The Eiffel Tower stood tall, glittering over the city of Paris in the moonless night in its imminent brilliance as I watched it in awe, standing some distance away on the banks of the Seine river. It was a calm summer evening, and as the light breeze from the Seine kissed my face, I swore to myself that the next time I am at this incredibly romantic spot, I shall not be alone.
The idea to go to Paris trip originated in our previous Amsterdam trip. When we were in Amsterdam, continuing in our vein of craziness (It must have been the annual crazy weekend or something), we wanted to go to Paris in the weekend as well. Get this: we had already covered Germany, Denmark, Holland, and we wanted to cover Luxembourg, Brussels and finally touch Paris. However, sanity won, and we postponed the Paris trip to a later day. Eiffel Tower could wait.
It wasn’t a very long wait though. Only one month later, we were browsing the internet , eagerly looking for the best deals for Paris from Hamburg. And I think we found a stealer: 4 days , 3 nights in a decent hotel plus flights : 300 euros only(Approx. 18000 Indian rupees). We immediately jumped on the offer and booked ourselves on.
Oh , Paris, dear city of love, get some fresh romance in the air : We are coming . (Sounds like a cheapo dialog from a B grade flick, but hey , who cares, as long as we make it to Paris) We left Hamburg on Thursday afternoon. After about an hour of flying , we were in Paris.
The Charles De Gaulle Airport is real far from the city , and it took us about an hour to reach the hotel. At about 7 in the evening, we were all ready to hit the spot which symbolizes Paris now: The Eiffel Tower.
The monument doesn’t look so impressive in the day time. However, you have to wait till the sun sets , its as if the Eiffel switches on its charm at that time. Weighing around 7000 tons and real tall, the tower gets all lit up in an orange hue when the sun sets. It looks incredibly beautiful. Imagine the evening sky in its dusky colours varying between various shades of orange and blue, with the Eiffel adding to the romanticism with its orange hue.
It completes the effect.
The idea to go to Paris trip originated in our previous Amsterdam trip. When we were in Amsterdam, continuing in our vein of craziness (It must have been the annual crazy weekend or something), we wanted to go to Paris in the weekend as well. Get this: we had already covered Germany, Denmark, Holland, and we wanted to cover Luxembourg, Brussels and finally touch Paris. However, sanity won, and we postponed the Paris trip to a later day. Eiffel Tower could wait.
It wasn’t a very long wait though. Only one month later, we were browsing the internet , eagerly looking for the best deals for Paris from Hamburg. And I think we found a stealer: 4 days , 3 nights in a decent hotel plus flights : 300 euros only(Approx. 18000 Indian rupees). We immediately jumped on the offer and booked ourselves on.
Oh , Paris, dear city of love, get some fresh romance in the air : We are coming . (Sounds like a cheapo dialog from a B grade flick, but hey , who cares, as long as we make it to Paris) We left Hamburg on Thursday afternoon. After about an hour of flying , we were in Paris.
The Charles De Gaulle Airport is real far from the city , and it took us about an hour to reach the hotel. At about 7 in the evening, we were all ready to hit the spot which symbolizes Paris now: The Eiffel Tower.
The monument doesn’t look so impressive in the day time. However, you have to wait till the sun sets , its as if the Eiffel switches on its charm at that time. Weighing around 7000 tons and real tall, the tower gets all lit up in an orange hue when the sun sets. It looks incredibly beautiful. Imagine the evening sky in its dusky colours varying between various shades of orange and blue, with the Eiffel adding to the romanticism with its orange hue.
It completes the effect.
And suddenly, as you are looking at it, breathing in the beauty, the unexpected happens. Hundreds of lights on the tower start glittering, as if someone has captured all the shining stars in the skies and confined them in the tower, and said “Just stay here and glitter quietly. Don’t go anywhere.” Against the backdrop of the dark, dark night it looks stunning to the effect of taking your breath away.
We just stood there watching the tower for a looong time. No one feels the need to talk at this moment. You just stand there taking in the brilliance around you.
After taking in our share of brilliance (too much of everything is bad), we decided to move on towards the Arc De Triomphe. If you have been to Delhi and seen the India Gate in night, here is a replica of the same. (Napoleon would kill me if he reads this, but hey, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. And beta Napo, I stick to mine).
-- Arc De Triomphe --It’s a majestic gate that was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate his brilliant victories in that period. The arch is located at the end of the Champs-Elysées, in the middle of the Place Charles de Gaulle, a large circular square from which no less than 12 Streets emanate. The streets are named after French military leaders. Champs-Elysées is the world’s most famous promenade, which is lined with cinemas, theaters, cafes and luxury shops. If you are going here with a lady, make sure that your credit card is loaded. It is undoubtedly the place where you find all the big fashion names and the most expensive ones too. Ladies, make the best out of this place: you won’t find better names in the fashion world than the ones you see here.
Coming back to the Arc : It seems that there were lots of famous victory marches here. Whoever conquered France used to come here and do his little victory March here. Wierdos. The Germans in 1871, French in 1918, the Germans again in 1940 , the French and the allies in 1944. I did my own li’il march under the gate to see how it feels. Felt cold, and wet, and not my idea of celebrating any victory. I’d rather go to a pub and have a couple of beers. :)
Which takes us to our last destination for the day, an Irish pub, where we gulped down a couple of cocktails . Now Paris is expensive like hell, and if u don’t want to survive only on McDonalds here, u really should be prepared to spend a lot. Money evaporates from pockets like water drops from tin roofs on a hot day in India.
Tired after the day one , we retired back to our hotels , eagerly looking forward to our next day , when we planned to go the Louvre, where the famous Mona Lisa was kept.
Day 2:
“She looks Ugly” exhorted Ugur loudly, as everybody around us turned to look at us in shock. The fact that these words were directed at Mona Lisa , the most celebrated painting in history , had a profound effect in the hall of Louvre museum, as everybody stared at Ugur. For a moment I thought the police would come in and throw Ugur in jail. Probably its illegal to call Mona Lisa ugly in Paris. Nothing happened, however, and people continued looking at the painting as if in some trance.
Coming back to the Arc : It seems that there were lots of famous victory marches here. Whoever conquered France used to come here and do his little victory March here. Wierdos. The Germans in 1871, French in 1918, the Germans again in 1940 , the French and the allies in 1944. I did my own li’il march under the gate to see how it feels. Felt cold, and wet, and not my idea of celebrating any victory. I’d rather go to a pub and have a couple of beers. :)
Which takes us to our last destination for the day, an Irish pub, where we gulped down a couple of cocktails . Now Paris is expensive like hell, and if u don’t want to survive only on McDonalds here, u really should be prepared to spend a lot. Money evaporates from pockets like water drops from tin roofs on a hot day in India.
Tired after the day one , we retired back to our hotels , eagerly looking forward to our next day , when we planned to go the Louvre, where the famous Mona Lisa was kept.
Day 2:
“She looks Ugly” exhorted Ugur loudly, as everybody around us turned to look at us in shock. The fact that these words were directed at Mona Lisa , the most celebrated painting in history , had a profound effect in the hall of Louvre museum, as everybody stared at Ugur. For a moment I thought the police would come in and throw Ugur in jail. Probably its illegal to call Mona Lisa ugly in Paris. Nothing happened, however, and people continued looking at the painting as if in some trance.
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-- Mona Lisa --
Though I didn’t totally agree with Ugur, I still was trying to make sense of the hype around this painting , uh “masterpiece” ,sorry . Probably I wasn’t made to appreciate paintings. ‘The smile is mysterious’, some said. ‘It’s a self portrait of Da vinci.’ ‘It’s a fusion between male and female’. Whatever. It looked like an ordinary painting of a woman with a crooked smile. I think the copies of this painting in the books look better. Guess you need to be a real art lover to appreciate her ‘smile’ and unravel the associated mysteries.
We reached the Louvre museum early in the morning , with the aim of catching a glimpse of this masterpiece. The Louvre was built as a castle earlier which was later converted to a museum. It is the most widely visited museum in the world with works from painters all over the world. These are Mona Lisa, the Madonna of Rocks, The Virgin mary and the associated schmere. In addition to paintings, it also houses some famous sculptures from across the world. A paradise for art lovers, it’s a huge museum which can take an entire day to see properly.
Done with the customary round of Louvre, we left the museum at 5 in the evening.
-- Musee De Louvre --
-- Paris view from Louvre --The next step on our destination was the Notre Dame, the most famous cathedral in Paris. One of the finest examples of gothic architecture, what is striking about this cathedral is two massive towers , and the absence of the conical top from the front. Intricate carvings adorn the entrance. Probably carvings of some French saints :-). Its quite interesting that the cathedral has a completely different look if you see it from the back , as compared to the front.
-- Notre Dame --Outside the church is the point zero, which is the considered to be the center of Paris city.
I had my share of fun here. I told a curious tourist family that it is a legend that your wish is granted , if you stand on point zero, close your eyes and jump once while making the wish. It was quite funny to see the entire family taking turns to jump on the point zero . hehehe.The lady in the family jumped thrice.. guess she had a pretty long list of wishes. I was wondering if I shud have charged them 5 euros for each jump. ;-)
We left Notre Dame for Montmarte, which has two principal attractions: the Sacre Cour Church and the streets . The streets are quite nice with cafes and nice pubs lining the place. After climbing some 300 steps, you come across the Sacre Cour, translated which means the Sacred Heart. The domed structure looks imposing.
-- Sacre Cour standing out in Paris landscape --
The architecture reminds you of more of a mosque than a church with four semi circular domes topping the structure. 
-- Moulin Rouge: Montmarte --
Coming back to the streets , we caught sight of the famous theatre , Moulin Rouge . One show cost 145 Euros. Oh we all had the money, but since we were short of time, we decided to skip this part. Hehehe.
Covering all that we planned , we finished day 2, looking forward to our next destination: the palace of Versailles.
Day 3: Versailles palace
-- On the way to Versailles --
For those of you for whom the name Versailles rings a bell, here’s why – this is the place where the first world war treaty was signed, and we were made to mug it up in school to get good marks in history.(If u flunked history, don’t worry about the rings-a-bell thing) Versailles treaty it was called , and it brought an end to the first world war, officially.
-- Hall Of Mirrors:Versailles Palace --The Versailles palace was built by Louis XIV, as an extension to the hunting lodge his father , Louis XIII has built on this place. It is not very high, with only the ground and the first floor and a huge expanse of gardens. The first floor had the king’s grand apartment, the queens suite, the hall of mirrors(where the Versailles treaty was signed) and the private apartments of the queens.
-- Versailles Palace:Entry --The queens suite has the bedchamber, where the queens of France used to give birth, in public!!! This was apparently done to dispel any doubts whatsoever regarding Royal birth.
“Waah, kya saboot hain”. I guess Rin-safedi has competition here as far as saboot is concerned.
The next thing which is worth mentioning here is the garden and the musical fountains .
Stretching over a vast expanse, the gardens truly add a touch of heaven to the palace. Adorned by majestic fountains, the gardens can be traveled in electric cars . Follow the route, and you cover all the fountains in an hour.
-- Fountains in the gardens --Accompanied by violin music, these fountains look very charming and another should-not-go-alone spot. Covering the fountains alone took an hour, and by the time we were done, it was already evening. 
Next : A boat trip by the Seine in the evening. I swear Paris looks twice as pretty in the evening than in the morning. All the monuments lined along the Seine are lit up and give the ferry trip in the Seine a lovely ambience. If you are in Paris and do this trip – do it in night . Its truly inexplicable.
That finishes our 3rd day in Paris . The next day , Sunday , we woke up quite late, and braced ourselves for a nice French brunch in one of the cafes in St. Germain. This is a very cute spot in Paris , lined with lovely cafes and if the sun is out, you can enjoy the lovely French food with some wine in the nice sun.
-- Cafes in St. Germain --
The French wine brought to an end our Paris trip. There are lotsa memories I take back from this city. And some impressions, namely:
1. The first thing that strikes you is that Paris has a very very cosmopolitan look. You find people from all parts of the world here. Its like one big ad of ‘United Colors of Benetton’
Next : A boat trip by the Seine in the evening. I swear Paris looks twice as pretty in the evening than in the morning. All the monuments lined along the Seine are lit up and give the ferry trip in the Seine a lovely ambience. If you are in Paris and do this trip – do it in night . Its truly inexplicable.
That finishes our 3rd day in Paris . The next day , Sunday , we woke up quite late, and braced ourselves for a nice French brunch in one of the cafes in St. Germain. This is a very cute spot in Paris , lined with lovely cafes and if the sun is out, you can enjoy the lovely French food with some wine in the nice sun.
-- Cafes in St. Germain --The French wine brought to an end our Paris trip. There are lotsa memories I take back from this city. And some impressions, namely:
1. The first thing that strikes you is that Paris has a very very cosmopolitan look. You find people from all parts of the world here. Its like one big ad of ‘United Colors of Benetton’
2. The French people are very helpful. The conception that the French are rude and do not speak back if you speak English is all rubbish. A lady almost missed her train while trying to explain to us the directions to Versailles. Another guy , whom I asked for directions, went inside his shop, searched in the net, took a printout of the map and handed it over me. Wow.
3. French is one of the sweetest sounding languages in the world. Imagine an entire population breaking into melodies everytime they want to communicate . The next to-do for me :Take french classes.
4. Paris is very crowded. The traffic and honking makes it resemble an Indian city.I swear. But the resemblance ends there : )
5. Parisians love music. Everywhere you go, you find ppl humming tunes, singing et al,and are a bit laid back unlike the germans who prefer to do stuff by the rules.
6. The Paris metro is the most confusing metro in the world. I think London metro is more busy, but is very simple to understand. Here you keep running for half a mile to get to the right platform and you finally realize that it’s the wrong one. Hehe
7. All in all , Paris is one hell of a luuuvely city. And I swear I shall be back here. Not alone this time. :-)
