Three countries, four cites and unlimited fun… last two months had been a dream come true… and the dream run was to continue with us heading to the City of Light, Paris. Weather in Stockholm was still well below freezing point, but fortunately Paris’ forecast was much better. This time we were a smaller group with Akhil, Shipra, Eva and of-course myself. :)
We took the 6:00 PM Ryan Air flight from Stockholm Skavsta airport on Friday, 4th February, and reached Paris Beauvais airport at around 8:15PM. The only good thing with Ryan Air, apart from low fares, is its punctuality. Beauvais is around 80 Kms away from the city and it took us almost 1.5 hours to reach Porte Maillot in Paris. Underground metro station is nearby and few cities in the world would have a better network of metros.
The Hotel
We reached our pre booked “Hotel Est” at around 11:15Pm. The hotel was decent, just that, we got tricked into thinking that they provide free breakfast, but they charged 7Eur pp/day instead. Another problem was that we got ground floor rooms facing the road, with traffic noise a little irritating at times.
The Louvre Museum
Top Row: Some sculptures at Louvre
Bottom row: The Mona Lisa, Beautifully painted roofs, Huge wall size paintings
The next morning, we left the hotel after breakfast and our first destination was the “Louvre Museum”, one of the world’s largest and most visited art museum. Even if you have no eye for art, just like me, a trip to Paris is definitely incomplete without visiting Louvre. The museum is so huge that just passing through all the sections requires a couple of hours. First thing that we did was to grab a map and an audio guide.
The first section (if you enter from the same gate as we did.. :) ) consists of various sculptures while the later ones have more of paintings. The Mona Lisa painting, by Leonardo da Vinci definitely is the star attraction, but to a non art connoisseur like me, there were hundreds of other paintings which looked better. And the pyramid outside the Louvre, made famous by the novel “Da Vinci Code”, looks like an artwork in itself.
The Eiffel Tower
Top Row: Trying to capture the full Eiffel somehow
Bottom Row: Views from the top of Eiffel
After spending a good part of our day at Louvre, we headed towards the Eiffel tower, which definitely needs no introduction. Tower is a 10 minutes walk away from the metro station, and throughout the walk, vendors keep trying to sell Eiffel Souvenirs to you. As we were approaching the tall and majestic global icon, a strange sense of excitement had started to creep in.. We were actually going to climb the Eiffel.
The tower has four entry points, one at each of its four pillars. But at the time, two of them were closed for renovation (one of the perils of going in off-season). Out of the rest two, one was open for stairs, while other for lift. While we wanted to take stairs, the queue there was much bigger as compared to the lift one, so we bought tickets to that. After almost an hour of waiting, we finally got inside the lift and started our ascent…
The view from the top was awesome. The wind was blowing pretty hard and am not sure whether it was the cold, or the excitement, but we had goose bumps. Thank God for the digital cameras, we clicked dozens of photographs from every angle possible (wish i had my SLR then.. :( ). Still only half way through, but the trip was already a success.
Luxembourg Garden
Luxembourg Garden views
Deciding to return back to Eiffel after dark, we went to see the famous Luxembourg gardens in the meanwhile. The gardens came out to be better than what we had imagined. Beautifully landscaped, with variety of flora and decorated with numerous sculptures, the garden was a treat to watch. But the nightlight of our trip was what happened next. A group of ladies with one of them funnily dressed came up to us. They asked me and Akhil to write a message for that girl on a piece of lady’s undergarment. They also “made us” give a peck on that lady’s cheeks… ;).. Our wives would never understand that we were just trying to help the poor soul.. ;).. Actually the girl was to get married soon and her friends had thrown her a pre-wedding challenge to do this to 20 unknown foreigner guys.. as part of their hen party.:) ..
Eiffel at night
Left to right: Eiffel at night, The gang:[Eva, Myself, Shipra, Akhil and Ashish], Eiffel with special lighting at 8:00PM
While a view from the top of Eiffel during daytime is amazing, the Eiffel itself looks stunning after dark. And at the stroke of each hour, it is lit up by special sparkling lighting for a couple of minutes. So we returned to the tower at around 7:15 in the evening and also met one of my college time friends, Ashish Manchanda, who was doing his MBA from Paris during the time. He took us to an elevated place across the road in front of Eiffel which game breathtaking views of the tower. From there we enjoyed the 8:00PM special lighting, and also clicked lot more photographs.
Champ Elysees and Arc De Triomphe
Left to right: Arc De Triomphe, Champ Elysees view1, Champ Elysees view2
Next we moved on to one of world’s most famous streets, The Champ Elysees. I hate going to such streets as they make me feel a lot poorer than what I am… I probably couldn’t have afforded a single item from any of the shops there… But the street was a visual extravaganza with showrooms of all the names of world fashion industry, and parking lots filled with some of the costliest luxury cars.. One end of the street was the famous monument Arc De Trimomphe, quite similar to Arc de Triomf in Barcelona and Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Stroll along the River Seine
Left to right: On the banks of Seine with Eiffel in background, One of the sculptures on the bank, Louvre pyramid at night
It was pretty late in the night, but we didn’t feel like going to our hotel. So we went for a stroll along the River Seine. The river shoreline is beautifully decorated with pruned trees and various sculptures. We started our walk near the Concorde metro station and continued till Louvre from where we took the metro back to our hotel. The dinner that night was at an Indian restaurant just outside our hotel which was run by a Pakistani and served delicious food.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Left to right: Notre Dame exterior, Notre Dame interior, View from the top of Notre Dame
First on our agenda for the next day was the Notre Dame Cathedral, widely considered as one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe. The church interior was almost similar to the other famous churches we had seen (one in almost each European city), but the exterior was definitely superior. Also, we bought tickets to go to the top of the tower, which were reached by climbing 386 stairs through a narrow pathway. But it provided an absolutely beautiful view of the River Seine and the whole city and was worth the effort (and money).
Montmartre and the Sacre-Coeur church
Left to right: Cog wheel trolley, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre market
The final spot on our must visit list was the Montmartre hill. Its a cozy little area on top of a small hill with nice and trendy streets, lots of bakeries, bistros and flower shops. I found Montmartre to be one of the most lively places in Paris. The Sacre Coeur church on the top of the hill is quite beautiful and so is the small cog wheel trolley experience that takes you up there. The church is located on the highest point of the city and gives a nice view of whole Montmartre.
All the things we had on our planned itinerary had been checked… We still had almost 3 hours before our airport bus were to leave, and we were pretty tired as well, So we spent the next couple of hours at a Starbucks enjoying the coffee, cookies, cakes and some conversation…. I don’t remember exactly, but we must have been praising ourselves for such a smooth, “incident less” trip where everything went as planned.. :)
Finally we took the 8:30 Ryan Air flight back from Paris Beauvais to Stockholm and reached well past midnight. The office was waiting for the next morning :(
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