My brother usually has sound judgement and so when he recommended that Paris as a holiday destination was not a great idea, I trusted that judgement and was not keen to visit. But as fate would have it, French embassy issued Schengen visa for the longest duration so we applied for a visa in January 2017 with Paris as the first destination.
The hordes of tourists, pushy street peddlers and risk of pick pocket thieves made me weary. So for once, I was going on a vacation that I was not particularly looking forward to. I still did my homework, printed maps of attractions and underground map to familiarise myself and plan an itinerary centred around the beauty below.
The hordes of tourists, pushy street peddlers and risk of pick pocket thieves made me weary. So for once, I was going on a vacation that I was not particularly looking forward to. I still did my homework, printed maps of attractions and underground map to familiarise myself and plan an itinerary centred around the beauty below.
We took a taxi to Kings Cross due to the early hour and were very pleased with the check-in, security and immigration process at St Pancreas station. There was no queue at all, no questions and no hassle. Once we were processed, we entered the waiting area which was better than any airport lounge I have been to. It was clean, elite with plenty of seating and there were very few people. We boarded the train at 7am and I had a sudden moment of realisation that the epic train scene of DDLJ was pictured at such a moment, just as the lead pair boarded Eurostar train from London to Paris!
The train was very comfortable and the journey time of two and a half hours passed quickly. When we landed in Paris and simply exited the railway station without the fuss of long immigration, more questions or luggage collection, we were convinced that Eurostar was absolutely the way to travel although there was no feeling of arriving in a foreign country. We found our way to the underground station on another floor of Gare du Nord and found the route to the metro station next to our hotel with ease as the underground map looked similar to London with several colourful overlapping routes.
The hotel was close enough to Cambronne station and the name of the street reminded me of Chandler from Friends. "My dad slept with Mr.Garibaldi!" It was on Boulevard Garibaldi and we were staying in Hotel Baldi. Roseline did our check in and was very kind and hospitable. Though we were very early for check-in, she stored away our luggage, gave us a map explaining the best routes to the key attractions, offered us the use of facilities and even gave me a free croissant. It was a perfect "Welcome to Paris" gesture. The lobby of the hotel held a poster with Audrey Hepburn's famous dialogue.
We decided to walk around instead of taking a train and ended up in a Subway franchise having an early lunch of sandwiches. We took a right a little further and suddenly there was the Eiffel Tower. For the rest of the day, we hung around the most iconic symbol of Paris. A carousel swirled around lazily playing accordion music and a couple suddenly started dancing to it in the sidewalk. It was a sweet dance and they ended it with a kiss which reminded me that we were in what was proclaimed to be one of the most romantic cities in the world.
We walked around the Eiffel Tower clicking pictures from every angle and walked to Trocadero for the best view of the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the second level of the tower itself to admire the wonderful views, we even stopped at the first level just to walk around on our way down and then took a sunset cruise on Sienne river from the bank right in front of the Eiffel Tower.
We walked back to our room picking up take away dinner on our way. The early start and long walks had made us tired enough to sleep early.
Next morning, the weather was so nice that after a light breakfast, we decided to walk to a nearby building that had attracted our attention. It was an impressive building that had a domed ceiling covered in gold colour. As we walked towards it, the wide streets and old buildings once again gave us a feeling of familiarity to Central London though there was a unique French flavour to the place too. The building that we noticed turned out to be Les Invalides, a complex of museums and monuments.
After admiring the views of the building from the outside against the clear blue sky, we walked to a nearby station to catch a train to Arc De Triomphe. As we exited the station, the view of the massive and impressive Arc De Triomphe was striking.
The carvings and statues on the arch were beautiful too. We bought tickets to climb to the top of the arch, which was promised by Napolean to his soldiers - You will return home under an arch of success! The climb to the top was unexpectedly long in a spiral staircase. The views were wonderful though, especially the symmetry of the streets around the arch.
Far away in the below view, we could see what I had nicknamed the Canary Wharf of Paris.
We walked down the entire stretch of the famous Champs Elysees avenue and turned right to see up close the most beautiful bridge in Paris, the Ponte Alexander. It was just as impressive from up close as it had appeared from cruise boat the previous night.
We walked further via Grand Palais, Jardines, Concorde, the observatory ferris wheel to the entrance of Louvre museum. It was a really long walk! Until before the Louvre museum, there was no sign of food and I got hungry and cranky enough that I would have started to eat my own hand soon. Finally we found fast food stalls outside Louvre gates and the vegetarian baguette with a slice of cheese and a leaf inside seemed to be made of rock rather than bread without any flavor or salt. In my hungry state, I still ate half of that. Once I was somewhat satisfied, I could eat that rock sandwich no longer and started feeding chunks to starlings, pigeons and sea gulls nearby. Considering how hard that bread was, I was guilty of bird cruelty. We also shared a waffle with caramel sauce which certainly uplifted my mood!
The milling crowds put us off from entering the Louvre museum itself which we decided to do the next day. We caught a train to Saint Michel station which was near Notre Dame cathedral. The famous and impressive building was just as gorgeous inside and outside. The beautiful statues outside, the inner sanctum, the serene silence, the aroma of burning candles and the stained glass paintings added to the appeal but the choir singing inside enhanced the ambience even further.
After Notre Dame cathedral, we caught the train to Sacre Ceour. It was a church perched on top of a hill with steps in front, ideal to watch the sunset from. We briefly stepped inside the cathedral and when we came back out, the sunset looked even more glorious in its last breath. There was interesting art on the walls around and gorgeous city views too.
An Irish pub nearby had the best sense of humour.
We caught a train to the hotel thrilled to have done a lot of sightseeing that day! Feeling we deserved a treat, we stepped into an Italian restaurant across the road from Hotel Baldi. Though the host seemed brusque to start with, the hospitality of the restaurant lay in its food. The pizza was the best we had ever had and the trick seemed to be in the fact that flavor was imbibed in the crust itself. Unlike usual pizza meals where saturation struck pretty soon, this meal was delicious until the last bite and we were almost regretful that it was over even then! We finished the meal with a shared sticky gelato platter and we could not have been more content. I am usually the more excitable and wordy one but after this meal, Lakshman was nearly poetic about how good the food was. We agreed on one thing though, this pizza would be the gold standard benchmark against which any future pizza meal would be measured and would most likely fail.
Too tired and too full to do anything else, I fell asleep by 9pm. But somehow the inherent heating of the room woke me at midnight and I was uneasy all night after that having properly slept for only 3-4hours.
We checked out of the hotel the next morning and once again Roselie was most accommodating agreeing to store our luggage until the evening. We had a much better breakfast the next day at another cafe with croissants and cheese omelettes. After breakfast, we went straight to Louvre museum. The ticket queues moved surprisingly quickly and we made a beeline for the Monalisa when we still had the stamina. About the art, we felt that there were much better works than the Monalisa in the museum but then art is subjective!
This painting seemed to say - don't bother me, ask the guy in the next painting.
The next painting seemed even ruder.
This seems to be a Barney Stinson type of situation, leave before she wakes up!
We spent a lot of time in the Egyptian section and the French paintings section. Slow walking with several stops made us really tired and within two hours the paintings nearly started to blur together. We left the museum having seen perhaps only 25% but utterly tired. The guide on the river cruise tour told us that the distance one would cover to see all the art within Louvre museum was over 14km so our condition was entirely predictable. We ate lunch at the Louvre cafe and left the premises to go to a place that not many tourists visit.
When Lakshman had told me the previous night about how the French gifted the statue of liberty to America and there was a replica in Paris, I was intrigued! And there it was, on an island in Sienne river. Though this replica was a fraction of the original statue's size, it was still massive on a high plinth. I found it a funny sight though, Statue of Liberty with Eiffel Tower in the background!
We walked a lot then all the way back to Eiffel Tower mainly to have another waffle and crepe. After saying our goodbyes to the Eiffel Tower, we took the train to our hotel to collect our luggage and headed to Gare Du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to London. If our onward journey was smooth as butter, return journey felt like a walk on a path of thorns. We had nearly run out of Euros despite taking plenty with us as Paris was ridiculously expensive. For our last dinner in Paris at the Saravana Bhavan by Gare Du Nord station, we had a budget of €20 which seemed like plenty before I checked their menu. Instead of the Gobi manchurian that I wanted to order, I had a plate of idli. The waiting area in the station was reminiscent of Chennai Central but it was very cold and raining a little. Once we reached the Eurostar section, there were long queues and no personal space. It took ages for us to clear immigration and security and when we had walked half a kilometre to the coach on the platform, we were told that the train was not yet cleared for security and were asked to go back all the way to the Eurostar waiting area which had no seats available. We had walked a lot, we were sleepy and it had been a really long day, so before long, we were sitting on the railway station floor from tiredness. When we finally boarded the train, we slept throughout the journey. The train stopped mid-journey which was surprising as it was a non-stop train. In my sleepy haze, I had an image of the Hogwarts express stopping unexpectedly and Dementors coming on board in Prizoner of Azkaban. Despite the unexpected stop, the train reached London bang on time and we were back home soon enough.
It was an interesting holiday overall. Thankfully we were not targeted by any thief and while the city was crowded with tourists and everything was expensive, there was an old world charm to it. Though the underground network was new to us and we had to change multiple trains to cover a journey, we navigated with easy confidence that felt amazing especially since we did not err even once! May be because it was so close to London and the birds we saw were the familiar robins, starlings and gulls, there was familiarity despite being in foreign land.
In preparation for the trip, I had tried to recollect the few French words I knew, but every time the need arose to speak to a local, somehow I was blank and said "Hello" instead of "Bonjour", "Thanks" instead of "Merci" and "Bye" instead of "Au Revoir". Embarrassingly, I even used sign language a few times but somehow we got by. Whether Paris is always a good idea, I am still not convinced but it is worth one visit I suppose, if only just to tick the Eiffel Tower or Louvre off a bucket list! 😀
The cruise also had a recorded guide of the attractions we passed by and we got a lay of the land in the one hour journey. Infact we changed our mind from going on the big bus hop on hop off tour the next day to seeing the sights ourselves using the underground. We watched the sky change colours and the lights turn on all around the city and just when we returned, the Eiffel tower sparkled in all its glory. What had looked like a rusty but impressive telephone tower in the weak afternoon sunshine was suddenly bejewelled and we were utterly besotted!
We walked back to our room picking up take away dinner on our way. The early start and long walks had made us tired enough to sleep early.
Next morning, the weather was so nice that after a light breakfast, we decided to walk to a nearby building that had attracted our attention. It was an impressive building that had a domed ceiling covered in gold colour. As we walked towards it, the wide streets and old buildings once again gave us a feeling of familiarity to Central London though there was a unique French flavour to the place too. The building that we noticed turned out to be Les Invalides, a complex of museums and monuments.
The carvings and statues on the arch were beautiful too. We bought tickets to climb to the top of the arch, which was promised by Napolean to his soldiers - You will return home under an arch of success! The climb to the top was unexpectedly long in a spiral staircase. The views were wonderful though, especially the symmetry of the streets around the arch.
Far away in the below view, we could see what I had nicknamed the Canary Wharf of Paris.
We walked down the entire stretch of the famous Champs Elysees avenue and turned right to see up close the most beautiful bridge in Paris, the Ponte Alexander. It was just as impressive from up close as it had appeared from cruise boat the previous night.
The milling crowds put us off from entering the Louvre museum itself which we decided to do the next day. We caught a train to Saint Michel station which was near Notre Dame cathedral. The famous and impressive building was just as gorgeous inside and outside. The beautiful statues outside, the inner sanctum, the serene silence, the aroma of burning candles and the stained glass paintings added to the appeal but the choir singing inside enhanced the ambience even further.
After Notre Dame cathedral, we caught the train to Sacre Ceour. It was a church perched on top of a hill with steps in front, ideal to watch the sunset from. We briefly stepped inside the cathedral and when we came back out, the sunset looked even more glorious in its last breath. There was interesting art on the walls around and gorgeous city views too.
An Irish pub nearby had the best sense of humour.
We caught a train to the hotel thrilled to have done a lot of sightseeing that day! Feeling we deserved a treat, we stepped into an Italian restaurant across the road from Hotel Baldi. Though the host seemed brusque to start with, the hospitality of the restaurant lay in its food. The pizza was the best we had ever had and the trick seemed to be in the fact that flavor was imbibed in the crust itself. Unlike usual pizza meals where saturation struck pretty soon, this meal was delicious until the last bite and we were almost regretful that it was over even then! We finished the meal with a shared sticky gelato platter and we could not have been more content. I am usually the more excitable and wordy one but after this meal, Lakshman was nearly poetic about how good the food was. We agreed on one thing though, this pizza would be the gold standard benchmark against which any future pizza meal would be measured and would most likely fail.
Too tired and too full to do anything else, I fell asleep by 9pm. But somehow the inherent heating of the room woke me at midnight and I was uneasy all night after that having properly slept for only 3-4hours.
We checked out of the hotel the next morning and once again Roselie was most accommodating agreeing to store our luggage until the evening. We had a much better breakfast the next day at another cafe with croissants and cheese omelettes. After breakfast, we went straight to Louvre museum. The ticket queues moved surprisingly quickly and we made a beeline for the Monalisa when we still had the stamina. About the art, we felt that there were much better works than the Monalisa in the museum but then art is subjective!
This painting seemed to say - don't bother me, ask the guy in the next painting.
The next painting seemed even ruder.
This seems to be a Barney Stinson type of situation, leave before she wakes up!
We spent a lot of time in the Egyptian section and the French paintings section. Slow walking with several stops made us really tired and within two hours the paintings nearly started to blur together. We left the museum having seen perhaps only 25% but utterly tired. The guide on the river cruise tour told us that the distance one would cover to see all the art within Louvre museum was over 14km so our condition was entirely predictable. We ate lunch at the Louvre cafe and left the premises to go to a place that not many tourists visit.
When Lakshman had told me the previous night about how the French gifted the statue of liberty to America and there was a replica in Paris, I was intrigued! And there it was, on an island in Sienne river. Though this replica was a fraction of the original statue's size, it was still massive on a high plinth. I found it a funny sight though, Statue of Liberty with Eiffel Tower in the background!
We walked a lot then all the way back to Eiffel Tower mainly to have another waffle and crepe. After saying our goodbyes to the Eiffel Tower, we took the train to our hotel to collect our luggage and headed to Gare Du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to London. If our onward journey was smooth as butter, return journey felt like a walk on a path of thorns. We had nearly run out of Euros despite taking plenty with us as Paris was ridiculously expensive. For our last dinner in Paris at the Saravana Bhavan by Gare Du Nord station, we had a budget of €20 which seemed like plenty before I checked their menu. Instead of the Gobi manchurian that I wanted to order, I had a plate of idli. The waiting area in the station was reminiscent of Chennai Central but it was very cold and raining a little. Once we reached the Eurostar section, there were long queues and no personal space. It took ages for us to clear immigration and security and when we had walked half a kilometre to the coach on the platform, we were told that the train was not yet cleared for security and were asked to go back all the way to the Eurostar waiting area which had no seats available. We had walked a lot, we were sleepy and it had been a really long day, so before long, we were sitting on the railway station floor from tiredness. When we finally boarded the train, we slept throughout the journey. The train stopped mid-journey which was surprising as it was a non-stop train. In my sleepy haze, I had an image of the Hogwarts express stopping unexpectedly and Dementors coming on board in Prizoner of Azkaban. Despite the unexpected stop, the train reached London bang on time and we were back home soon enough.
It was an interesting holiday overall. Thankfully we were not targeted by any thief and while the city was crowded with tourists and everything was expensive, there was an old world charm to it. Though the underground network was new to us and we had to change multiple trains to cover a journey, we navigated with easy confidence that felt amazing especially since we did not err even once! May be because it was so close to London and the birds we saw were the familiar robins, starlings and gulls, there was familiarity despite being in foreign land.
In preparation for the trip, I had tried to recollect the few French words I knew, but every time the need arose to speak to a local, somehow I was blank and said "Hello" instead of "Bonjour", "Thanks" instead of "Merci" and "Bye" instead of "Au Revoir". Embarrassingly, I even used sign language a few times but somehow we got by. Whether Paris is always a good idea, I am still not convinced but it is worth one visit I suppose, if only just to tick the Eiffel Tower or Louvre off a bucket list! 😀
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