Paris: Day One

Paris: Day One

Paris WAS gReAt...
I have never experienced anything as beautiful...
London now seems nothing in comparison...

The moment I reached the Eurostar terminal to board the train I could feel the difference...
People bathed in fashionable ensemble - very different from the British…
Nice bags, colorful clothes and jackets, parasols, hats and hair styles too...
Thankfully a little jewelry..No more plane Janes...
At least the women were wearing diamond rings...
Noticeable because, here in London, I have rarely seen any...

I boarded the Eurostar at 6.20 London time...
Scanned through my book on Paris to decide on places to see...
The train stopped twice...
Once, just before the euro tunnel to pick people from the British end and then at the other side to pick people traveling to Paris from the French side. The train was yet 50 % empty...

The landscape changed dramatically as we entered France...
Slightly drier vegetation, but very green and extremely beautiful...
More colorful, a lot of brown...

We arrived at Paris at 10.20, local time...
Nobody bothered to even check my passport...
Then I started traveling after gathering the tube and the bus maps..

Here in London and in Paris it is better to purchase zone passes...
A zone pass permits one to use buses and trains in the zone freely any no of times...
The zones are concentric regions growing around the center of the city...
Each zone encircles the inner one... You can take any train lines or buses in the zone...

There are so many routes (railways and metro lines crisscrossing the landscape) all oblivious from the city surface since most of them are underground...
In London, there were probably some 10 odd metro lines... In Paris, there seem many more.
Therefore, from location A to B, one can opt for several different routes...
You should choose the route where you need to traverse fewer interchanges. Alternatively, in case one is traveling a route again, explore a new path to see a new side of the city.

Only in Paris, I saw rubber wheels on trains. The wagons had about 12 wheels...
The wheels moved on the insides of the tracks. I am yet confused whether it was rubber or some other material...

Well, I first took a train to the center of the city...
Started sightseeing and walking along the Siene.. The river looked very muddy..
Who cares? Flowing waters look great, whatever be the color.

The river here was contained within its channels embanked by the city walls..
There are paths all along the channel, steps in some places and walls and roads along some sides..

Innumerable beautiful bridges break the river, some with roads and some with metro tracks on them..
That morning I visited two famous chapels, one of them the 'Notre dame' (literally translated meaning 'our lady')..
There is no dearth of picturesque sites in this city. Every junction and every route is exquisite.

I walked to the 'Arche de triomphe', a world war victory celebration (means arch of victory)..
The architecture is Splendid..
Some real old and some new structures. But amazingly splendid in size, shape or decor..

The streets are very clean and very broad.. But be careful while crossing. Unlike London, one drives on the right of the road. Most streets are lined with trees and there are information kiosks all over. Most people in the information kiosks speak or at least try to converse in English. So I had no problems at all..

Then I went to a recently developed area of Paris called La Defence. Here reside the new government bodies for defense, industry, new bank and airline offices..Amazingly beautiful.. The area is such that one needs no cars. The office complexes are centered around the metro station.. A ring of concrete pathways interspersed with small cafes and greenery circles the metro station entrance and then multi story buildings form a ring around the paths at some distance. A road circles this periphery and is intended for transporting goods only. People are expected to take the train, alight at this station and then walk to their place of work.

I returned to Paris city and walked a bit through the artistic boulevards and the champs elysee's..
Next, I toured the Louvre..It is a museum complex holding the Mona Lisa. I did stare at the Mona Lisa, but cannot appreciate all the fuss about it. Guess I do not have the eye for Art..

The museums in Paris are mostly housed in old palaces, which were earlier being burned down during the revolution..
Then some sensible people decided to put them to better use and converted them to museums or hospitals..
This museum was so huge it would take days to go through it all.. Maybe next time..