We hugged at the Kempegouda International Airport almost after decades as far as we can recall. My flight from Delhi was earlier in the day and after hanging out with my brother and his wife, I checked in to the airport as I had nothing else to do.
Monalisa joined me tad early as she was unable to contain her excitement at home, our check in was done and after unsuccessful attempt to get access to the lounge with our cards, we chose Jamie's Pizzeria for our first meal together. We were extremely delighted as we were pasta lovers, the love which was not shared by our spouses or children! We ordered a fusilli pesto and and teamed it with years of catching up to do! The subtle flavours did wonder for the senses and we boarded the flight well past midnight. I dozed after the meals, tried to watch a bit of Oppenheimer after waking up. Monalisa was watching movie after movie but I snuggled trying to use the empty seat next to me, keeping myself energized for the Eiffel Tower visit scheduled in same day.
Food at 40000 feet was warm, delicious and filling if not anything gourmet. The omlette was quite meaty and fluffy and rest of the stuff was fresh.
Being in air traffic control, needless to say the altitude, speed, route of the flight interests a great deal and to keep tab on its movement descending, climbing occupied a major chunk of my awake time. After a long nine hours flight we got down at Munich, cleared the immigration though after a lot of interrogation as I had mentioned earlier, walked to our gate for the flight to Paris. Few escalators were not working and I huffed and puffed with my luggage while climbing up the stairs. Munich/ Paris flight was short , hardly an hour. Our driver was waiting with my name on placard and a chilly Paris morning greeted us outside. Driver's name was Ahmed, he showed us Olympic stadium on the way, guided us about food, restaurants.
Paris.... first glimpse
This picture reminds me that I had dropped this super favourite white sweat shirt in Switzerland 😭 ( it's still available in H&M and also must be with owner of the apartment)!
Hotel Mercure did not let us check in before two in the afternoon after charging us an exorbitant City tax of 32 Euros for our two days stay! We had our first meal at a cafe near by at the cab driver's suggestion where we were greeted by a grim looking desi man with a tika on his forehead and served by a sweet local girl.
First time I had a fish n chips burger. It was enormous with a fleshy patty though we smirked at the calorie count which soon we were learning to overlook, we relished our meal before checking in to our hotel.
Super exhausted we had to keep up with our Eiffel appointment at 4 pm. Though our agent has guided us with all details regarding the metro, we asked the reception guy and were inflicted with another round of conflicting instructions! I had watched reels showing that Paris metro is super confusing and indeed it was, we didn't know what ticket to get with umpteen lines jig jagging in the almost spiral maps! Language barrier cropped in as most people didn't understand or didn't know, we somehow managed to get our tickets and board into the correct metro. Later I saw , US chef Natasha I follow on insta, visited Paris almost at the same time and guess what she boarded the wrong metro with her hubby! 😁... That made me victorious.
We made it to the Eiffel nowhere near 4. The crowd was huge and my friend has already started groaning with her new boots! It was weekend and the queue was taxing to say the least. Monalisa had started limping, whining by then and I was grumbling inside how'd the entire trip turn out to be when it was just the beginning. Without the lights the Eiffel can look pretty mundane though towering but owing to the umpteen number of movies I had watched I was still awestruck!
Though we wanted beautiful flowy dresses for the Eiffel tower, we didn't dare facing the chill. I dressed in layers, though Eiffel was ok, later it got extremely chilly at the Siene River cruise and I missed my trench coat badly. With Monalisa limping with shoe bites, we reached the summit after almost one and half to two hours. Paris was beautiful from the top and seemed worth the hype. I was watching the film Monte Carlo few days back with daughter and saw the actress buying a beautiful bracelet with Eiffel trinkets from the top! How I wished I could redo the Eiffel visit for the bracelet!
After getting out of Eiffel, buying few Eiffel Tower replicas outside, Monalisa found an electric rickshaw sort to take us to Siene River front for the cruise. Though we asked him clearly before boarding if we had to pay twenty euros for both of us, he created a ruckus saying forty for two after getting down!! We too started going the desi way with him, his vehicle had Arabia written on it, somehow swearing a few expletives ( some directed at our country, like that's why no one goes to India! ) he let go and we heaved a sigh of relief. He showed the chart showing twenty euros per person where as in the beginning he said twenty euros for the vehicle. Anyways twenty euros richer, we walked to another tedious queue for the cruise, Paris seemed crazy, touristy at that point.
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The cruise feeling sank in gradually as the ship sailed through mediaeval history and renaissance at ease! Though it was chilly , it was practically difficult to hold myself at the confines of the ship and not go out and give in to the majestic historic display in offer. The Louvre, the palace , the Eiffel glimmering in the evening sky we would remember the evening in the years to come!
As usual my warm clothes were not adequate, as I always have the fear of feeling too warm and suffocated, it was damn chilly by the river, and I wore whatever I could lay my hands on inside my backpack.... Gloves, muffler, cap I carried for the summit. So with my light crop sweat shirt I stuffed all sort of things I could find! Well that's me!
At the end of the evening Monalisa was not able to walk, we could not book Uber due to some payment issues. So she dared to book a cab and almost lost her senses there! At the hotel she did not get up from bed and slept and snored. I was at loss...my first night in Paris...so I asked for a spare key from the reception, walked out to the Gare de Lyon station just adjacent, got myself a nice ham sandwich from the store. Though most of the eatery joints were closed at 9 and the cold sandwich was what I got. At the room I made an espresso and had my own party with the sandwich and started uploading the days pics... trying not to think of the plight of coming days!
Day 2 at Paris:
The morning found Monalisa much better, apart from cursing her monstrous shoes she seemed fine. I guess we had the most scrumptious breakfast of our entire trip in Paris.
Fluffy, creamy scrambled eggs, fresh cold cuts and the must haves in Paris...the croissants ... flaky, melt in mouth.. Cheesy, chocolaty, raisins ... plethora of flavours. I stuffed myself to my capacity which I guess isn't bad! Loaded tummy and a sunny ☀️ day, after outfits, light make up... light because I've read earlier when in Paris ... fashion is way out of our league and subtle! Black, beige, Greys rule there unlike red, pink, yellow here in our country and we witnessed it the first day. So Monalisa too gave her red lipstick 💄 a miss for some sober shade and also embraced only liner no Kohl look. Well we were in Paris, the fashion capital... We knew we couldn't yet we wanted to blend in 😁! Fantasies people have!
We boarded the hop on hop off bus near the Louvre again after fumbling at the metro station. We suppressed our laugh at hearing a man speaking in sylheti on the phone ( most likely to his wife) , his language was as raw as it can be, making us feel it wasn't the Paris tube rather it was somewhere in our Colony Bazar locality in Guwahati! The hop on hop off bus gave a splendid view of the city and along with the audio guide it was like having a brief tete-a-tete with renaissance! Bourbon Palace, Museums, Opera Garnier, Arc de Triomphe, City squares and all other monuments we didn't know names of... We were sinking in the Parisian vibes!
We had another tryst with Eiffel Tower from Trocadero stop and clicked to our heart's content.
We had our 4 pm tickets booked for Louvre. I had my introduction to Louvre via Da Vinci Code and I love Dan Brown for virtually taking me through Louvre, Florence, Sagrada familia among many places else. Again another queue, crowd ... and I was just beginning to wander at the point of rushing through the crowd! Though nothing gets out of hand there, people wait patiently for their turn and actually nobody tries to get past you irrespective of the rush! A surprise in our country really!
Louvre was a marvel. I mean with my limited knowledge I could not imagine an entire palace full of painting and sculptures, they love their art and how much. Beginning with Napoleon, Louvre had master pieces collected from all over the world and we gaped wide eyed...it was nothing we've seen before. I remember making a video call to my daughter and husband... joy isn't complete if you cannot get to share!
Monalisa with Monalisa!!
Later I read somewhere you can skip the queues and entire via the shopping mall Carrousel du Louvre. We had late lunch at the food court, some rice and salmon satiating our bong appetites and an always welcome asian fare some mixed noodles sort.
My daughter drooled over the pic and asked if everything was edible!
We stopped at the Latin Quarters as I had this desire to visit the Shakespeare and Co book shop, which had nothing much to do with Shakespeare but a centre for history nonetheless. The book shop was designed like a book with different chapters.
We had kept the evening for shopping. Some souvenirs near the Notre dame cathedral which was still under renovation and we struggled to find our way back because the last hop on hop off bus left as it was past 5. We walked with the Google map aide to a bus stand where we can get Gare de Lyon bus. Locals were not able to help much, finally we boarded the bus for our hotel. Every shop in the station campus was closed at 7! Shopping idea from Paris hit rock bottom! Well Parisians love their evenings. So disheartened we settled for a nice pasta and wine at a restaurant. Though I'd have loved to sit outside facing the street, beggars and odd persons asking for food, we had to get inside.
Notre dame cathedral
Wine was lovely...rose wine and we savoured it with the salmon linguine pasta. My friend has her share of pasta gyan and I gloated under those!
Yes one and half days are extremely short for a historical, artistical marvel like Paris! I missed Montmartre as suggested by my husband, palace of Versailles, may be some opera visit, Disneyland ( our kids would've ripped us apart if we went without them!), Moulin Rouge show and simply taking in the city at leisure with coffee croissants and macaroons! I did long to visit the Louis Vuitton store, a little palace in itself. But then finance crunch, time crunch and the greed to see more that's what we could manage.
Next day was our train to Interlaken, Switzerland from the Gare de Lyon station. Paris was etched in our hearts...city of love, romance and art!
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