The Fontaine des Éléphants (Fountain of the Elephants) is a 18m-high fountain in Chambéry and one of its most famous landmarks. It was sculpted in 1838 in honour of Benoît de Boigne, a native of the city who made his fortune working as a general of the Maratha Empire in India. After coming back to Chambéry at the end of the 18th century, de Boigne bestowed some of his wealth on the town and was honoured posthumously with this monument.
The Fontaine Cuvier (Cuvier Fountain) is a fountain in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, next to the Jardin des Plantes. It is named after French paleontologist Georges Cuvier.
The Parc de Saint-Cloud is a large park near Paris. It is located on the site of the Château de Saint-Cloud, a residence of royal and imperial families since the 16th century and destroyed in the 19th century. It has both a French and English-style garden, as well as a rose garden.
On my second day in Dubai, I had to be at the Marina early for a boat tour I had booked (I will write a full post about it later). After the tour, I continued walking through Dubai Media City to the Palm Jumeirah Monorail Gateway station. The Monorail leads to the Atlantis hotel, built on the artificial Palm Jumeirah Islands. A small part is open to the public. Besides the hotel, there is also an aquarium (The Lost Chambers), a waterpark (Aquaventure) and a dolphin park (Dolphin Bay), where you can swim with dolphins.
In November, I had to be out of Pakistan in order to renew my visa so I decided to go to Dubai and spend a few days there. I had been previously to Dubai Airport but it was my first time actually visiting.
After I got off the plane and passed customs, I took the metro to the area known as Downtown Dubai, which contains the Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and a lot of residential and office skyscrapers. At the mall, it was quite early in the morning so no stores were open yet. Then, after almost 2 hours since arriving, I finally emerged to open air near the basin that hosts the Dubai Fountain. I walked around the basin, taking many photos of Burj Khalifa, the highest building in the world. I then made my way to the observatory, just as it opened. I bought my ticket (~40€) and took the elevator to the 124th floor. The view was pretty good, although, unfortunately, there was nothing much interesting to look at while up there… I was surprised by how extended the city was: Even the Burj Al Arab was quite far away. After Burj Khalifa, I walked towards the Emirates Towers. There are pavements and even pedestrian signals but the area is not really designed for walking and it took me a long time under the hot sun to reach the towers. The walk passed next to very modern buildings and yet more were under constructions. After the Emirates Towers, I took the metro to the Dubai Marina, where my hotel was located.
The Shalimar Gardens (sometimes written as Shalamar Gardens) are a Mughal garden complex located in Lahore, Pakistan. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan (of Taj Mahal fame) in the mid-17th century. The gardens have been laid out from south to north in three levels of terraces. In the terraces, there are basins with 410 fountains in total. Unfortunately, none of them were working while I was there.