Day 13 (continued): Fancying Fancy Cars - Paris Motor Show 2012

The Paris Motor Show 2012 was held at Port de Versailles, from 29 September to 14 October. On Sunday after lunch, we hopped onto Metro to get to Port de Versailles station. Our stop was quite a number of stations away from our place, and it took one train change, but the Metro and RER have so far been very accommodating of the places Shah and i want to visit. I have no doubt their bus and tram systems are just as good.

Let me just warn you ahead of time: this is a photo-laden post. If you're a car enthusiast like Shah, you might just really be into the photos (except for pics which have me/Shah/us in them, and if you're not a fan of Manchester United, you might want to skip photos of relating to the football team).

I would also like to highlight that i concentrated more on "cute" cars rather than high-tech super sleek ones. And i would like to not apologize for that, just because.

We arrived later than we had hoped (due to our sleeping in, stopping at the market and lunch), but there are still loads and loads of people milling around, exiting and entering the show.

We already purchased our tickets at Cnit the previous week, so straight in we went.

There were some pamphlets that tell you what brands are in which hall. At this point, i was already completely bored. In my head, you could hear dialogues like, "What am i doing here?", "ALL these people came to stare at CARS? Goodness!" and "WHY are there so MANY PEOPLE?".

I still thought that we should have just stayed at the market. But i love Shah, I LOVE SHAH, i told myself.

Shah was already excited. Even as i grudgingly trailed behind him, i still couldn't help catch some of his enthusiasm. He was all, "Right! What car should we go see first? I really want to see Porsche. But Ferrari is THE car to see. So let's go see FERRARI first! FERRARI is why we came here! But i want to see McLaren too. OK OK which one?".

For the record, this is i would sound like if Le Quatre Temps (or put yourself in my shoes and imagine OU/MidValley/KLCC instead) is having a 50% off sale in all of the shops and you can't decide which shop you want to stop by first.

OK, kidding. I know which one already. I'd put New Look first in Le Quatre Temps.

So since Shah seemed to go over and over Ferrari, that's where we decided to visit first. Hall 1 it is, then!

The crowd walking towards Hall 1

But the hall was huge. ALL of the halls were super big! At first we couldn't even find the Ferrari area, so we just concentrated on the cars that were parked right in front of us.

Pretty sure Shah salivated when taking this photo

My supercute husband is so cute

Can't remember who these guys work for, but i asked Shah to take a photo because they were all wearing black shirt, black blazer and bright green pants. Sleek!

I didn't even notice this, but this Nissan car needs filling up petrol at the front. Shah was like, "Nak ambik gambar!". Nissan and Renault were next to each other, so after Mercedes-Benz we checked out Renault first.

There were LOADS of the cutest little cars you've ever seen in Renault.

Shah all adorable and badass in his leather jacket

Me in my fake-leather jacket. I reeeaaally don't like the smell of leather, so, excuse me for that. That's Renault's new Clio behind me

Shah taking photos of people fawning all over the smart tiny car

The new Renault Twizy by Cathy and David Guetta! I didn't know who 'Cathy' was, but turns out it's Cathy Guetta. The husband and wife designed that together i guess. SO JEALOUS.

Shah and i couldn't resist trying out one of the little cars. You can see me in the side mirror, taking this photo. I wasn't even leaning forward or anything, but Shah was this close to me. Im telling you, tiniest car ever

Then Nissan.

I feel like this Nissan Terra in the photo below could be bulletproof. Not that it is. I don't know. But it looks like it could be, right? I wouldn't mind getting this car for myself.

As you can see, a lot of other girls fancy this car too. Shah took a photo of me taking photos of the silver Nissan Terra

I wouldn't mind getting this aubergine Nissan either

I arrived at the Fiat section and immediately spotted a Panda. SO NICEEE.

Fiat Panda. NEKKK

I don't know why i didn't bother getting a look on the inside. What was i thinking? It's a GUCCI CAR

Like every else, Ford had its own mass of admirers.

I imagine this was one of Mr Ford's earliest inventions. Maybe

I used to like cars based on how they look. My number one priority is the car must look "cute", and i used to say to Shah "I don't care what technology the car has on the inside!", but my outlook on cars changed the day i drove Fiza's Kia Forte. Now, Kia Forte is probably the best automatic car i've driven. Not that i regularly test drive auto cars, but, you know what i mean. Forte is so smooth and so spacious. But i still find myself judging a car on how it looks on the outside than on the inside at the motor show. I'm superficial like that, with cars.

Come on, isn't that pattern adorable?

I think Shah is glad that i like "cute" cars though, it should make his life with me easier

We finally reached Ferrari; it was like in this unseen corner from where we entered the hall. I was already starting to worry if Ferrari were still there or not - maybe they're no longer showing? But there it was, phew. I would really be sad to see Shah's sadface.

Ferrari was the first brand we came upon that had glass dividers around its area. People were ogling at the cars from all around, clicking their cameras away.

Next is Maserati. I was very attracted to this white Maserati, because i thought the seats looked very pimp-ish.

This photo don't do the pimp seats justice, sorry

Like Ferrai, Maserati had glass dividers too. All the fancy brands had that all around, actually, whereas the more budget-friendly, afforable ones are viewer-friendly. I think you can actually line up to enter the closed area, but since we didn't have time to do that, we just ogled from outside.

Most of the brands have their reps in a uniform. Like those guys in the green pants, and like these ladies at Maserati. And most of them are relatively attractive too, but i don't think that's a coincidence though. These people know what sell, don't they?

Then Jeep.

Infiniti. Never heard of it. Maybe you have.

We just noticed this car at Ford. We did a double take when we saw its position.

Comelnyaaa dia. Shah won't like it when he finds out i put this photo up, hah ha

Shah lining up for Orangina

In case you're wondering, and probably aren't, but just in case, the plastic bag Shah has been carrying around had some pancakes and these huge, sweet cherries Mama packed for us. He said it's for if we get hungry.

And it was at this Paul counter that an extraordinary event took place. To ME it's extraordinary, to Shah it's funny. If you have my Facebook you might have caught me writing about it a while ago. I'm writing this again in my blog so that wi can always go back to this page and read this and remember it.

Shah didn't have any small change, so i went over and was counting coins from my purse to pay for the Orangina when the girl behind the counter said, "Excuse me." When i looked up she told me, "You are the so, so, SO beautiful. So beautiful." (note: i capitalized the third 'so' because i remember her stressing on that 'no'. not because i'm vain)

And i was flustered. I remember my face getting all hot and i just stammered when i said "Thank you". At least i remember to say thanks. She thought i was a Pakistani, but i told her, no, i'm Malaysian. She and her colleague went, "Oh Malaisie? Yes yes." Malaysia in French is 'Malaisie', by the way.

I remember Shah chuckling in the background. Ha-ha-ha. I don't think this will ever happen again, but i am readily admitting that that was one of the nicest compliments anyone's ever paid to me. Like i've said before in Facebook, i wish i could have thanked her properly, and told her, "You make my day. No, no, you've made my ENTIRE TRIP TO PARIS." But i didn't have enough guts to gush like that in public. But i wish i had, yes.

OK, moving on to our main topic, cars.

Rolls Royce had a small section, and too many people jostling in the centre for me to slip in, so here's a side shot of the Rolls Royces.

Total has a section too. They have this weird-looking acid green car. Very interesting eh?

Hall 1 done. Now it's time to go to Lamborghini!

You can go check out Paris Motor Show 2012 official website here.

I might have to continue on to a fresh post for the next part. So see you there!

xxoo