After 2 ½ years of happy married life me and my Mrs., decided to go for a holiday. Our choice was Paris, thinking its going to be cheap and it’s not very far. After trying all possible travel websites, we “Eurekhad” a deal.
Other than Eiffel tower and Mona Lisa painting, no tourist place was known to me in Paris. My wife did a research in Wikipedia, Google images, local day tour guides and gave me a list of 12 museums, a shopping complex which icons the world fashion, historical places, Disneyland, opera halls and Notre-Dame/churches. But I took her only to Eiffel tower and the Museum De Louvre (Louvre Museum) where Mona Lisa is.
Eiffel Tower is the second wonder I am visiting (obviously the first one is…Taj Mahal) and pretty excited. The similarity between Eiffel tower and Taj Mahal is its wonder is felt as you walk close to it. Reaching the top of the Eiffel tower and looking down gave me the childhood memory of being in the terrace of grandparents’ house and watching the roads from there. I also had the same childhood temptation of spitting on someone from the top, but this time it did not materialise.
Many smokers lighted up the cigarette as soon as they reached the top and blew the smoke down at the earth. Wished I continued that college habit. There were few wax statues on the top but nothing as exciting as the view offered. After taking many photographs to show others and grump around, we came down to board a cruise for a city tour and loose pounds.
Down the Eiffel tower it was interesting to see many beggars, but they are years behind the begging techniques from India. Food was a major problem, especially for vegetarians. I was looking for the McDonalds ‘M’ as other restaurant were stinking with horse, snail and frog meat.
Louvre museum is special for Mona Lisa. It is indeed worth spending some time in front of this painting and to try decoding the Davinci’s code. Its worth buying a souvenir of Mona Lisa sold outside the museum.
Just like Paris corner in Chennai, every corner in Paris was jammed in traffic. It was also new to see the taxi drivers in a 3 piece suit. I spent nearly £300 only for the taxi charges in my 3 days trip….thanks to the bus and the metro rail strike in France.
The good things I noticed in France is even its peripherals are multicultural. Also, though being only few miles away from UK it was difficult to see a billboard, newspaper, menu card (even in ‘M’), and city map in English language. We are 60 years away from the UK, but we still have the boards in English and not in our own languages in India. Shouldn’t we think about it? Post your comments just like that!
