3 Evenings in Paris!

Bonjour Madame, Monsieur – any more French and we won’t know what we are writing so we will stick to English. Welcome to our journey to Paris!

It started really well with us getting into a cab at home to reach the station and realising a few minutes later that we had forgotten our scarves, gloves and caps. It was already late and we could not go back to get them. Looking forward to the brighter things awaiting us, we headed to St Pancras to get on our train to Paris. In 2 hours and 20 minutes at a speed of 240 kmph, on the Eurostar, we switched countries passing under English Channel and were at Gare De Nord station where we had a cab waiting to take us to our hotel. The City Tour was our first agenda item and it was an exciting hour of seeing all the major attractions at a quick glance giving us a good idea of how to manage the rest of our stay. This tour finished at the Eiffel Tower. However much you have heard and seen this marvel, it still manages to amaze you. We were disappointed to know that visitors were being allowed only to the second floor and that the top floor was closed due to strong winds. However, once on the second floor, the top floor was opened and we had the privilege of watching the fascinating city of Paris from a height of 986 ft. The pictures will tell you what a marvellous sight it was!

We then came down and waited for the Eiffel tower to be lit. And it was breathtaking. We just could not stop taking pictures till finally we could not stand the cold wind any more and took a cab back to the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to find an Indian restaurant just next door to our hotel. A tasty hot dinner later, we crashed out after a fairly long but satisfying day.

 

Day two began with a visit to the Louvre museum. We were expecting a typical museum environment and were prepared to get bored for a few hours. But it turned out to be pretty interesting. The life size paintings were exceptionally beautiful. The artistic carvings and paintings on the ceiling were something we had never seen before. Mona Lisa as expected did not live up to its hype. In fact, we can confidently say that there are other more impressive paintings to the layman’s eyes than the Mona Lisa.

We then went to Montmatre – the old arty Paris. The highlights of this area, which used to be the artists locality are the cobbled narrow streets and roadside cafes. Also popular is the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, which is a very old Cathedral. Once we saw the cathedral, we were all set for a very different ride – on a bus, which resembled a train, complete with an engine and carriages. It took us through the alleyways of Montmatre and dropped off us at the Metro station. By then we were already comfortable with the Metro system and headed straight for the hotel to take some rest and get ready for the night life offered by Paris.

 

Dinner was followed by an hours cruise on the river Seine and although it was raining and extremely cold, we managed to catch good sights and take some photographs. We then went to see the cabaret at Lido. The Lido has been a venue for the finest shows with the most famous names since 1946. The Lido is the stuff that amazement and dreams are made of. Its technical daring contributes to a ceaseless search for perfection. The show we attended was “Bonheur”- A magical one and a half hour show with extraordinary special effects, 600 lavish costumes, real ice skating rink on the stage, 70 artists, water effects and lasers. 

 On Day three, we started late with a trip to the Versailles palace. The palace was in all its glory and the ornate paintings inside, gardens and fountains outside were better than what we had read and heard. There was just so much to be photographed and we could barely manage to cover the gardens. It is no surprise that the maximum photographs in the album are from the palace. We got dropped off at the Eiffel again (we just did not feel like leaving it). A few more photographs and we were off to Arc de Triomphe. A flight of ‘not few’ stairs saw a panting Sudhir and Archana on top of this historical monument looking over the Champs Elysees. From there, bearing the rain, we went back to Louvre as we did not want to miss taking night shots of the museum from the outside. You will see that we managed to get some really nice pictures of the glass pyramid. By the time we reached the hotel, we were almost drenched and tired.

Day four was Notre Dame and it is an imposing structure as well. The river alongside is lined with small shops with souvenirs, sketches, paintings, books etc. We picked up a cartoon painting of a happy couple (imagining them to be us :) ). We saw some people getting their sketches made…very impressive…we just did not have enough time to get one made of ours, else that was certain.

 We managed to grab a sandwich at Subway before making our way to the Opera House. We had been informed earlier that the Opera house opens only in summer so were thrilled to find it open. Again, breathtaking place as the pictures will tell you. We were back at the hotel in time to pick our luggage and get into a cab to head for the station. Really tired and exhausted, we got into our coach and rested.