Chinatown and a walk @ La Défense: Modern Paris

So today we were deciding what we wanted to eat for lunch, people all had suggestions and what not and then I said I wanted to eat rice. And Dan was like ok! Let's go to Chinatown so he pulled out his nifty book and off we went to Chinatown. We couldn't really find it at first and we figured all of the buildings would all look the same because the city probably wouldn't let them tear down the old buildings. Finally we ask a storeowner and we found Chinatown, even though it's really just asian stuff in general, mostly Vietnamese. There weren't even that many asians around it either but here's some pics:


I wanted pho because it was chilly but my well-travelled friend Dan thought that the girls wouldn't like it so we didn't. I'll go with him next time ourselves. We ended up going to the "Garden of Eden" and had some pretty traditional stuff. I had some Pai goo Fan (fried pork steak with rice) and it was good. Just good to have some rice after always eating bread and more bread.

We then had went and did our walk @ la Défense because we figured we could do our shopping there as well. The reason it's called La Défense is because of a statue that is there from 1883. It was created to remember the people's defense of the city of Paris against the Prussians in 1870.

What I liked about this walk was we really got to see the metroplitan side of Paris. I mean, sure it's not as cool as the old historic stuff in Paris, but I really like skyscrappers and the big city! Here is where all the businessmen and women are! I guess the reason it was built here is because the ground is soft in Paris with the metro and the sewers, but also because the Parisians didn't want downtown Paris to be ruptured by super tall buildings. Bart prefers the downtown historical feel but I don't see why we can't combine both? He feels that it would not work well. I liked Boston even though they had old and new together. It's kind of how I feel I am, both Canadian, Taiwanese, Chinese, American, and what not. I don't see why one can't mix it all together. Take the best of all of the worlds. Here's some pics of what it looks like:


This walk was only an hour long. It looked nice but I wno't post more pictures because you can honestly see them at any major cities. Bart is right about one thing, historical Paris is much cooler, which is why I think they should just let it meld together (I'm in no way suggesting they open it up completely but that the government allows some buildings to be built that will still preserve architecture). The esplanade (or the road) is what we pretty much just followed. That is all!