Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A Weekend in Paris
"Awesome is an understatement"
I am in love…….with Paris!
Our first weekend outing away from Spain was to Paris and Nice and the weekend could not get any better. Still in the grips of the awesome beauty of Paris and fallen heads-over-heals for this enthralling city, I think Paris would be the best city ever that I have visited and probably would visit in the future.
Starting on the evening of Wednesday, 11th Oct from Barcelona, Pari, Rohit and I reached Paris on the 12th morning. We were lucky to accost Asim, an exchange student from IIMC and we were put up at his apartment, which was also shared by two of IIMB students but had traveled to Germany and one other IIMC guy called Arpit. The first day of Paris was meant for two wonderful monuments; The Church of Sacred Hearts and the Pantheon.
The Church of Sacred Hearts is a huge church built out of the contribution of many philanthropists and is encircled by lush green gardens. The elevation of this place is such that we get a bird’s eye view of Paris. We roamed around this place for quite sometime admiring the church interiors and the well-fed pigeons. Moving on, we visited the Pantheon where a guide led us through the historical significance of this edifice. This was a church earlier and then converted to a national monument and is the second tallest monument in Paris after the Eiffel tower. A unique process of “Pantheonization” is followed where French national celebrities are buried with national respect and there are a lot of criteria to be met before one is entitled for this. Personalities like Madame Curie, Alexandre Dumas et al are buried here. This also houses a long pendulum that is suspended from the roof with a golden ball weighing 47 kgs hanging from it. Atop from this building we could see the city of Paris and more importantly a wonderful view of the Eiffel tower. Both these structures were overwhelming in their architectural construction and left us overawed. The last of the destinations for the day was the Bastille, where we had a leisurely walk along the River de Siene and on the way back helped ourselves to some wonderful Pizza.
As we planning for the next day’s explorations, two other IIMB fellas, Abhi and Sonia, on exchange from Vienna arrived to Paris and it was more-the-merrier for us. Paris is filled with so many centers of attractions that we had to really pick the best of the best and we zeroed in on the world-famous Louvre museum and the Eiffel tower. Louvre museum has one of the most fabulous collections of artifacts and paintings that span across centuries and once has to see it to believe it. Sonia and I took the audio guide that had the excerpts of the famous movie “The Da-Vinci Code” and the guide, in the voice of the inspector, Bezu Fache, led us across the various points of the museums where the actual shooting took place culminating with the location where “the blade meets the chalice”. It was indeed an enchanting experience as we were tracking the ever-obscure professor Robert Langdon in the curvy paths of Louvre whilst unraveling the mystery of Da-Vinci’s wonderful paintings. The Louvre is so big that we could easily spend a couple of days exploring the entire museum. It has Egyptians relics, ancient Greek sculptures, French and Italian paintings and the royal artifacts used by the French kings including Napoleon the Great. Looking at these, I felt jealous of the pomp and glory with the kings of the yesteryears spent their lives. After spending about 5 hours, we were able to cover about 60% of the museum area and time was fast running out. After some quick looking around, we decided to move on to the Eiffel tower. It was a nice walk from Louvre to Eiffel tower. Standing at the foot of the tower, we realized that it was a dream come true for us to be alongside of this architectural marvel. We also took a ride atop this 320-meter high tower and it was a heavenly experience to be standing on top of the tallest structure in Paris.
The last day in Paris we visited the Notre Dame which is the most sacred cathedral in Paris and walked along the wide roads of this city sighting the innumerable palaces and cathedrals. The last of the stops was the Arc-de-Triomf, which is a gateway structure built to commemorate an old French king’s victory. This arc is at the end of an amazing walkway called “Champs Elysees” (pronounced as Shan-Elyse) which has showrooms for almost all kinds of stuff and their leading brands.
As we headed to Nice, it was time to bid adieu to Paris and we parted ways with Sonia and Abhi.
Arpit joined the three of us for the one-day Nice trip from Paris. The sight of the azure waters was a welcome sign for us to take a dip in the sea and the rest of the day was for loafing around the city at a leisurely pace. We went atop a small hill and had a stroll in a good park while enjoying French snacks. As it got darker, our journey through France was at its end and we returned to Barca with loads of sweet memoirs.
For fotos...click here... ¶ Tuesday, October 17, 2006
I am in love…….with Paris!
Our first weekend outing away from Spain was to Paris and Nice and the weekend could not get any better. Still in the grips of the awesome beauty of Paris and fallen heads-over-heals for this enthralling city, I think Paris would be the best city ever that I have visited and probably would visit in the future.
Starting on the evening of Wednesday, 11th Oct from Barcelona, Pari, Rohit and I reached Paris on the 12th morning. We were lucky to accost Asim, an exchange student from IIMC and we were put up at his apartment, which was also shared by two of IIMB students but had traveled to Germany and one other IIMC guy called Arpit. The first day of Paris was meant for two wonderful monuments; The Church of Sacred Hearts and the Pantheon.
The Church of Sacred Hearts is a huge church built out of the contribution of many philanthropists and is encircled by lush green gardens. The elevation of this place is such that we get a bird’s eye view of Paris. We roamed around this place for quite sometime admiring the church interiors and the well-fed pigeons. Moving on, we visited the Pantheon where a guide led us through the historical significance of this edifice. This was a church earlier and then converted to a national monument and is the second tallest monument in Paris after the Eiffel tower. A unique process of “Pantheonization” is followed where French national celebrities are buried with national respect and there are a lot of criteria to be met before one is entitled for this. Personalities like Madame Curie, Alexandre Dumas et al are buried here. This also houses a long pendulum that is suspended from the roof with a golden ball weighing 47 kgs hanging from it. Atop from this building we could see the city of Paris and more importantly a wonderful view of the Eiffel tower. Both these structures were overwhelming in their architectural construction and left us overawed. The last of the destinations for the day was the Bastille, where we had a leisurely walk along the River de Siene and on the way back helped ourselves to some wonderful Pizza.
As we planning for the next day’s explorations, two other IIMB fellas, Abhi and Sonia, on exchange from Vienna arrived to Paris and it was more-the-merrier for us. Paris is filled with so many centers of attractions that we had to really pick the best of the best and we zeroed in on the world-famous Louvre museum and the Eiffel tower. Louvre museum has one of the most fabulous collections of artifacts and paintings that span across centuries and once has to see it to believe it. Sonia and I took the audio guide that had the excerpts of the famous movie “The Da-Vinci Code” and the guide, in the voice of the inspector, Bezu Fache, led us across the various points of the museums where the actual shooting took place culminating with the location where “the blade meets the chalice”. It was indeed an enchanting experience as we were tracking the ever-obscure professor Robert Langdon in the curvy paths of Louvre whilst unraveling the mystery of Da-Vinci’s wonderful paintings. The Louvre is so big that we could easily spend a couple of days exploring the entire museum. It has Egyptians relics, ancient Greek sculptures, French and Italian paintings and the royal artifacts used by the French kings including Napoleon the Great. Looking at these, I felt jealous of the pomp and glory with the kings of the yesteryears spent their lives. After spending about 5 hours, we were able to cover about 60% of the museum area and time was fast running out. After some quick looking around, we decided to move on to the Eiffel tower. It was a nice walk from Louvre to Eiffel tower. Standing at the foot of the tower, we realized that it was a dream come true for us to be alongside of this architectural marvel. We also took a ride atop this 320-meter high tower and it was a heavenly experience to be standing on top of the tallest structure in Paris.
The last day in Paris we visited the Notre Dame which is the most sacred cathedral in Paris and walked along the wide roads of this city sighting the innumerable palaces and cathedrals. The last of the stops was the Arc-de-Triomf, which is a gateway structure built to commemorate an old French king’s victory. This arc is at the end of an amazing walkway called “Champs Elysees” (pronounced as Shan-Elyse) which has showrooms for almost all kinds of stuff and their leading brands.
As we headed to Nice, it was time to bid adieu to Paris and we parted ways with Sonia and Abhi.
Arpit joined the three of us for the one-day Nice trip from Paris. The sight of the azure waters was a welcome sign for us to take a dip in the sea and the rest of the day was for loafing around the city at a leisurely pace. We went atop a small hill and had a stroll in a good park while enjoying French snacks. As it got darker, our journey through France was at its end and we returned to Barca with loads of sweet memoirs.
For fotos...click here... ¶ Tuesday, October 17, 2006
