comfortable the moment I stepped down from TGV train in the Montpellier station.

There are only around 230,000 people living in Montpellier. Most of those are pensioners. The language in this part of France are French and Spanish. I guess it's because Montpellier is close to Spain.

There are lots of nice cars in Montpellier and expensive yachts around the La Grande Motte port. Our group was staying in Mercure La Grande Motte. The hotel seem had been going a great renovation. All of carpets are new and the room so clean and big. Everyone in our group got a room with a balcony and great views, La Grande Motte port and the vast blue sea.


We were checking in and then quickly get out from the hotel to find a place for lunch. The choice was a pizza restaurant. There were lot of shops around the port. I was walking around and found out that most of the clothes and goods are made in Morrocco or Spain. It was nice, though and those clothes are cheap and made from strong textiles.

That day, I was feeling relaxed because our group was not in hurry to go here and there like in Paris. That night, our group were drinking cocktails. Kate ordered a drink called "Big Lover" and it's a massive cocktail with ice cream sorbet inside. It was nice and big. I ordered a chocolate and milk-based cocktail. Afterward, we headed into Le Petit Jardin to enjoy seafood. It was a massive seafood platter, but I felt that I didn't want to eat too much, si I ordered an entree scallop with balsamic vinegar and salad then close it with a creme vanilla as a dessert. The baguettes are free and flowing continuosly when our basket were empty, so it was more than enough for me.






It was fine, I didn't eat any snail on the seafood platter, not until Anna saw me holding the snail and I was playing with it. She shouted to me to try it. Andrew handed a snail to Danesh and asked him to fork the snail meat out from the shell for me. I couldn't make any reason and decided to try it anyway. It was not bad, only there was a small shell inside so that I had to pulled it out. The snail meat was a bit though and tasteless. The taste was not as bad as I was imagined.



That night, Kate and Julie decided to go out for a nightclub and drink all night. Both of them asked me again and again to go out with them, but as an Asian woman who grew up with Eastern culture, Catholic values and a promise to my Mama to always keep take care of myself, I decided to reject their offers. Moreover, I didn't like to drink a lot of alcohol and I don't like beer's smell. I headed back to the hotel and sleep, it was 11 pm anyway.

Tapi...
Saya mau ngebahas soal stereotype disini, soal stereotype Asian yang kerja di Australia. Sejujurnya, selama gue liat sih ya, kalo kita kerja keras, banyak koq orang Aussie yang menghargai kita dan trust kita. Ga ada masalah buat Asian yang kerja di negara kangguru ini asal kamu benar-benar respect sama kerjaan kamu alias ga datang telat, kerja keras, jujur dan ga pura-pura calling in sick hanya untuk abisin sick leave.

Tapi sebuah pernyataan teman menggugah aku buat ngebahas masalah stereotype ini. Temanku orang Indo yang pernah kuliah disini, sebut saja A. Ketika aku cerita soal aku dapat tiket ke Paris sebelum aku berangkat, dia pertamanya memberi selamat. Tapi, baru dua hari yang lalu, ketika aku cerita soal teman-teman seperjalanan. Dia bilang kalo manager aku tuh kelihatan banget suka sama aku, kalo engga kenapa aku adalah satu-satunya orang Asia yang diikutkan dalam rombongan bule-bule yang termasuk manager aku itu?

Tentu saja aku agak kaget mendengar pernyataan itu. Memang aku satu-satunya Asia, tapi tunggu dulu, bukan itu alasan kuat mengikutsertakan aku dalam acara liburan Paris ini. Alasannya adalah ga semua orang di hotel bisa berlibur dan pergi bersama karena ga semua orang bisa digantiin tugasnya oleh orang lain. Ada manager yang ga pergi karena istrinya barusan punya baby daughter, I knew this. Yang lain ga bisa pergi karena harus gantiin si manager ini ambil cuti. Kalo orang-orang department front office berlibur juga selagi general manager berlibur, kan bisa kacau nantinya, secara lebih dari satu orang yang berkaitan dengan sistim management pada berlibur semua.

Selain itu, aku dipilih karena aku ikut mensukseskan penjualan beer Heineken, promotor liburan ke Paris. Aku yang mendorong-dorong orang hotel buat ganti Light beer yang tidak laku dengan beer lain. Kebetulan saat mereka hendak mengganti merek beer, Heineken lah yang sedang menawarkan competition in sales. Karena banyak beer Heineken yang terjual, hotelku keluar sebagai pemenangnya.

Kenapa banyak orang Indo yang ga percaya diri kalo mereka bisa kerja sama bule dan mencapai apa yang bisa diraih oleh bule juga? Ga ada alasan "suka" untuk bisa mendapatkan tiket ke Paris ini.

Juga kenapa teman-teman lain yang di Indo bilang kalo aku tuh hebat karena bisa pergi berlibur ke Paris bersama bule-bule? Itu bukan sesuatu yang "hebat" ataupun karena ada alasan miring-miring.

Yang menghibur aku adalah ketika salah seorang pekerja di hotel, orang Nepal di department lain yang dulunya pernah bekerja di department aku bersama-sama dengan aku, berkata kepadaku "You deserved it, you work really hard" and he did say the truth.

Kalo orang Nepal bisa berkata jujur begitu, kenapa kita-kita sebagai orang Indo harus memasang stereotype "Lucky Asian" didalam diri kita dan dalam diri teman-teman Indo kita?

Eiffel's yellow light

Eiffel's green light from seen ground

Compare those size of the people and Eiffel Tower

It was a Rugby World Cup 2007 season. Eiffel was highlighted by yellow on top and green on its half.

My photo with Eiffel that was taken by Julie was blurry, so I posted Julie's photo that was taken by me instead. It was taken after the fountain that you can see in photos from last entry.

Our group walked out from Louvre, along Seine river. The long and tall building on the left side is Louvre Museum.

Seine River, seen from a bridge on west-side of the Paris city.

Seine River, one of bridge that cross Seine River and Eiffel Tower seen from a Batobus cruise.

Because it's only around around 2 pm, our group decided to stay on the cruise ship, enjoying the view along Seine River and come back later in the evening, so that we could see Eiffel Tower during evening and night time. It'll be great to take some pictures of Eiffel in the daylight and night.

Batobus cruise start and end in a circular cruise from Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame. This is a photo of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Those sculptures depict the Christ, angels, human and satan. If you see the one just below, you'll see one of the satan seeming encourage humans to do something?

I posted a postcard for a workmate who gave me a chance to go toParis, that was why I asked one of the waiter about a post office box. Yes, they did speak English and kind enough to told me where is the yellow post office box. Who said that Parisian people are ignorant to English-speaker?

Paris Eiffel, seen from Batobus cruise on Seine River. It's really huge.

A huge rugby ball

View from the Eiffel's lift

A view from Eiffel Tower. We did walk along that fountain on the right-side later to get some Eiffel photos in the night time from there.

Paris Wheel and Seine River seen from Eiffel Tower.

Inside Napoleon III Grand Salon.

Napoleon's Dining Room

Even the ceilings inside Napoleon's apartment has this huge chandelier and a painting on the ceiling.

French sculptures gallery in Richelieu section, lower ground floor.

Statue of Milo of Crotona inside Richelieu, ground floor. It was interesting because I saw this lion is biting his butt. Later I found out from Wiki that Milo of Crotona is a description of Milo of Croton, a famous Greek athlete.

Hercules and serpent. A bonus picture for Yenny, my Balinese preman ;)

Inside the sculpture exhibition on Ground Floor in Denon section.

Even the ceilings inside Louvre held a lot of picture and sculpture exhibitions.

Inside Denon section on 1st Floor, the French Painting exhibition. It is really a long corridor.

Venus de Milo inside Sully section on ground floor.

Our group had to be ready at 8.30 am in the hotel lobby and then we were headed to any cafe that we can find along the way. It was a bit cold that morning as we strolled around the hotel to Comedie area. Cafe de La Comedie was our stop that morning, we chose to had our breakfast on the side road tables so that we could enjoy a view, like what other Parisian would do. We all agreed to order the same menu, petit dejeneur (small breakfast). It's consist of croissant, orange juice, coffee, jams and butter. Baguette are free in every eateries in France, include in this breakfast.


In breakfast, the baguette are sliced half long. For lunch and dinner we would received slices of baguette in a small basket and the waiter would fill it up whenever the basket is empty.



When the waiter in Cafe de La Comedie knew that I took pictures around, he offered to take pictures of our group and it turned up nice.


View from Cafe de La Comedie where we had our first petit dejeneur.

After looking around the Arc with its scribbled names and sculptures, we climbed up the spiral staircases. It's said to have 284 staircases and all are spiral staircases. Feeling a little bit dizzy and exhausted as my group climbed the stairs quite fast, I reached the top of the staircases and walk past the souvenir shop to go upstair for the views of Paris. It's afternoon, so we can see around while waiting a little bit for the sunset. I could see Champ de Elysees, Paris Wheel, Eiffel Tower, a famous church, and La Grande Arche De La Defense.