Amsterdam-France - day 12

28 September 2014

We didn't have much of a plan for the day, so we chilled in our room for a while.

Xena standing on the table (!) and snacking

There was cow statue inside the hotel. Why?? Xena was thrilled, of course. 

After breakfast, we decided to drive to St. Julien's cathedral. 

The Catholic cathedral is dedicated to Saint Julian of Le Mans, the city's first bishop who established Christianity in the ares in the 4th century.

The cobbled ground gave it an old-world feel. 

Posers

We wanted to see the inside of the cathedral, but there was a performance going on, so a lady asked us to go back at 1 pm. We decided to check out the surrounding areas, have lunch and then come back.

The Sunday market was full of fresh produce and food stalls of every kind. 

On the other side of the road was a flea market. 

There was even a giant rooster! What for, we couldn't tell. 

Most of the stall vendors didn't understand any English at all, so we had to order our lunch in broken French. There was no seating area, so we decided to pack the food and find a place elsewhere to sit and eat. Also, there was nothing vegetarian, so we packed some paella and couscous.

We saw a beautiful park nearby -- the Parc de Tessé. You can see Xena literally running inside! Viv is holding the bags with our lunch. 

What a beautiful tree!

We found a bench in the park, and opened our lunch bags. The paella was full of every conceivable kind of seafood so we had to fish out literally half of the container's contents before eating it. Xena had some couscous mixed with some corn.

After lunch, we went back to the see the inside of the cathedral.

It was a beautiful cathedral, with a lot of intricate work on the pillars. 

The stained glasswork was quite stunning. 

Xena was so excited to see the lit candles. I suddenly realised that it was because the only places she had seen lit candles was on birthday cakes. 

A model of the cathedral

Next up was a drive to Sarcelles, from where we were going to stay the night before heading back to Paris for our flight to Singapore. 

We had dinner at a restaurant called Heaven, which served Indian and Pakistani food. 

Xena tries to hide as I go after her with a glass of mango lassi!

The next morning, we drove back to Paris to catch our flight back. The traffic to Paris was horrendous though. Finally, we reached the airport and breathed a sigh of relief. 

The little fashionista poses with the big fashionista. 

Parting shot at Paris airport before we flew back home!