A Three day affair with Paris

It had been just a week since i landed here in Finland and sparks were flying about a trip to Paris, quite easily one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world. All the initial ticketing and reservation happened in a jiffy, thanks to all those enthusiastic souls, Ramapriya, Shruthi, Preethy and Syed. As far as im concerned i really need something like this to satiate my thirst for discovery and travel.

The day had come, 7th December 2006, packed my bag and all set to go, after a quick purchase of snacks, took the taxi to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Ah yes, remember guys, the best way to fit all those places of significant interest into a tight schedule is to squeeze out the food breaks, carry your food and eat while you shuttle between places (read Paris metro). So there we were, in the airport fiddling around with the newly acquired Euro 26 youth card that not only helped us get the air tickets at a marginally lower price but also reinforced the fact of us still being classified as youth ;)

So all said and done we were set to execute a carefully marked up plan to discover the city renowned for its neo-classical architecture and host for many museums, galleries and cathedrals. Not to mention its active night life and fine French cabarets. An airport shuttle transported us from terminal 1 of CDG airport to the nearby Metro Station. Paris has two types of underground trains, the color/numbered lines or metros that operate within city limits and the RER trains that operate even in the outskirts . The ticketing system is very good wherein you will use one ticket for one end to end transit. The RER tickets will cost around 5 to 10 euros based on the destination, and the local lines will cost you around a euro for a trip. We did not want to try the Metro at 11pm so we conveniently took the taxi to the hotel.

All the folks crashed into bed, while i still had some energy and wanted to explore the streets of Paris. End of day was at 2pm that night. Next day a quick breakfast constituting croissants, bread, butter, jam, hot chocolate and a glass of pineapple juice. We had to walk to the taxi station and a half hour wait before we got the taxi and met up with Shruthi at our hotel at Louis Michel who flew down from London. We took 10 metro tickets for 10 euros (which IMHO is more than sufficient for a three day trip like ours) and the metro map

We took the metro to Anvers and a 15 mins walk from the station to Sacré Coeur Basilica. The interior of the church contains one of the worlds largest mosaics, and depicts Christ with outstretched arms. Completed in 1914, it was not consecrated until 1919 after World War I had ended. From the top of the Dome, there is a panoramic view in all directions extending over 30 kilometers. Here we encountered strong winds which almost blew Ramapriya off the compound, the rain didn't help either. No pix of panoramic paris from here :(

Next on the itenary was Notre Dame cathedral which was seminal in the evolution of the French Gothic style. It is 110 ft high and the first cathedral built on a truly monumental scale. We took line 4 to Cite, then a 10 minutes walk past St Chappels and on the right is Notre Damm. We took the audioguides which is very informative and in my opinion an absolute must if you want to enjoy this monumet. It was late afternoon and we really wanted to spend the rest of the evening in Louvre. The pink line to Chatlet, thereon the yellow line to Royal Musee Du Louvre took us on a trail of Da Vinci code into the Lovre museum, the largest, oldest, most important and famous art gallery and museum in the world. The Pyramide Inversee got us all excited and offered a skylit though which we can see the Louvre itself.

Five hours inside the louve though all those never ending passageways cluttered with monuments from all over the globe finally brought us to Monalisa herself, our thirst was quenched!! We called it a day and exited from the Pyramid exit just to be awestruck to see the Louvre itself in all its splendor in the night, a kilometer on the right we were greeted by the charm of the Paris Opera house. But as always the night was young and so was i, Ledo was on the charts. The stage, the performers and the whole ambiance was something ill never forget and never witness anywhere else.

The day had come to an end and as one wise man said: “I have miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep”... ah, ignorant and decided to sleep instead, and save those miles for the days to come :D.

Day 2: a bright sunny day perfect to see the glamor of Chateau De Versailles, the place for the royal family till 1789. We took the RER from Saint Lazare just to witness scenes of a lifetime starting from the expansive palace entrance to the numerous drawing rooms (the Hercules drawing room is a must see), Opera House, bedrooms to the Palace gardens. The ceiling of every room are picturesque anecdotes in time. We took the audiophones which briefed us on the history behind this lavish splendor.

We left the glamorous versailles behind us and proceeded to get a glimpse of the 81 storied, 7300 ton, 1070 ft tall iron structure built next to the River Seine, commonly known as the Eiffel Tower :) Four queues extend from each foot foundation of the Eiffel lined with folks who want to get atop this most visited monument in the world. We took the stairs to the first level and thereon took the elevator to reach the third and final platform from where we got to see the spread of nightlight Paris that extended far into the horizon. Words can not explain to sight from here. After spending two hours we moved on to the Arc of Joan, we took the green line to Charles De Gaulle. The arc is located in the near center of Paris and from the top of the arc tower we got the see the quite evident nightlife of Paris and one of the most crowded and well lit, Charles De Gaulle street. After a couple of hours here we called it a day and retired to our hotel rooms. The next day we took the RER to Disney Land, we were quite prepared to wait in long queues with waiting times that stretched to an hour and a half. But every minute of waiting only added on the anticipation of witnessing something enchanting, and trust me, we were not disappointed :)

It was around 4pm when we had to rush back to our hotel rooms, pick up our luggage and reach the airport. All the connecting trains fell right into place as we boarded them in the nick of the moment, proof enough that we mastered the Paris metro system ;) All the sights are still fresh in my mind. Im writing this trip log to make sure that some day ill relive all those moments i spent in the awe aspiring monuments in Paris and in that nostalgia of the memory lane ill ride.