Travel - Paris through my eyes - MARCH 16 – 25, 2012

We left Washington DC for Paris late at night on Friday, March 16. Our friends Arvind and Suniti came home to take us to the airport. The temperature was a balmy 74° F at 9 PM when we set out for the airport! That certainly made us a bit hot and uncomfortable in the sweater and coat that we had donned to save space in our suitcases. We reached the airport well on time and the check-in was smooth and painless. The nice lady at the counter even let us put our coats into the checked in bags.

Atish and I had three seats to ourselves on the plane and we tried to catch some sleep between watching portions of different movies and stewardesses’ bringing us food/drinks. We reached London almost on time. Mohima was expected to join us at Heathrow and fly with us to Paris; but we did not know how to find her in the sprawling terminal 5 of Heathrow. I asked one of the friendly shopkeepers, who was trying to sell me some Chanel perfume, how I could page Mohima so we could meet up with her. He immediately took his cell phone out and let me call her. We found out that she was finishing up the last crumbs of her breakfast at a nearby Starbucks. After some squealing and hugging, we went with her to another eatery, imaginatively called the “Eat”, to find out if they had my favorite breakfast (their porridge!!) which I had so enjoyed on a previous trip. They regretfully informed us that it was past their breakfast time and offered us some equally healthy lunch fare. We waited at the airport for a couple of hours, catching up with Mohima on her news before we were on our way to “le Paris”!

Day 1 - Saturday – The flight was short and sweet. When we landed, we decided to check out the tourism office at the airport. Little did we realize the vast expanse that Chares de Gaulle airport was, for we walked about a mile before we found the first tourist office that was open. We got all the information from a friendly English speaking agent. It was well past 5 PM by then and we hired a taxi to go to our hotel Novotel, which was within the Paris city limits. During our long ride to the hotel, we chatted up our cabbie who spoke a smattering of English.

The hotel looked clean, comfortable, and tastefully furnished. Our reservation clerk Qadar gave us some chocolates (in celebration of St. Patty’s day) and told us to come down later for a complimentary drink in the bar. Up in our cozy room, we unwound for a bit and freshened up before venturing out. We took the advice of one of the hotel staff to check out the view from the top floor of the hotel. There, we were greeted by a beautifully lit Eiffel tower! This was our very first sighting of the tower and we had many many more during our stay. (A French friend of mine used to say “You can see the darned tower from WHEREVER you go in Paris”!)

Our cabbie had told us that our hotel is in a good location and is surrounded by good restaurants. We decided to check that out and sauntered down the street, in search of a French restaurant. When we saw Le Toucan, it seemed French enough to us J and we were greeted in by a young handsome French steward. We asked our customary question about availability of vegetarian fare and he showed us a couple of vegetarian dishes on the menu, which were good enough for us to decide to eat there.

The restaurant had a good ambience with wood paneled walls and artful decor. We followed Suniti’s advice of ordering wine instead of water (except for Mohima, of course)! The food was quite tasty and the portions comfortable. We all ate our meal to the last morsel and were quite sated too. We returned to our hotel after 11 PM, pored over print outs of Paris-visit-advice from our friends back home. After due consideration, we decided to start our next day with the Eiffel tower and then we hit the hay.

Day 2 – Sunday - We walked over to the Vaugirard metro station, which was just about 50 yards from our hotel, went to the ticket machine, which offered us many options. After a brief Franco-English conversation with the metro station staff, we figured that un carnet (a pack of 10 tickets) would best suit our purposes and got ready for our first trip on the Paris metro.

Following our French friend Greg’s advice, we took the metro to Trocadaro, even though all maps and co-metro-riders suggested that Bir Hakeim was the nearest stop for the Eiffel tower. When we got out of the metro, it was drizzling – one of the few occasions in our lives when it rained even though we had brought our umbrellas along! Within a few minutes’ walk, we were treated to what I would call the BEST view of Tour Eiffel. (Thank you Greg! I am sure this excellent tip is not there in any tour guide.) We spent about an hour drinking in the beauty of the surroundings and the tower standing tall at the back. The slight drizzle did not seem to matter at all. It just made the setting more beautiful and romantic.

As we walked from there towards the tower, the aroma of fresh nutella crepes pulled us towards a food stall. We were not sure about food near tourist traps, but this time, we trusted my nose and we lucked out! The nutella & amande crepe was yummy! We were fascinated by the little tool that they used to spread the crepe batter on the griddle. It was a simple T-shaped tool made of wood (as shown) and my first instinct was to try that tool to make dosas back at home! Relishing our delicious crepe, we roamed under and around Tour Eiffel and took all the pictures we wanted. I quizzed Mohima with the question that appa asked me forty years ago! (or more? So, who is counting?) The question was how many nuts and bolts were used in building the tower?

From there, we walked along the tree-lined path along Champs de Mars towards a building that looked architecturally interesting. As we walked along, we were struck by the manner in which tops of trees on either side were cut into cubical shapes. Sans leaves, these trees looked quite striking and unusual.

The building that had caught our attention was a military school. The École Militaire was founded by Louis XV in 1750 and was opened in 1760. This school admitted young Napoleon Bonaparte at a tender age of 15 where he trained to become an artillery officer. When his father's death reduced his family income, he was forced to complete the two-year course in one year.

Across a field from the military school; we found a curious structure called the Peace Wall. We were amused by the juxtaposition of the two – the peace wall and the military school facing each other! The design of the peace wall was inspired by the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem. The wall has small chinks where visitors can put their messages of peace. By its side are many pillars, with inscriptions of the word “peace” in popular languages of the world. We were happy to find शान्ति written in Hindi many times over on one of the pillars. (This structure was inaugurated in 2000 and hence, I had not seen it on my trip with appa and Hema.)

Atish got quite engrossed in the soccer match that two teams of enthusiastic youngsters were playing (in the rain!) on the field there. Watching a soccer game really brings out the Bengali in him!

The next on our plan was a visit to Les Invalides, which was just a walk away from the military school. On our way, we saw a few youngsters emerge from a boulangerie slurping down yummy looking desserts. We decided to go in and boy, what a din there was as we entered, with all the pastries screaming “me! Me! Me! We exercised utmost self control (!) and walked out with just a lemon pastry, a hazelnut chocolate and vanilla pastry, and a croque monsieur. (Croque monsieur is just a fancy French name for a hot ham and cheese grilled sandwich.)

We walked along slowly, munching the delicacies and it was evening by the time we reached Les Invalides. It is the burial site for Napoleon Bonaparte and other war heroes. There are museums inside, showcasing France’s military history. There is also a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans. For this reason, it is also called L'Hôtel National des Invalides, which means the National Residence of the Invalid. We walked on from there along Musée Rodin, before taking a metro to Arc de Triomphe, which is one of the few attractions in Paris that is open late into the evening. This makes it convenient for tourists to visit after museums and churches are closed for the day. Entrance to the arc is included in the Paris Museum Pass. But, we had not yet got our passes yet.

Just as we “sortie’d” the Charles De Gaulle – Étoile metro station, we saw the commanding arch standing majestically in front of us. At 50 metres high, it is the second largest in the world after the Triumphal Arch in Pyongyang in North Korea. It is one of the most famous monuments of Paris. The design of India Gate in Delhi was inspired by the Arc de Triomphe.

It is a war memorial which honors martyrs from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Names of martyrs are inscribed on the inner and outer surfaces of the arch. The arch embraces the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the eternal flame.

The arch stands on a roundabout called Place Charles de Gaulle, one of the busiest roundabouts in Paris, at the western end of the Champs-Elysees. Radiating from the roundabout on which the arch stands, are various boulevards of Paris, the most famous one being the Champs Elysees. Since the roads look like a star from the top of the arch, the place is also called Place de l’étoile. (étoile = star).

In singular theory, there is a number called Milnor number which indicates the complexity of an intersection. To explain it in simple terms, an arbitrary point along the road has Milnor number 0, while a crossroad where two roads intersect has Milnor number 1. The Place de l` Étoile has a Milnor number of 25!

I recalled that when appa, Hema and I visited this place a few decades ago, Hema and I got a kick because we got to check off three items on our list of places to visit (Arc du Triomphe, Place de l’Etoile, and Champs Elysees) in one fell swoop!

The evening was very pleasant and the sky was a beautiful baby blue and we spent quite a bit of time enjoying every aspect of the evening. Mohima was excited about going to the top of the arch to see the “étoile” in its full splendor. We went to the underground walkway to get our tickets and when we were ready to ascend the arch, we were surprised (shocked?) to find that we had to climb up the stairs – 284 steps on a spiral staircase!! No elevators! Once we were on top, we felt it was well worth the exercise because the view of Paris from there was quite breathtaking. We appreciated views of Paris from the various sides of the arch and often waited for inordinate amounts of time for all the lovey-dovey couples to step back into reality, and vacate vantage points from where we could take pictures!

We then returned to tour Eiffel with the hope of catching the lighting show that we heard about at 9 PM, and to have dinner on top of the tower. When we went to book our dinner tickets, we found that it was all booked a few days out and it was impossible to find a table that day. Our initial disappointment at the news was almost fully effaced when we saw the whole tower come a-sparkle exactly at 9 PM. It looked cheerfully festive and Christmas-like. It was a surprise too for we did not know what exactly to expect at 9 PM. We soaked in that festive mood for a bit and then walked over to Il Sorentino, an Italian restaurant, not too far from the Eiffel tower. They served a great minestrone soup for vegetarians. Well fed and fully sated, we returned to our hotel.

Day 3 - Monday –We decided to go to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, a Roman catholic church that was consecrated in 1919, after the end of World War I. It stands on top of the Montmartre hill, the highest point in the city. The morning sun greeted us brightly on this spring-like day. The beautiful white architecture standing against the backdrop of the crisp blue sky was a sight to behold. The soft embrace of warm rays of the sun felt comforting in the mild winter breeze. We climbed several steps to go to the church, the inside of which looked glorious, yet solemn. There was a soft glow from the hundreds of candles – tea light ones and larger ones – that devotees had lit in prayer. We too lit one and felt at peace in the serene atmosphere inside the church.

Taking our friend Greg’s tip (again), we then wandered to the left of the basilica looking for current day artists painting, exhibiting, and selling their art. Montmartre is considered to be the Mecca for French artists. There were about fifty artists there, engrossed in painting and talking to potential customers. We saw painters paint and sketchers sketch. We talked in our broken French to some of them. Some of them demonstrated their techniques. There were all kinds of artists there; modern artists - some impressionists, some abstract stylists, portrait painters, and some classical realist painters of landscape and still life. Different artists used different painting media like oil, pastel, acrylic, water color, and spray paint. They used different tools too – not just brushes. Some were very ingenious 3-D art forms. All in all, quite an interesting place to spend time in, despite being a tourist trap where portrait painters insist that you have a face that deserved to be sketched - for just a few Euros!

We picked up some crepes and a croque monsieur from a nearby eatery and ate while a couple of artists were doing paper cut outs of our faces (without our asking for it!) Of course, we felt obliged to purchase them for ten Euros and then we were on our way to our next stop - the Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame, the most famous of all cathedrals, is located on Île de la Cité, a small island in the cradle of Paris, which has always been the religious center of the city. Its construction began in 1163 and it was designed to be built in the new gothic architecture and was intended to reflect Paris's high status as the capital of Kingdom France. It took nearly 200 years to complete, partly because the design was enlarged during construction (scope creep!). When it opened in1345, it was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress i.e. the arched exterior supports.

 The west facade of this amazing gothic architecture features three wide portals with outstanding (pun intended!)  sculptures. Above the portals is the gallery of kings, 28 statues of Judean Kings, above which are the famous gargoyles and grotesques. These gargoyles were originally colored, as was most of the exterior. The paint has worn off, but the now grey stone was once covered with vivid colors. I, for one, felt that the cathedral looked more dignified in its current natural stone color.

It is within the hallowed walls of Notre Dame that Napoleon’s coronation was celebrated in 1804. An enormous, yet beautifully delicate painting of this event (by Jacques-Louis David) is displayed at the Louvre.

Paris is getting ready to celebrate 850 years of Notre Dame’s history, art, and spirituality, starting December 2012. The celebration will last one full year, marked by many ceremonies, cultural events, and renovation of some parts of the cathedral.

When we entered the church, the evening mass was in progress. People attending the mass were all seated quietly in the large hall and hundreds of visitors were standing behind them, taking pictures. We walked along the hallway admiring those beautiful stained glass windows. One particular window, called the west rose window, is about 10 meters in diameter and is exceptionally beautiful. We lit a candle here too, and added ours to hundreds of candles lit by devotees. The burning incense and the choral music added to the spiritual ambience of the church. We took our own time in the church, admiring sculptures, the architecture, the organ, the model of Notre Dame, feeling if only for a moment like we were part of that history.

We walked from there to Hotel de Ville which houses the city mayor’s office and its municipal administration office. The building looked quite grand and the large concrete front yard was busy with people milling about. We found a nice café nearby, to have our evening cup of Darjeeling tea and then we decided to explore Saint Germaine, a famous boulevard of Paris. Full of young people, it gave it the energetic and effervescent feel of a university town. It made us feel young too. J We went into a store there and bought a couple of earrings for Mohima.

As night fell, we walked along the Seine and suddenly heard what seemed like an open air concert. We soon discovered that it was an ensemble of young wind instrumentalists and drummers jamming together by the river. We walked down the steps to join them. They seemed quite oblivious of anything else but the music and seemed to be in the “zone”. The beer and the wine that were being passed around probably helped them get there quicker! It was quite a charming experience and we hung out there for about ten minutes and then were on our way. That night, we needed to return early to our hotel room because Mohima had a skype appointment with her academic counselor at William and Mary. 

As we crossed over Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine, we were intrigued to find thousands of padlocks attached to railings of the bridge. We noticed that the locks had written on them a man and a woman’s name and a date. We stopped a local middle-aged French lady and asked her what these were. She smiled and seemed a little shy while responding in part French and part action that lovers put these locks on the bridge as a sign of their undying love!

We picked up sandwiches, chips, drinks, and fruits on the way, went to the top floor of our hotel and had dinner with a view of the brightly lit Tour Eiffel. As a bonus, we saw the special light show on the tower at 10 PM. The Eiffel tower “sparkle show” happens for about five minutes, every hour on the hour after dusk.

Day 4 - Tuesday – It was again a dazzlingly bright and sunny day and we decided to start with the Luxembourg garden, which is the second largest park in Paris and perhaps the most popular one. The park was originally owned by the duke of Luxemburg, and hence the name. We learned that the garden was laid out in Italian style on request of Marie de' Medici (mother of Louis the XIII), who had purchased the place from the Duke. She was of Italian descent and the Boboli gardens of the palace where she spent her youth were the inspiration for this garden. In the 19th century, this garden was redesigned in a more French style; but the original layout has been preserved.

The grandiose Luxembourg palace is within this garden and it houses the French senate. The garden is attractive with gorgeous sculptures, fountains, and play area for kids etc. I was told that these gardens are featured prominently in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. It is in these gardens that two major characters of the novel meet and this is where the main love story of the novel unfolds. The garden was fully alive that day with almost all of Paris assembled there! There were students, office-goers, young moms with babies, tourists – all making the best out of a beautiful day. Some were just basking in the warm sun, some reading a book, drawing, or simply having their lunch. We sat down at the outdoor restaurant in the park, had some crepes and coffee, enjoying the scenery, soaking in the warmth and the breeze, and then we hoofed it to the pantheon.

The facade of le pantheon is modeled after the pantheon in Rome. This one serves as a mausoleum for all distinguished French citizens who have already met their maker. We strolled from there to la Sorbonne, one of Europe’s earliest, and France’s most famous university. We got to enjoy the surroundings and the student milieu, but were not allowed to go inside the buildings. Then, we walked along boulevard Saint Michel, which is the other major boulevard of the Latin quarter. The boulevard was broad and tree-lined and there were young folks flitting about everywhere, like butterflies.

The Latin quarter of Paris, which includes La Sorbonne and the Luxembourg Garden, is a truly charismatic place. It has several streets and alleys filled with art galleries (shops). We went into several of these and were quite impressed with the creativity and variety in the art that we saw. We saw one gallery called the Piece unique, with just one piece of art. The artist wants to present just one unique thing at a time in this gallery. On display at this time was artist Henri Foucault’s creation called L’Espace Entre Nous (The Space Between Us).

At dusk, we decided to go on the Seine river cruise, hoping that about half way into the cruise, the city of lights would light up for us and sure enough it put up quite a show! Our cruise guide introduced to us each bridge that we went under and gave a bit of history of each one. She also showed us all the famous buildings that we could see from our boat. She spoke in French and then translated everything she said to English for people like us. The cruise lasted for about an hour and we were pleased that we decided to go on it.  

There are 32 bridges over the Seine, with Pont Alexandre being the most ornate. It is constructed from steel and stone in Art Nouveau style. We also learnt that Pont Neuf, which means new bridge, is actually the oldest bridge in Paris. It dates back to 1578. Pont Neuf was the first stone bridge in Paris, and the first with pavements. The one that crosses Seine at the Louvre is called Pont du carrousel.

From there, we walked to the metro to take a train to Vaugirard, the closest station to our hotel. That night, we wanted to try the Libyan restaurant near our hotel, which we had noticed was choc-a-bloc full the previous day. We tried their smorgasbord of appetizers – one vegetarian and one not. From the description, it seemed like that would be plenty of food for us. But, we discovered that it really was not and Atish and Mohima ordered a kabab dish to finish off their dinner.

This is perhaps a good time to pause and write about our general impression of Paris. There is more to this vibrant city than the Eiffel tower and Arc de Triomphe. This is truly a city of lights, love, and famous labels. This city is perhaps one of the most culturally rich cities in the world. It teems with museums – the best of its kind. One could spend weeks at the Louvre to do it full justice. We spent two days there, but felt that we hardly made a dent. We did not have enough superlatives to describe each section that we visited and there were many sections that we could not even visit. There are dozens of wonderful museums of all kinds, musee’ d’Orsay for sculpture and art by French masters, musee’ Rodin for the largest collection of the Rodin’s sculptures, to name just a couple. Parisians truly believe that the earth without art is just “eh”!

The architecture of monuments and museums in the city is exquisitely elegant. Paris has some of the most stunning cathedrals and churches that attest to its strong heritage of Christianity. (Many of these fell into near-ruin in the wake of the French revolution, but were restored in the 19th century.) It seemed to us like in every block of Paris, there was a building or a fountain or a church that held a piece of history. The cobblestone streets with quaint fountains and sculptures at their junctions add a rustic charm to the city. Paris is perhaps one of the best-preserved cities in the world. The city drips with history. There is so much you learn of French history by spending time in Paris. We were also impressed that young residents of the Euro zone between the ages of 18 and 25, were allowed to visit most of these remarkable places for free. I guess it is France’s way of encouraging youngsters to know their art, culture, and history. Because Mohima lives in the UK now, she got free entrance to many places.

Music is also an integral part of Parisian culture. Whether it is on the station or in the train or just by the river, folks bring their musical instruments and sing and play music. One creative puppeteer conducted a full puppet show single-handedly – curtains and all – in a train between stations. These ad-hoc displays of talent add more color and life to the place, while letting these artists earn their bread (or cake?!!).

Paris is the city of romance, and a tremendously popular destination for couples, lovers and honeymooners. The city is filled with amorous couples all intertwined, unmindful of the world around them! Love is simply in the air of this city.

Everyone seems well coifed and well maintained - so much so that the café-du-terraces cash in on this by setting their tables so diners can face the streets and view all the fashionable people strolling by! You can sense the high fashion (haute couture) all the way from the high end showrooms of Paris to Parisians promenading along Champs Elysees! Every Parisian seems to take care of his/her looks and clothes and presents remarkably well. Paris is also a cosmopolitan city with mix of Africans (a lot of Moroccans), Asians and Europeans. I did not see as many Indians as I see in the US though.

There are plenty of parks that are well designed and cultivated, with plenty of chairs for people to have a relaxing time amidst nature. People walk a lot in Paris. Parisians’ slim figures bear testimony to this. I did not see a single obese Parisian. American media often credit wine-drinking by the French to their healthy hearts. I believe that their walking habits certainly contribute to their good health. Leisurely walks in the parks must definitely help reduce their stress levels too. 

Ah the food! There are restaurants everywhere. For those who can afford, there are plenty of French and Italian restaurants. There are also boulangeries and brasseries in every corner, with delicious food and baked goods. I cannot expound too much on the variety of food since I am a vegetarianJ; but food is a huge part of the Paris experience.

And the night life in Paris is, of course, legendary. The city never seems to sleep! Though we did not experience any night clubs or cabaret joints during this trip, we walked by them. The serpentine line of people outside these waiting to get in and the lack of available seating for a few days out, told us the story of how popular these places are. Prices are exorbitant; but people definitely don’t seem to mind the price tag.

In terms of getting around, Paris is hard to beat. Paris has one of the densest metro systems in the world and one of its busiest. Its 16-line network gets you within blocks of wherever you want to go in the city of Paris. We did not wait for more than three minutes for a train at any of the numerous stations we went to. Since we did not set aside any time for exercise during our vacation, I was glad that we got to walk around and climb stairs at most stations since not many have escalators.

Oh! And the metro's art nouveau entrances are iconic symbols of Paris. Most have cast iron balustrades decorated with botanical motifs. The stairwell entrances are usually adorned with a decorative arch, upon which rests a sign that says "Métropolitain” and it is lit by two orange globe lights from above. A few of the elaborate entrances feature glass canopies. The walls of many of the stations themselves have interesting and imaginative art work. We saw quite a variety at the various stations we went to. Paris also seems to abound in graffiti artists. You see graffiti everywhere, even in the most inaccessible places. The advertisement with the pretty woman was perched at a height of about 20 ft. Look at the moustache that is artistically (!) drawn on her!

Day 5 – Wednesday – This day was set aside for visiting Palais de Versailles, which is about 20 kilometres from the city of Paris. We set out bright and early after breakfast. The directions from our metro station officer were perfect and we were at the palace sooner than expected, thanks to the easy connections and frequency of trains.

Our first view of the palace was a bit overwhelming, with the glittering gold gate and gold designs on top of the chateau. This palace, which is an architectural masterpiece, is said to be one of the very finest royal palaces ever to be built. The court of Louis the XIV had made Versailles the centre of political power in France in late 17^th century and the royal family reigned from here for over a hundred years, until forced to return Paris after the onset of the French revolution.

We picked up our English audio guides and started our palace tour with the chapel inside. We walked through magnificent hallways, with larger-than-life marble statues of members of the royal family and distinguished members of the royal court. We spent quite a bit of time at the exhibition of Napoleon’s Wars by Louis François Lejeune, a general in Napoleon’s army and a painter of class.

We walked through the historically significant Hall of Mirrors, where Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, to officially end the First World War. On one side of the hall were several grand mirrors which reflect the large windows on the opposite wall. Through these windows, one could have a bird’s eye view of the immaculately coiffured garden outside. We saw bedrooms of the kings and Marie Antoinette, their dining hall, and from there went to the grand apartment of king Louis the XIV. This, perhaps, is the most luxurious hall of the palace and could host hundreds of people. The most notable feature was the painting on the entire ceiling (by Charles Brun), which we were told was THE largest ceiling painting in the world.

The luxurious halls filled with gold plated furniture and huge paintings were symbols of absolute opulence (and decadence?) of the monarchy of Louis XIV to XVI, Marie Antoinette and their ilk. This palace, its gardens, and surroundings bear testimony to their extravagant lifestyles.

We then walked through the garden, which is touted as Europe's largest palace garden. The garden is laid out in a geometric pattern of paths, bushes, flowerbeds and trees. A striking feature was the architecture and design of the various fountains there. The most extraordinary one of them was the Apollo fountain with Apollo on his chariot run by several horses. Another was the Latona fountain which is layered in wedding cake style and features Apollo’s mother Latona with her children Apollo and Diana. Legend has it that Latona turned peasants into frogs when they refused her water. The second and third tier of the fountain feature frogs. The lower tier features turtles and alligators.

By this time, tired as we were, we stopped by to have some refreshments at the little restaurant in the garden. Based on our experience, we strongly recommend against eating there for the food was so inedible that Mohima donated her sandwich to a cat that was lurking around.

After a fairly long walk, we reached domaine d’Antoinette, Marie Antoinette’s estate. We might have liked this palace, if we had not just finished seeing the grand palace. Frankly, this one looked like an apology to the large luxurious palace. Apparently, Marie-Antoinette loved this place for this is where she used to come to escape the pomp and show of Versailles. Looks like even the “let them eat cake” lady got tired of all that extravagance and over-indulgence!

We gave a skip to the grand trianon and the petit trianon, which were built by Louis the XIV and XV respectively to – you guessed it – escape the pomp of the palace, and spend time peacefully with their mistresses!!!

After all the walking that we did in and around the palace, we returned to the hotel for a couple of hours to rest our feet. In the evening, at Mohima’s behest, we set out for a walk along Champs Elysees. The weather was perfect and our walk was extremely pleasant. Walking down Champs Elysees in the evening on a spring day is such an “oh so Paris” an experience that we were glad that Mohima suggested it. After a brief hunt for a restaurant with vegetarian food, we ate at Pizza Pino, which seemed very busy when we arrived. The food was quite good or was it that we were quite ravenous by then? We devoured our food and continued our walk along Champs Elysees. We stopped to see the famous cabaret Lido on the way, checked out their menu and finally reached our favorite Arc de Triomphe, tastefully lit at night.

Day 6 – Thursday – Atish was so looking forward to this day since we had labeled it the museum day. Paris museums are the ultimate for art lovers. From the Louvre metro station, we followed a walkway within the building to the museum. What hit us first in the main courtyard was the Louvre Pyramid (made famous by Da Vinci code). The main pyramid is huge and is surrounded by three smaller pyramids, all made of glass and metal. This was completed only in 1989 and has now become a landmark of the city.

The place was brimming with visitors. I have never seen a museum so full of people. Thanks to the tourist pass that we had picked up at the Pantheon, we escaped long lines at the ticket counter. As soon as we entered, we made a bee-line to the Mona Lisa because our friend Caroline had said that the Mona Lisa room gets crowded as the day progresses. It was already a bit crowded, but we were able to spend a couple of minutes as close as allowed to this most celebrated oil painting. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda, in the 16th century. It is a half-length portrait of a woman whose gaze and smile are considered enigmatic. Few works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, and interpretation as this one. We spent a good bit of time in the Italian painters’ and French painters’ section, admiring all the humongous paintings, and getting awed by the size, the detail, use of lighting in the paintings and oh, the expressions!

These were works of great masters of the art. We viewed them from close by and then sat down on the sofa in the hallway, to get a different perspective. For one thing, many of the paintings were so huge that you could see it as a whole only from a few feet away. Just spending time examining these paintings made Atish excited like a young child. He had a whale of a time seeing works of all the artists he had once studied, and describing the nuances of various paintings to us. He had a field day with his camera too!  We also saw a few phenomenal painters set up their easels and copy the masterpieces. These artists come from around the globe to Louvre to avail of this opportunity.

We then went to the Greek Sculptures section to see Venus de Milo. It is one of the most famous ancient Greek sculptures. It is a larger than life-size marble statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to Romans). It is widely known for the mystery of the missing arms. The original statue was painted, as was customary of Greek statues from first century BC. Today, all traces of paint have disappeared. From the attachment holes for earrings and other jewelry, one presumes that the statue was adorned with jewelry to make it appear more life-like. But, frankly, as we stood there looking at every detail of the statue, we felt there was absolutely no need for any ornamentation to make this statue look real.

After Venus, we spent over an hour admiring all the Greek sculptures in that section, each marble statue exquisitely carved, showing every delicate detail of the fingers, skin folds and eyes. Each one, a stunning masterpiece, the work of a genius.

Then, we ambled over to the statue of Ramses in the Egyptian section, which is guarded by a large sphinx. The statue of Ramses depicts him sitting on a throne, covered in inscriptions. We spent some more time in that section admiring the Egyptian antiquities. There were Egyptian art, scrolls, jewelry, weapons and many more artifacts.

Did I say we had set aside the day to see the museums in Paris? Heh, heh! We would have needed at least ten days (and Atish, perhaps a month) to get our fill of just the Louvre. It is certainly the best museum that we have seen, both in class and size. It is an immense complex of buildings erected over a span of four centuries. The building itself is a masterpiece of traditional French architecture, and houses the most stupendous collection of ancient and Western art. It is hardly a wonder that this is the most visited museum in the entire world. This museum blew our minds and is certainly the pièce de résistance of Paris.

Anyway, given that we did not have all the time we wanted to spend at Louvre, we peeled ourselves away and went to musee d’Orsay, since Atish was eagerly looking forward to seeing works of French impressionists. This museum was full of French art, paintings, sculptures, and furniture. That day, they were having an exhibition of Edgar Degas right close to the entrance and we spent quite a bit of time at the exhibition. After we had our fill of Degas’ bathing beauties, we went to the 5^th floor to see the best of Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cezanne, Sisley and more by Degas. Atish very animatedly explained the differences in styles of these various impressionists. He seemed to be in cloud nine and spent quite a bit of time admiring each painting. Even I, who can hardly claim to be a connoisseur of this art, spent time appreciating each artist. By the end of our visit, I felt like I could take a quiz on guessing the artist from the painting.

Atish gave me a lesson on Seurat’s Pointillism and neo-impressionism and post-impressionism with great fervor. Neo and post impressionists pushed the envelope provided by the impressionists and took it into new directions. They took the ideas of the original impressionists and developed new techniques like pointillism to present their art.

From the museum, we walked across the bridge on the Seine to the Jardin des Tuilleries. It is centrally located and hence one of the most visited gardens of Paris. This too, like the Jardin de Luxembourg, was initially designed in Italian style and later converted to French design. Here too, one could grab a chair and sit wherever one liked. For this reason, they have chairs instead of benches like most parks do.  This garden also features several fountains, two large basins, and numerous sculptures that we went by at a leisurely pace. We spent a relaxing hour there until its closing time and returned to the metro near our hotel, in the hope of finding a good restaurant where we could eat dinner. But, to our (mainly Mohima’s) dismay, we did not find any restaurant that served decent vegetarian fare. So, we ate the best freshly-made nutella crepe near our hotel, picked up some fruits, milk, and dinner for me. At my insistence, Atish and Mo went to have a proper dinner downstairs at our hotel’s restaurant. 

Day 7 - Friday – We decided on a late start on Friday. We left our room well after noon time. The happiness on our cleaning lady’s face when I said “ce n’est pas necessaire” made our late start worth it!! (ce n’estpas necessaire = it (cleaning) is not necessary.) Since our thirst for the art at the Louvre was still not satiated, we decided to spend some more time at the Louvre. With undiminished zeal and enthusiasm, we spent time at the Roman and Greek sculptures sections, and the French artists’ section of the museum. We had taken our laptop with us because Mohima needed to register for her fall session college classes at 3 PM. We were told that we would get wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee en Français!) under the pyramid and hence we headed there to get that sorted out.

Unfortunately, registration was not as easy as expected because of Mohima’s self-designed major. We picked up sandwiches from Paul's for lunch and headed back to the hotel so Mohima could work with her college professors and counselors, in the peace of our hotel room. Thanks to the internet and attentive professors, she was able to communicate and get things sorted out – more or less. That, combined with Mohima’s finalizing the rendezvous with her friends the next day, took most of the evening. Since I enjoyed my healthy vegetarian dinner in our room so much, I asked Atish and Mohima to eat at Le Toucan, while I relaxed in the room. This is the restaurant where we ate at the very first day where Atish had relished the food quite a bit. When Mohima returned after dinner, she whisked me off to the top floor of our hotel to see the Ten o'clock sparkle show on the Eiffel Tower.

Day 8 - Saturday – We decided to keep this a Mohima-get-ready-for-her-trip day. After she got her stuff organized, we went to the Orange cell phone store to check out if there is a viable plan she could use on her Euro trip. We found out that there really wasn't any and when we came out of the store, Mohima suggested that we go to Bob's kitchen for lunch. Lauren had shared with us a blog where the blogger had waxed poetic about Bob’s kitchen, which served excellent (and only) vegetarian fare. Mohima really wanted to go to a restaurant where mommy would savor the food. Atish and I had checked out its location the previous day and hence we knew the metro stop nearest to the restaurant; but did not have the address. We ventured to go there, hoping to enquire and find it.

We took the metro to the Arts et Métiers metro station. The station itself looked like a place worthy of a visit. It was designed in steam punk style, which reminded us of Jules Verne’s train time machine. Steam punk is a genre which came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, and speculative fiction. It involves a setting where steam power is widely used.

After appreciating the design of the station, we set out on our quest for Bob’s kitchen. But, boy, did we have an adventure finding it! We asked several people and they all uniformly performed the inimitable French shrug! We finally walked into a grocery store hoping that Bob could be doing his shopping there! The storekeeper did not know either. I took a chance and in my broken French, asked one of the customers who was heading out of the store. To our astonishment, he said “Oh yes! I know” and explained the directions to us in fairly chaste English. It was down an alley where we would have expected no business, let alone a famous one, to be located. Still in doubt, I asked the sole person walking down the alley, if she knew where Bob’s kitchen was. The same shrug! I just turned around exasperatedly and what do I find?  A little globe on a window saying “Bob’s kitchen”! Feeling triumphant, we walked into this French dhaba. Everything here was very minimalistic, starting with the display of the menu. We walked over to the person at the food counter and found out he spoke reasonable English. (I guess one should expect that at a restaurant called “Bob’s kitchen”?) He explained the menu items and even gave us samplers. That made it easy for us to decide quickly and we had the most delicious vegetarian meal accompanied by weak masala chai (with clove, cinnamon, ginger etc.) sans milk. The food?  It was simply yummy and healthy too, to boot!

We headed back to the hotel, picked up Mohima’s contact lens solution on the way. We then had just enough time to whisk Mohima’s luggage from our room before making our way to Gare du nord. Gare du nord, the North Station, is one of the main stations on the Paris train system.

This is where Mohima and her friends were to board the train to the airport at Beauvais. We located them and spent some time with Mo and her friends until we saw them off on the train.

Now, by ourselves, Atish and I walked around Gare du nord for about 15 minutes. This part of the city had a completely different character. If the areas we were visiting thus far were like the Raj Path area in Delhi, this was like Darya ganj. Roads were crowded and there were a lot of wayside shops selling goods at cheap rates. We took a train from the next Metro stop and went to see Moulin Rouge, the most famous cabaret of Paris. It was easy to spot from the metro station. It is located in a crowded area, and has a red windmill on its roof. One could sense the romance of the last century in its decor. It is a major tourist attraction and we saw a bunch of tourists taking pictures from across the street. In early 20^th century, this was a famous place where courtesans performed. Today, it still offers musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. It is still hugely popular, gauging from the really long line of people waiting to get in to attend the next show. When we asked the doorman about our chances for that day, he unequivocally said that there was absolutely no space that day and we would be best served if we made reservations ahead of time.

We walked along that road for a bit. The place was full of night clubs, cabarets and less noble (euphemism for sleazy!!) places, which made us feel uncomfortable. We walked into the nearest metro station and took the train to go to Champs Elysees. We walked along the major boulevard for one last time this trip, enjoying the sights and sounds. We decided to eat at George V right on Champs Elysees. We tried a couple of good wines. Atish ate a croque Madame (!), which is simply a traditional croquet monsieur served with a fried egg and a bit of Béchamel sauce spooned over. I ate a plate full of pomme frites – compensating for the healthy food I ate at lunch! We walked all the way to the Arc Du Triomphe again and as a bonus, we got to see an Iranian music video being shot. We took the train back to the hotel. Before going up to our room, we asked the front desk to arrange for a cab at 5 AM.

Day 9 – Sunday – We left the hotel at 5 AM in our Mercedes (!) cab, reached Charles de Gaulle airport at about 5:45 PM only to find a long line of travelers; but the counters were still closed! Parisians are not the kind who start the day bright and early or work too hard! Eventually, they did open the counters and we checked in with plenty of time in hand.

Our flight to London was uneventful and this time, I was able to get my favorite breakfast at Heathrow. We were greeted at the Washington Dulles airport by our friend Tushar, who had brought with him some food and groceries for us to tide through the day. The warm reception made us feel so welcome back home and it just topped off a great vacation for us.