Europe Trip - Day 17 - Last day of our trip in Paris

Today was the last day of our trip and also my birthday. We were heading back to Seattle tomorrow morning from Paris.  We had a mixed feelings about it. We had a fabulous time and felt like the vacation should never end but were also starting to miss home.

The agenda for today was to explore few more tourist highlights of Paris. First up was the world famous Louvre museum - Musee du Louvre. Being the most famous museum in the world Louvre turns out to be busiest visitor attraction in Paris. The entrance line at the museum is usually very long. Today being the 1st Sunday of the month the entry to the museum was free. Many people do not know that there are multiple entry points for the museum. We entered through the entrance directly from the metro station and had almost zero waiting time. Free entry and no wait time!

The museum is HUGE and it would take easily more than a day or two to really look at all the artwork. So it was important to pick the map and come up with a strategy of what are the sections that we didn't want to miss. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is the world famous Mona Lisa. The visit to the museum would not be complete without that. So as we headed and arrived at the Mona Lisa painting in the museum we could see a huge crowd in front of the painting. It was very hard to get to the front of the line to see the painting. This painting seemed like the only one which had bullet proof casing and had special guards standing next to it for protecting it. But have to say, the painting is really overrated. It seemed like just a normal painting and just so much hype being created by marketing it as one of the greatest paintings ever. There were so many huge and better paintings in Louvre that we failed to understand why Mona Lisa is rated as one of the best. The huge painting of coronation of Napoleon by David was so much more impressive and has so much historical importance. There were many more paintings and artwork that were very impressive.

Mona Lisa

trying to get a picture with Mona Lisa

Coronation of Napoleon painting

There were lots of Egyptian artifacts also which we loved watching.

Rakesh having fun

Digital projections of Egyptian life in the museum

One section in the museum is the palace of Napoleon. As you can see from the pictures below the palace was indeed very impressive. We wondered how it would have been to lead such a life full of riches.

Dining table in Napoleon's palace

As we entered from the metro station we hadn't seen the famous Louvre pyramid yet. However we could see the inverted counterpart of the pyramid which is inside the museum. So once we were done touring the museum we got out and saw the grand pyramid which is almost a symbol that represents the museum. We sat outside the museum and enjoyed some snacks. The museum is very impressive and worth a visit.

Pyramid inside the museum

Pyramid outside the museum

View of the museum

From here Rakesh took me to see the urban parts of Paris. We first took the train to La Defense which is a huge business district with lot of high rises. We sat on the steps of the La Grande Arche which is a famous monument. From the Arche you can see great views of Arch De Triomphe. There are lot of government buildings in this area too.

The Grand Arche at La Defense

High rises at La Defense

Next we headed to Notre Dame - which is a beautiful cathedral. It is considered as a finest example of Gothic French architecture. The sculptures, stained glass work and architecture of the building were very impressive. We took a quick tour of the cathedral and headed out.

Walking along Seine River

Notre Dame cathedral

Stain glass art in the cathedral

Inside the cathedral

We were craving some good food. It was so hard to find vegetarian food in Paris. We skipped the traditional fair of pizzas/sandwiches and searched for Desi restaurants in Paris using an offline iPhone app. We stumbled upon Sarvana Bhavan and decided to check it out.  We caught a metro to the Sarvana bhavan and as we got off the train station we felt like we have arrived in India. There were so many Indian Saree, jewellery shops and streets were filled with Desi folks. We loved the yummy south Indian food and had fun strolling here for some time.

Then we hopped on the train and headed to Champs De Elyss. As it was evening time all the glittering lights made the stroll along Champs De Elyss more beautiful. Champs De Elyss sort of feels like times square of New york. We heard that during events like new year's eve this is the place to be. We hopped into few shops to check out things that we could not afford to buy :). As you keep walking along Champs De Elyss you will reach the famous Arc De Triomphe.  

Arch de Triomphe

 The Arch was commissioned by Napolean and it commemorates his victories. The Arch has engravings of the names of various French generals. From the top of the Arch you get a great view of Champs De Elyss, La Defense and Sacre Coeur. Every evening a memorial flame is rekindled at the Arch to pay tribute to the great soldiers. The Arch De Triomphe has a major place in all the national celebrations that happen in Paris.  It was fascinating to see this monument. Next up was to take a perfect picture of the Arch. To do that we saw lot of people stood on the divider in the middle of the road so that you get the perfect view of the Arch De Triomphe in the background. It seemed like a crazy idea as there was too much traffic on the roads. Also it had started drizzling. But nevertheless, we also took a picture like everyone else :).

braving the traffic to take picture of Arch De Triomphe

Posing in the middle of the road

Check out more pics here.

We had a wonderful stay in Paris and that concluded our trip to Europe. We had explored so many cities, countries and cultures in these 17 days. It was really an enriching experience and would recommend everyone to plan a trip to Europe.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. " by Saint Augustine

To many more vacations! 

Ciao!