Louvre / Eiffel Hotel

I'm an Indian who was working in Amsterdam for some time. During my stay in Amsterdam I went to Paris on a weekend and this story is about my visit to Paris.

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My much-awaited Paris trip finally happened last Friday. The bus from Amsterdam started at 3:00 pm to Paris. I didn't know what to carry and how much to carry. I made sure that I had something to wear for the two days and my new digital camera and the new mp3 Discman. It was a good spacious bus; very much European for it had very big and transparent glass windows. If you see from outside the bus, the top half of the bus would be transparent. That's because, we can 'enjoy' the sun and still see the landscapes. The Dutch landscapes are beautiful with its meadows, farms, windmills and village houses. There was a big traffic jam that delayed us for about 1 hour.

We had to go via Belgium to reach Paris. Belgium was entirely different in its landscapes from Holland. The surprising thing is, Holland has no mountains or hills. The highest point is only 300-odd metres above sea level. Most of the country is below sea-level as you might know. Whereas, Belgium was complete in its mountains, forests, bridges, plains etc. It almost had everything. Belgians also speak Dutch and it is their main language. So, I could really make out from the billboards. The driver announces in mike, like in flights, that we are reaching this place etc. There was no passport check in the border as well. We had a stop in Antwerp for 30 mins. Antwerp is an old but beautiful city. It is very famous for its diamond industry, in fact, worlds biggest and I just roamed around for sometime and I happened to hit an Indian shop. We are everywhere. I bought fruits and water, as a back up for dinner. And here, so many days, only fruits make my lunch as I'm vegetarian.

There was a big toll gate that marked the entrance of France. After the Madrid bombing, I thought Indian passports would be scrutinised like Muralitharan's bowling action. There too, no passport checks. The landscape of France was a beautiful visual treat. In this tour of Europe in one month, I've seen more greenery than I've seen in my entire life before. And

I've not seen chain-smoking vehicles and not even found any driver honking the horn once. It was close to 11 pm by the time we entered France and by that time we were actually supposed to reach Paris. The problem was that the hotel I booked was in the far-west of Paris and where this bus would drop me is in the far-east. And I was supposed to take the metro. The last metro in Paris is at 12:45 midnight and we were right there in Paris at 12; 45. I got down and rushed to metro station which was very close. But the counters were all closed. I tried asking someone and he understood nothing

And he made sure I also understood nothing. My Dutch colleagues had told me that I should English very very slowly and politely and use as much gestures as possible. I made gestures and symbols, but dropped him, before he could call out the title of a French movie.

It was too late for metros. Then walked to the nearest hotel of the same chain where I had booked. He understood little English and made my night. It was a very cost effective to get a room for 56 euros per night in Paris. I also got the city map, metro lines map and tour guide map. Had a nice sleep and ensured that I'm fresh for the next day.

I already had a list of places that I should visit in Paris. Again my Dutch colleagues helped me in this. In the morning, I thought I can start off with the Louvre museum, which is the biggest museum in the world. I checked in the metro map to find out which metro takes me to the closest to Louvre. I boarded the metro and I thought it was such a big mistake. It is not like Amsterdam where you can see the beautiful city when you travel in a metro/tram. In Paris, it was a perfect metro. All underground and I could see only dark tunnels all the way. The metros stations are so huge and intelligently constructed. Under the ground, there are two levels of metro tracks. Then I got down in Opera station. Till then I hadn't got to see the city much. As I climbed up the stairs from the underground metro, I saw a huge monument. It was beautiful and Greek-styled. I thought this must be an important place and just turned around to find myself in the junction of seven wide roads. At the end of each of those roads, there was some monument or the other. It looked as if they didn't build anymore buildings after the roman period. The roads wide and clean with pavements that are half the width of the road. A few places even reminded me of the Fort area in Bombay.

I gestured my way to the museum. And again, man, it was incredible. I can't say it in words. Even my photographs won't tell you that. You got to stand in the middle of this monster monument to feel it. The museum was well-maintained and it is so big that you would need three full days of 12 hours each to see the museum completely. They give a detailed map so that you don't get lost in the I didn't want to spend my entire stay in Paris in museum. So, I thought I can visit only the sculptures part and the paintings part. Sculptures part had all the Greek and roman stuff. The layout of the museum was very innovative instead having them lined up. Then I started looking out for the all-important 'La Jaconde' painting by Da Vinci ('Mona Lisa' as we all know it). As I entered the hall where it was placed, I felt as if I've entered the 'garbagraham' of Treaty. It was so crowded and noisy (to their standards) and cameras flashing every second. It was a small painting for all its hype. I was already not a big fan of this Mona Lisa mania and all the suspense and mystery of her smile. But still I clicked a few times in good zoom and angles. The once thing I noticed is, from whichever angle I look at the painting, it looks she is looking at me eye-to-eye. Someone can vouch this with an enlarged picture of Mona Lisa. I visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. His paintings were too good and I don't think this Mona Lisa is anyway near that.

It was noon by then and jumped out of the musee (as they call it). Time for lunch and hunting for the right restaurant began there. There must be millions of restaurants in Paris. Each road has so many restaurants in different styles and colours making the roadside look romantic. All the restaurants have more chairs outside than inside. So, the whole restaurant operates on the pavements. I was walking around for 1 hour to find a restaurant, that seemed to have something in vegetarian. So, for the umpteenth time I had pizza with French fries. Then I walked to a park that was near the museum. There was a pond right in the middle of the park with swans. There were steel chairs everywhere for people to sit and relax. Time to open the 11.6% Amsterdam Beer (generally the percentage of alcohol is only 5% or max 8%). This was something special. In full bothai, me and my colleague discussed about BPOs, World Economy, Iraq, marriages, relocation, cultures etc etc. From there in the same bothai, we decided to walk to the Eiffel tower. It was a long distance to go but still we had the courage of 11.6% to do it.

And there it is. Another Indian restaurant as we get close to Eiffel Tower. That was actually a Pakistani restaurant serving Indian cuisine. When you're hungry and longing for Indian food, you'll understand that Pakistanis are your brothers. That's how I felt and convinced myself to have the dinner there. As a matter of French custom, we took white wine before the meal. Nice north Indian food that ended with kulfi. And another beer. We were supposed to take a left to the Eiffel. We entered a small lane and looked up. WoooW! It's fantastic and gigantic. It was 10.00 pm by that time and the sun was still shining bright. I don't know why it works overtime in Europe. That's brilliant engineering with lifts inside and even a restaurant. We stood in the queue and got a ticket to go to the top floor by lift. We could also have climbed up the stairs but I was a little out of form by then.

Next day morning. We thought we should take the open-top bus that takes us all over the city. We can get down anywhere and when done come back to the stop and wait and get the next bus. Almost every road looked as beautiful as the other road. The weather was fantastic. It is a little colder than Bangalore weather. Coming from Amsterdam where we just can't remove the jacket, this Paris weather was very pleasant, that too sitting in the open-top. We stopped outside the Moulin Rouge. As per the audio commentary, it was this place which showed the first strip tease in the world. The Moulin rouge area was like the red light area of Amsterdam (if I haven't told you about that, I take pleasure in narrating that also). There were sex shops, peep shows, nude bars & restaurants etc. But they were all too costly. So innocent we are that we chose to go to the church behind the Moulin rouge. The church is called Sacre Couer. It is situated on a hill. It is a beautiful place with lovely stairs both sides and lawn in the middle. The interiors and ceiling of the church were also very good. Another pizza lunch.

Then I went to the nearest cruise stop and took the ferry that was heading to the damn old Eiffel again. There was big platform in both sides of the Seine River where you can relax in a chair. As I got down in Eiffel cruise stop, I could see so many artists making a pencil drawing for 20 euros. I wanted to have myself pencil-drawn but I'm sure I can't sit in the chair for 30 minutes like a statue. But many people were trying that because those artists were highly talented. Again the same Pakistani restaurant and white wine, naan, spicy side dishes and kulfi. This time we decided that we'll walk back as much as we can. It was 10:30 when we started walking. That's the best way to enjoy Paris. In Amsterdam, you can relax and in Paris you can enjoy and have fun. There are thousands of places to sit and relax, have a talk or have a party.

I'll tell you these Europeans know how to enjoy their life and they know very well that office is only a small part of their life. In our office in Amsterdam, people work only 4 days a week and go off on holidays whenever they want. They leave office at 2 pm or whatever time they want. Their contract is 36 hours a week and they work four 9-hour days or even three 12-hour days. The whole Paris/Amsterdam city looked as if everybody is thoroughly enjoying their life and had no problems whatsoever. They drink and dance on the streets, they flood the restaurants, they play football in every green field, they play musical instruments in public places, they have concerts everywhere, they play chess on the road (with those 4-feet chess pieces) and they hug, kiss & . . . everywhere. They lead a very rich and healthy life. In my three days in Paris I must have seen some 5000 couples French-kissing etc. especially when people wait in the queues. And it is so common to see the girl sitting on the lap of her boyfriend in metros, trams, buses, stations, waiting rooms etc. To tell you the truth, 9/10 of the French girls look dazzling. If at all face is not beautiful, the rest makes up for the face.

If you love football, Europe is the place to be in. Everybody talks football. With Euro 2004 starting on June 12, the festival season has started in Europe. France is, in fact, the favourites to win this Euro. Right outside the Eiffel, there is a big park where people were playing. Like we have the imaginary stumps over the siphon, they had the imaginary goal post between two pairs of shoes (again the technique we use for marking cricket crease). They were playing so well that they made sure that they win the ball without harmful tackles. Offside and fouls were decided arbitrarily and for a game of hard violence, they played brilliantly. I was watching them play for some 1 hour or so. We thought we could also buy a football. It is just 5 euros. And we have a lot of fields in Amsterdam where we can play.

I shot some 60 to 80 pics in Paris alone and so sad that my card of the camera exhausted and I couldn't take more. Paris is a good example for a perfect city. It is exactly the way the Greeks wanted a city to be. It should be well planned. It should have wide roads. It should have a lot of parks. It should have theatres, music halls, gymnasiums etc to develop arts and sports. It should have libraries and universities to have wise citizens. Many cities have all these. Even Chennai might have. But in Paris, these are in abundance and everywhere evenly distributed. So many people have said that Paris is the best city in the world. I've not seen many cities but I can't think of any other city offering more than what Paris does.