Jour Deux

or Day Two in Paris..

After a good night's sleep, we were up and about early the next day, this one promised to be a full day as well...so much to see and do..

There was a lovely little Pattiserie, Boulangerie Pattiserie a couple of minutes walk from our apartment. That's where we started each day in Paris, hot Cafe Au Lait's(2 for Nidhi :D ), wonderfully moist croissants(2 for Nidhi :D), macroons and maybe an odd cake(remember "intense" shweta?) to fill us up and prep us for the day ahead. The girls there were sweet and always threw in some little free tidbit for us..a coconut cookie, a macroon etc.

Word from the Wise: when you're out and about on a self guided tour, meal times are skewed. i.e. dont expect lunch at 12:30PM or Dinner at 8:00PM .. your best bet is to start the day with a full stomach..
After breakfast, we headed for our friendly neighbourhood metro, on the way I was so busy taking in the sights and sounds of everyday life in Paris that i walked into a pole :))

We took the metro to the station close to the Louvre, the museum was top on our list today... Once out of the station we started walking in the direction of the Louvre per our map, about a minute away from the station we saw a lovely building accross the street with lovely sculptures, so we stopped to admire/take pictures while we tried to figure out where the Louvre was. Finally we stopped and asked someone "Excuse me, Where is the Louvre"? - "Right there" (Points to the Building we were taking pictures of)..:)). It seems we were looking for the glass Pyramid, something that we identified with the Louvre, however we had ended up on the other side of the Louvre (the rear entrance) and so obviously..no Pyramid!!

Word from the Wise: Paris is not completely tourist friendly, even major attractions like the Louvre do not have clear signs outside indicating their esteemed presence. So when in doubt..ask to save time and effort..we found the people of Paris to be friendly and readily trying to help us in English.

We moved into the Louvre, through the doors into a courtyard - the courtyard dominated by a fountain and surrounded by other architecture and from the courtyard to the front. The building set in a U Shape has the most beautiful sculptures on the roof and in the centre - the Glass Pyramid.

The Main Glass Pyramid is surrounded by two smaller glass pyramids, and the main pyramid is now the main entrance into the Louvre. The structure was commissioned to be built in 1984 by then French President Francois Mitterand. There was a controvery at the time because people thought the modern glass pyramid structure was out of place in the otherwise classical architecture of the Louvre, but today, it is a much loved structure that everyone identifies with the Louvre.

We spent a lot of time admiring the Louvre from the outside (read taking pictures) and eventually went inside. Once inside we figured it was best to take an English Guided tour to truly appreciate the large museum, however, there were no english tours that day but there were the next, so we decided to come back.

Change of plans! Now instead of the Louvre, we took the metro again and headed for the Eiffel Tower. We had appreciated the Eiffel on day one already, however we didnt go up the tower. This time we got into a loong line waiting to get into the elevators to the top of the tower.

The Eiffel has four elevators for general use and a fifth elevator exclusively for patrons of the Jules Verne restaurant on the 2nd floor. It was built and for the world fair in 1889 to mark the centennial of the French Revolution and just like the Louvre Pyramid, people at the time were unhappy with the building of the structure and thought it would be a blot on the city's otherwise classical look

We waited in line for about an hour before we were in the elevator whizzing up to the 2nd floor. As you move up the view of the city starts to amaze you. On the 2nd floorAs soon as we hopped in the elevator we went esctatic. First stop was the 2nd floor which had great views of the entire city and a souvenier shop! Girls being Girls thats where we headed first, while Ashu being Ashu was setting up high tripod and clicking away somewhere ;)

Soon we were ready to hop on the 2nd elevator and go right to the top of the tower. The view of Paris is amazing, unlike the USofA where a view from the top would show you rectangle chunks of land, Paris has an almost circular layout, with a wonderful mix of architectural delights clearly visible from the top like the Louvre, Les Invalides etc. Other than the 360 degree view of the city they have all around tiny flags of different countries with names of their major cities in the general direction of where the city would be and with kilometers indicating how far the place is from the Eiffel. Yes, we were 7026 KM's from good Ol Mumbai!!

After spending a great deal of time taking in the sights of Paris we were ready to head out and get some food. We followed our Fodors guide book and walked for about 20 minutes - on lovely cobblestone streets - to a restaurant in the 7th district of Paris - Cafe Du march. The restaurant was closed and hungry as we were at that point, we walked right into the next door cafe. here we had some of the best stuffed pasta, pizza, wine and topped it off with tiramisu and creme brulee!! Aahh truly a lunch fit for kings!

Word from the Wise : Ashish was carrying the Fodors guide to paris, this helped us greatly in not only finding restaurants but also understanding the history of the places we visited. Definately worth the investment!

After lunch, we headed to Les Invalides. This was built as a hospital and home for the veterans by Louis XIV, today it comprises of museums and buildings dedicated to the military history of France. We reached the place about an hour before closing, so we only had time to see the most famous part of Les Invalides - The Royal Chapel containing Napoleans Tomb!

When you enter the center chapel, there is a gigantic hole in the center where you can see a gigantic casket, there are 7 caskets of different materials - one inside the other and in the innermost it is said are the remains of Napolean Bonaparte! Under the casket, all napoleans major victories are written on the marble flooring and all around on the walls are carvings indicating Napoleans Life.Here too we took an audio tour which greatly helped us appreciate the place.

On leaving Les Invalides, we realized while we were a little tired, Paris was shutting down for the day! Yes, most places close around 6-7 PM. We decided that since it was still early, we would mark off a few more places if only from the outside.

So we took the metro to a station close to St. Sulpice church (thats where the last pic below was taken :) ) and then walked and walked and walked from St Sulpice Church, past the Lucembourg Gardens, to the Pantheon and the Odean Theatre. All this aimless wandering was interesting but very very very tiring too... by the time we were done it seemed like we had seen the entire city on foot!!

We ended the day with dinner at a Tex Mex restaurant near the Odeon Theatre - a disappointing meal (esp after the awesome lunch we had that morning) - and we decided to stick to pasta for the rest of our days in Paris!

With semi full stomachs and very very tired feet..we headed back home and straight away hit the bed..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Bonjour Paris!

The day began for us @ 3:00 AM!

Getting there :

We got ready, dropped Ashish/Nidhi to the San Jose airport and reached Premal's place at 6 a.m. so that he could drop us to the San francisco airport - > Detroit (beautiful airport btw) -> Amsterdam (no brownies @ the airport :( ) -> Paris!!!

Even with the early start and uncomfortable sleep inflight we got off at Charles De Gaulle airport with a lot of excitement. My advice to travellers is to make use of the adrenaline rush you have on the day your vacation begins..make the most of that day..we surely did as you will see..

From the Airport we collected our bags and got on a Metro train towards the city, our route was Train from airport to Gare Du Nord Station, second train from Gare Du Nord to Oberkampf station where the apartment we had rented was. The total time this took was about an hour.

Word from the wise: Travel Light, the Metro stations in Paris do NOT have elevators or escalators, instead they have steep flights of stairs where you will have to lift your bags. Coming from a super "invalid" friendly country this came as a rude shock to me. If you cant travel light, travel with a handsome strong hunk who can help lift your bags like I did ;) I'm sure Dharmen's arms still ache at the thought of those bags!!

We finally reached our apartment, met the rest of our gang, dropped our bags in the living room, freshened up a bit and left for the day!

The Accomodation:

Our Paris apartment was a 2.5 bedroom, 2 bath place with no air conditioner that was advertised to us as a 3 bedroom, 3 bath - airconditioned place. The living quaters were tiny (but this I understand is a Parisian thing, even the hotel rooms have very very less square footage). Over all the place was clean and liveable but nothing to write home about.

Day 1:

On Leaving the apartment we got back onto the metro and went into the city.The Metro in Paris is a superbly connected web covering a large part of the city, so definately plan to use it as much as possible as cabs are quite expensive.

We got off at Hotel De Ville, and entered the city of Paris. My first impression of the city was - its a mixture of then and now. The Architecture, the buildings and statues you see all around you remind you of the old whereas the shops,the fashionable people and the cafes on the streets are all very now! Ah..Welcome to Paris!

We started walking seemingly aimless but with a general idea of where we were headed, taking in the lovely buildings all around us, till we reached the river Seine.The Seine (from the word Sacred in Gaulish) was a river bustling with life, boats passing through on a regular basis, people along its shores and us..taking in the view while standing on one of the 37 bridges that are built to cross this river within the city or Paris.

Moving on we passed the Palace Of Justice and came to St. Chapelle Cathedral which is located inside the palace of justice complex on the ile dela cite in the center of Paris.This Chapel was built by Louis IX, king of France, to house the crown of thorns and fragment of the true cross, relics from the passion of christ.

The Cathedral has a lower chapel (which was used by the palace staff in the 12th century) and the upper chapel, which housed the relics from the passion and was only used by the king and his family and friends. It is said, that in buying the relics Louis IX put France "on the map"!!

The upper cathedral has the most amazing stained glass paintings (most of them original 12th century stained glass!). What was amazing is the entire story of the bible is depicted in these glass paintings, you're supposed to read the panes in a certain order and it has all the stories from the bible.

We had binoculars with us and that really helped us see and appreciate the art on the glass much much more.

After leaving the cathedral we headed towards the most famous cathedral in the world! Yes..we visited Notre Dame!

Notre Dame - or "Our Lady" in French was built in the early 12th century in Gothic Style by the pope of that time because he envisioned a great royal cathedral and did everything to make it happen. The first thing you notice at the entrance are the amazing sculptures, depcting the apostles and jesus among other scenes.Then your eyes move up and you see the famous Gargoyles. Gargoyles are nothing but water spouts, built to take out any water from the roof, but they are built in (often scary looking) human/animal forms. During the rains when water accumulates on the roofs, the water comes out from the mouth of these figures making it seem like they are gargling!!

Entrance to the Cathedral was free and on entering the Cathedral we took the audio tour. Audio Tours we found were available in most places of tourist interest all through Europe and they were a great big help in appreciating the places we were visiting.

Using the audio tour, among various things .. we saw the statue of mary and child that is the first to be brought out of the church even today when there is any official procession in Paris, We saw and appreciated the lovely carvings depicting the resurrection of christ and we saw an amazing collection of gold coins each of which had the potrait of a pope, the collection is up-to-date having a coin for the last pope (John Paul 11) as well. It is difficult to describe the cathedral entirely it is truly a place that must be seen.

On leaving the Cathedral, we were starving!! so we decided to grab a quick lunch. We walked into a nearby Cafe and ordered our first french meal. Sandwhiches and french fries ..lol..not very french eh?

The food was average and I suppose the right thing to do is to never eat near the tourist places (at least that was our experience), the best food we ate throughout the trip was always away from any real tourist attraction.

With semi-full stomach's and rested feet, we started on our way again towards the Seine. This time, we actually got onto one of those boats ! The Batobus (you can see it in the pic), is a mode of transport in Paris, it has 8 stops in total, covering the major tourist attractions like the Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee d'Orsay, Champs Elysee and the Eiffel Tower!!

Our stop was to the Eiffel Tower, we enjoyed the boat ride and got a riverside view of most of the above attractions, it was also fun to see other boats pass by and to watch all the different styles of bridges we were crossing under. Eventually, we got our first glimpse of Tour De Eiffel!

My first reaction, I remember very clearly, was "well, its small". And it did appear smaller to me than what I'd imagined. I guess, with all that I had heard about the tower, since I was a kid, made me imagine it as a behemoth structure, now dont get me wrong, it IS a huge tower and most magnificient to see up front, but I just had to share my first reaction :)

Once at the tower, we were in awe, we took a million pictures (read Ashish did) and as it was getting dark, we saw the tower lighting up! This was the most amazing thing to see, the Eiffel seems to completely change, right before your eyes, into something completely magical!

Once it was compeltely dark, the tower started simmering!! yes, they had these mini white bulbs on the tower that went on n off giving the tower a "disco" look. This was not something we expected and there was a collective gasp of delight from all of us when this show started! At the Eiffel at night..aah..truly stuff romantic dreams are made of!

And what a way to end our first day in Paris..the Eiffel Tower at night truly made it memorable. After spending some time here, we took the boat and then the metro back to our apartment. We were exhausted and thrilled and I think still trying to take in everything we had seen within a day!

Somehow, Dharmen had the strength to make Maggie that night which he shared with Ashish and Nidhi, but soon after that it was beddy bye time for all of us..sweet dreams folks..see you on Day 2!

European Escape Saga

 

Our trip to Europe was something we had been talking about for days before we left, the planning for the same resulted in a thousand or so emails between our friends and Dharmen. Hotel Bookings, Visas, Food, Travel arrangements, things to do etc etc etc.

When you're not taking an arranged tour but planning the whole thing yourself it is a LOT of work and right at the onset of this saga..take a bow..start drumroll...Nidhi,Dharmen,Brajesh and Ashish...end drumroll.

The 4 players above planned a near perfect trip that Shweta (the other one ;) ) and myself enjoyed to the fullest.

In documenting this trip my goal is mainly personal, I visited places I have dreamed of since I was a kid and I want to remember as many details of the trip as I can.. however, I hope this also helps others Plan their trips to the Magical World of Europe.

During the course of the next 15 blogs I invite you to travel with me to Paris, Geneva, Interlaken, Lucerne, Zermatt,Venice, Florence and Rome.. tighten those seat belts..its a wild ride!!

The Sweetest Thing...

We've been busy..work, visiting relatives,friends,party's et al - have kept us hopping for the last 4 months. The pace of life has been such that we've not had a lot of time to do ALL the things we've wanted to.And my blogging has been one of those things that took a backseat in the process.

I love writing and reading and both these things have been neglected recently. I have been passively complaining about the latter but didn't think anyone was listening to my rants on the subject.

Our busy lives continued to rush by and then today, my husband remarked - "Why don't you blog anymore?". Huh?? My reaction was stemming from the fact that I thought my husband really didn't read my blogs much less appreciate them. He went on to say "Well, you have a real talent, you write so well.. you should keep writing"..WOW!! I was sooo touched..it spurred me back into writing.

The subject of my blog..my husband..he IS..the sweetest thing!

Up, Up and Away

Apprehension.. That's what I feel each time I strap on my seatbelt and get ready for take-off.

Even after flying on hundreds of flights the feeling keeps returning like a bad penny..

Now, I'm not morbid by nature nor claustrophobic in general, in fact right after takeoff im absolutely fine..but there's something about sitting in an enclosed tin box and leaving the security of the ground beneath my feet that gets to me

Today is no different, as I board my flight and get in my seat, as I wear my seatbelt and hear the engines whir on beneath me.. I smile. I smile to mask my apprehension , then I wonder if the guy sitting next to me can see the fear on my face neways ..

I look out the window and say a silent goodbye to the city.. I look at the ground beneath and hope to stand on it soon

The airplane starts moving.. I hear the flight attendants go through the safety instructions in the background.. But I'm looking out.. I see an In 'n' Out restuarant sign..is that to be the last thing I see on earth??

No no no.. I look for something else.. The plane turns on the runway ready for takeoff.. Aah I see the sea.. The magnificent open sea.. And a bridge.. A man made piece of art seemingly standing strong against mother natures power!

Yes, my confidence in man made machines strengthens.. The flight takes off.. As the wheels leave the runway.. I say a silent prayer.. And then.. Up up and awaaay............

Which do you love more..

the USofA or India?

I often get asked that question when I go back to India for a visit. A random aunt, an old grandmother, an odd uncle and sometimes even people I've only just been introduced to!

Sometimes, the question is asked with an open mind and out of mere curiosity, but more often that not, the person asking the question is expecting the answer to be "Of Course I love India! Its the country of my birth, how can anything take its place!! America is nothing compared to my India", as soon as I give the answer they expect, there's a smug smile on their face and things move along to other topics.

Once in a while, simply to see the reaction, I have mentioned "Oh! I like America, its so much better there", and the reaction I get is a disappointed look and a statement like "that country changes everyone!"

*Sigh*.. In all honesty, I don't have a favorite.

India - Is the country of my childhood, some of my fondest memories are in India, memories of idyllic times, zero responsibilities, carefree days, family fun. Its the country where the foundation of the person that I am today was set, I learnt from my school and my parents to be who I am today.

America - Is the country that gave me my first paycheck. It is where I learnt to be independent and take on responsibilities. It is the country that has provided an easier lifestyle for me, simply because of the amazing infrastructure they have here and it is the country where I owned my first home.Almost all of my adult memories are associated with America.

Asking me which country I love more, is like asking a mother which of her children does she love more! I love them both equally, so does this mean I don't ever want to go back to India?

I've thought about that, and the answer is no, I do and I will go back to India, part of the foundation that was set inside of me in childhood, taught me to love family above all else, and while I do have an easier life in the US, I sorely miss my family. Each time someone is sick back home, my heart is restless, my mind becomes numb, I ache to go back! And so I will.

But if ever, anyone wants the real answer from me of which I like better, I will have none, I love both places equally and America, just like India, has a special place in my heart and life.