Eurotrip 2011 : Episode 3: Paris

Paris: Day 1

We woke up early for our cab. Having done most of the packing the night before, we scrounged around the room for misc. items left behind. The cabby arrived on time. And wishing Rashu Goodbye, we were off to King's Cross once again. I had noted the location of the Eurostar platform and it wasn't very difficult to find. What was a bit surprising was how crowded the waiting area was, I could only imagine that there was a large number of business travellers. We got past immigration and the rest was more or less easy. We were a bit early and had time to grab breakfast on the platform itself. Tina had wanted to hit the same breakfast place as the last two days, but I was adamant that we checkin first and then have something to eat. If I remember right, it was some coffee and some sandwiches.

We found our seats once the train arrived. The cabin was pretty clean and there was room enough to keep our luggage. The seats were fairly comfortable for the 2:15 ride. The train eased out of the railway station and then 10-15 minutes in started picking speed. With a top speed of about 300 Kmph, the country zipped by. There wasn't really much to see, so we settled down for the trip arriving in Paris on time.

Gare du Nord was a very different beast compared to King's Cross. The french central station seemed a lot more chaotic and crowded. The language barrier was also pretty obvious right from the start. We were looking for an ATM to withdraw some money. After a few minutes of a search, we were armed with some euros. Then I headed to the ticket counter for the metro on the sub level to go get a billet-carnet (10 tickets good for most public transport). I had left Tina by herself to watch our bags and was away for a good 15 minutes and I remember she was a bit uncomfortable by the time I got back... Anyways, armed with money and tickets, we made our way to a bus-stop. In retrospect, taking a bus wasn't the best idea. It was a nice route as it hit many of the city's tourist attraction, but was very crowded. And with our bags , it was not the best of ideas. The note to self was to have a bigger budget for Europe.  The bus dropped us in front of the Centre Pompidou.

Although I was quite sure about where our hotel was supposed to be, it took us a bit of time and help to find the place, thanks largely to a foreign student who lived in the neighborhood. The Hotel Beaubourg was literally  50 ft from the bus stop where we had first got off. The lobby was unimpressive, as I had expected for a budget hotel, and the rooms were not quite ready. So we left our bags at the desk and headed out to grab something to eat. We found a small hole in the wall where we had a somewhat nice lunch. 

We then headed back to the hotel to get checked into our room. The room was surprisingly charming. We rested for a little bit before heading out. 

From the hotel, we followed a rather circuitous path to Notre Dame, we fist cut into the plaza behind the Centre De Pompidou, and past St Merry's. This church was quite interesting, as I had not expected it to be there. It is the seat of the oldest bell in Paris. The church was very bare and almost in a state of dis-repair.

St Merry from the George Pompidu Square

We the wound our way through tiny back alleys and then back towards the Hotel De Ville. The facade of this building was jaw dropping. The building stands in front of one of Paris's largest open plazas and has a sequence of fountains. 

Hotel de Ville

Art, by Laurent Marqueste

Tour Saint-Jacques, only standing part of a church.

We followed the throngs of tourists to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which  I remembered  vividly from 2005.  It was a lot sunnier and a lot more crowded than my recollections. I had decided, in the interest of time, that getting in line for the towers wouldn't be worth it, as we hoped to do the Eiffel tower later that day. We figured one tall spot in the city would be sufficient for us. We spent some time in the cathedral. Tina remarked that it was quite dark and overall she wasn't as impressed with the Gothic style as I had been. It did seem a bit bare. However, the sheer size of the space within was awe inspiring. The idea behind the gothic style was to create a massive and overwhelming sense of space. 

Facade of Notre-Dame

Gothic interiors

After Notre Dame, we crossed the Sienne again, on to the other side, to catch some refreshments before catching a bus to the Madeline. The ten minute ride took us past several Parisian landmarks including St Michel Place, Bibliotech Mazarin, Musee D'Orsay, Place De La Concorde. We got off the bus in a very busy avenue overlooking the majestic Madeline. This church is not nearly as ancient as the others in Paris, but built in the Neo-Classical style by Napolean. I had not seen this church before and wanted to get inside.I was quite happy with what I saw. i felt it was one of the prettier churches I had seen in Paris from the inside.

Tina in front of the Madeline.

Interesting relief on the door depicting the ten commandments.

Very impressive interiors.

At this point, Tina was very tired and her feet were not doing too well. So we decided to take a cab back home. Tina decided to take a nap while I decided to do a walk through the city. First I did a 1.8 Km stretch During the first stretch, I saw the Musée des Arts et Métiers ( with its Statue of Liberty), the Porte Saint Martin, followed by a rather boring stretch to the Place de la Republique. The last of these was quite impressive. The sculpture is in the middle of a green stretch, with many avenues converging on the spot.

My First Walk

Place De La Republic

From here I took another metro ride to the 'Place de La bastille', and this was yet another of Paris's busiest roundabouts. This place is made famous by the site of the Bastille prison which was stormed during the early moment of the french revolution. None of the prison stands and its place is a memorial tower. I was fairly disoriented by the size of the roundabout. It took me a while to figure out, after asking numerous people for direction in my VERY broken french. I headed for a 2.8 km stretch starting at Rue St Antoine.

 On this stretch, I covered Maison De Victor Hugo, Place De Vosges, some really cute alleys of the Marais, and then  up Rue De Sevigne. On this stretch, I could see a rather intriguing facade of the Saint Paul - Saint Louis. 

                                        

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My next stop was the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, which although beautiful from the outside, was fairly lack lustre on the inside. I went in through one gate and walked across the church during mass and came out behind the Hotel De Ville. At this point, i was feeling fairly tired, and found my way back to the hotel Beaubourg. Here I rested for a little bit, before heading out again. 

We took the M1 to the station of Charles De Gaul Etoile. After briefly walking down Champs Elysee, we were at undoubtedly Paris's biggest and busiest , and most definitely craziest roundabout. We were now looking at the Arc De Triumph. This was my third visit to the monument. The first had been with dad, and the next one when I was at Infineon. We took the underpass to cross the busy roadways. Tina was not feeling upto walking up the stairs to the top, so she just rested while I walked around and took some pictures. 

From here we made our way to the Eiffel tower, we got off at the Trocadero, this in retrospect wasnt the brightest idea, since it was a long walk from there to the tower. The reason I had thought this was a good idea was because one can appreciate the surroundings better during the walk. We were late and did not end up waiting in line for the tower either, and there in one fell swoop we had missed all our chances to climb any high spots in Paris. Perhaps next time! We just relaxed and waited for the lightshow, it was getting cold so Tina and I huddled together on a bench. when they show did happen it was quite nice.

By this time, it was getting dark, so I made my way to the nearest restaurant I knew, walking through the Champ De Mars, did seem a little dodgy at that time of the night. After a fairly nice dinner, ( Tina thought different), we then headed off to find the nearest metro. This was the low point of our trip, as tina was not in the mood to walk anymore, and we couldnt find any cabs. We also couldnt find the Metro station for Ecole Militaire and ended up walking a bit. We finally managed to get home very tired and that was the end of a fairly long day in Europe for us.

Paris Day 2:

 The next day our plan was to visit the latin quarter of Paris. Our first stop was the Pantheon, and on our way there we stopped at a cafe to have breakfast. At the Pantheon we did a brief walkaround, and were disappointed to find that the tour of the rotunda was only provided in french. We then headed down into the crypt and saw the final resting places of some of France's greatest names. After the Pantheon, we walked down to Saint-Étienne-du-Mont right behind the Pantheon. 

We then headed back towards the Louvre and the surrounding areas. Here we covered the following destinations: The Louver, where we walked on the outside, knowing well that a trip inside would take up the whole day, the Church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois and past the Bourse de Commerce and onwards to the Église Saint-Eustache. This last church was very similar to Notre Dame and is one of the oldest in Paris. We then had our Lunch in the neighbouring restaurants. 

The rest of that evening we just took it easy, going out to dinner by the plaza overlooking St. Merry. The next day we were off to Versailles. 

The fountain near St Michel

The plan was to catch the RER to Versailles. After some confusion, we ended up at St Michel and managed to buy the RER tickets and got on board a fairly empty train. The ride to Versailles was about 30-40 mintues , and followed by a fairly long walk from the station to the palace. Versailles was more or less a village and remained so for most of its history. The avenue opened up towards the main entrance of Versailles. We were quite shocked to see the line. Winding twice or thrice along the entire length of the massive courtyard. There must have been thousands of people there. We had pre-booked the tickets and patiently waited in line. FOr the greater part the palace has been stripped of its belongings. Only a few of the room along the tourist walkways are full of the splendour of the Sun King. Most of the rooms are off-limits. Tina was quite impressed with the size and magnificence of the rooms. This was essentially the French courts, and the official residence of the kings. This was also the tragic site of the end of the french Monarchy.

The facade of the Palace at versailles

Inside the hall of mirrors.

The entire garden was lined with beautiful sculpture.

We did a fairly expansive tour of the gardens of Versailles after we got done with the palace. We saw the King and Queen's residence away from their grand residence called the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. There was also Marie A.'s model village.

A Gazebo near Marie A.'s model village.

Versailles was a sprawling landscape, and would have required us several days to cover it in all its glory. The gardens were full of sculptures, man made lakes and ponds and water fountains of mammoth proportions. By the time we got back into the city it was late afternoon and we decided to spend the day again quietly enjoying the Parisian evenings. 

One of the things we both loved about Paris, was the culture of sitting out looking on the world go by as one sipped on coffee or had dinner. All the restaurants had at least some seating facing outwards. The pace of people out at lunch or dinner was really relaxed, it almost seemed as if the french organize their workday around lunch and dinner as main events.