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!

Europe Trip - Day 15 and 16 - Paris, France

Last but not the least place on our itinerary was Paris. We were expecting the experience to be quite a contrast from our last 3 days spent in remote towns of Switzerland. We were excited to explore Paris. We had a long train ride from Switzerland to Paris. We reached Paris around evening time. We checked in our hotel which was about 10 minutes walking distance from a metro train station. Paris is a huge city so it was critical to be close to a subway station in order to get to the main attractions easily.

 

Obviously, the first place we decided to go to was the wonder of the world - Eiffel Tower. We got on the subway and headed to the Eiffel tower. Paris is like Italy in terms of people watching..almost like a fashion show everywhere. So the train ride was quite enjoyable :).

On the subway

We got off at the metro station and walked towards the Eiffel tower. It was evening time so the lights had not been turned on yet but nevertheless the Eiffel tower looked magnificent. We took some shots of the tower.

The magnificent Eiffel tower

We did not have plans of actually going up the tower today as we were saving it for my birthday tomorrow night. We sat amongst the hordes of tourists in the small park right next to the tower, admiring its beauty.

Garden near the tower

After an hour or so the light show began on the tower. If I remember right, the show happens every 30  minutes and goes on for 5 minutes.  The lights flashed on and off everywhere on the tower and the tower looked even more beautiful with the twinkling lights. Also the atmosphere in the garden where we sat and saw the spectacular show was very friendly with people just hanging out and eating and drinking. Felt like the 4th of July fireworks night that we experience in the US.

Twinkling lights at the tower

Well, we didn't have any picnic food so we headed out to try try to most famous street food of Paris- crepes. Crepes are thin pancakes which have sweet and savoury fillings in them. We got one with nutella filling. It was fantastic. I also enjoyed watching how they were preparing the crepes.  The way they spread the crepe batter on hot griddle reminded me of our desi dosas. After we filled our bellies with delicious crepes we got on the subway and headed back to our hotel.

The crepe shop

Loved the crepe with nutella

On day 16 - our second day in Paris we planned to head out to see the famous Palace of Versailles. We got up little late and it was almost 11 by the time we reached there. There was a huge line outside the palace to get in. I got in the line and Rakesh got in the another line to get tickets. So that way we would at least optimize the wait time. After waiting in the line for about 45 minutes finally we got an entry into the magnificent royal palace.

Near the palace entrance

Outside the palace

The palace which was built centuries ago is a remarkable achievement of French art.  King Louis built this royal palace which embodies classical french art. The palace also had political importance for some time. The palace was mesmerizing and you could feel the king's opulence and extravaganza. Checkout some of the pictures below.

View of the garden from the palace window

Right next to the palace there is a huge garden - Garden of Versailles. It is little silly that we had to buy a separate ticket to enter the garden which was a part of the palace. Anyway we got our tickets and entered the garden. You also get a map of the garden which was useful to check out different sections of the huge garden. The garden is sprawling over a very huge area and is built in classical french style. We saw meticulously manicured lawns, bouquets of flowers, beautiful trees and huge fountains with beautiful sculptures everywhere in the garden. We waited until 3 pm as the fountain show begins at 3 pm. The fountain show is a musical fountain show so the whole garden has beautiful music playing everywhere and the fountains dancing to the tunes of the music. The sheer splendour was amazing and impressive.

First look at the garden

Water show at one of the fountains

After the day spent in scorching heat we were really tired and headed to our hotel to catch some rest in the our cosy air conditioned room. We then got ready and headed to Eiffel tower. We first saw a glimpse of the Arc De Triomphe and then walked along Champs De Elysee which is a prestigious place is Paris with all the luxury cafes and speciality shops. This street is one of the priciest real estate in the world. 

Arc De Triomphe

After spending some time here, we reached Eiffel Tower and got in the line to get tickets which by the way is usually shorter if you go after 9 pm. We got our tickets and were ecstatic to get on the lift that takes you to the second level. There were too many people. We enjoyed the city views from the second level. Needless to say Paris is a huge city. The glamorous city glittered with lovely lights. What a sight it was!

Yay got our tickets

Glittering city of Paris

We then took the lift to the topmost(3rd) level of the Eiffel tower. I was so happy to be celebrating a milestone birthday in Paris. It almost felt like yesterday we were just toying with this idea. I never thought we would actually make it to Paris for my birthday. It was a indeed a dream come true. I was so happy and thankful to my dear husband for planning it so impeccably.

Its's June 5th!

On the way down.. so happy to have made it to Eiffel tower for my birthday

As we were about to leave it started raining heavily. We didn't care and just enjoyed our time on the tower in the rain.

This had turned out to be one of my best birthdays ever.  Thanks Rakesh for making it so memorable!  Love you!

Check out more pics here.