Un apéritif à Paris - A starter in Paris
Ok, so I have been back a long time and I still haven’t gotten around to
putting up photos or experiences of Paris! So here goes an attempt to try and
recollect what all I did. Work had been kind enough to give me an opportunity
to head to Paris to meet my bosses and I as usual took the opportunity to do as
much as I could in the (very) short time I was there.
Many people say Paris in a day is impossible, I would beg to differ. I
believe it is possible, however, well caveated with what type of a person you
really are, and what really interests you. For example, if you are gastronomic
then the road side cafes, the bistros and the restaurants really will be all
you can sample. On the other hand if you are in to architectural delights, then
suffice to say that one day really will not be enough to cover even one of the
highlights.
Paris has so many things to see and do that it is a bit difficult to
choose and you need some guidance from someone. NOT the internet. Now, I am the
kinda guy who would prefer to laze around on any of my holidays as opposed to
do any sightseeing. So for me to go out and see Paris was a task in itself.
Thankfully, I stayed in a very nice hotel called The Palm Opera and the concierge there was very helpful and
told me what to do.
Travel – He advised me to buy a one day ticket called the Paris Visite Travel Card that cost around 10
Euros that allows a person unlimited travel in the zones that you have selected
and on most methods of travel. For this amount I thought it was the best as you
can use the Metro / RER / Bus / Tram etc. all on one ticket. Getting used to
the metro is actually quite easy and you just need to make sure you know which
direction you are going to. A person (yours truly) used to the underground in
London will find this very easy. So the first thing to do is to get to a train
station and pick this up – which is what I did.
I wanted to definitely visit a few places: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame,
Louvre (but it was closed as I had gone on a Tuesday), Avenue Des Champs
Elysees and anything else that I could and he suggested that I try visiting the
Sacre Coeur.
So first thing he did was said if I don’t want to climb the Eiffel Tower
then I should just head to the station called Trocadero so I did. The train
journey was uneventful bar seeing a very guitarist busking in the metro. I didn’t realize till
later that the Trocadero was also a historical place. Anyway
got out at the correct station and simply followed the crowds to find this
superb viewing spot that gave me some really good views of the Eiffel Tower. Hung
around for a while, while I watched a small stall making some awesome crepes,
but didn’t taste it as the queue was really long.
Strike tower off the list. I had contemplated going there but one of my
photos at super zoom showed hundreds of people milling around the base of the
tower and I really didn’t have much time.
Next stop was the Notre Dame, which was some ways off so rather than get into the same station that was the Trocadero I walked a bit using a tourist map and made it to some other station that would get me to the Notre Dame. I wasn’t too fussed at any of the stations to find the actual place as you just have to follow the tourists, and trust me you know who they are! – they look just like you – lost and holding a camera!
Reached the Notre Dame this in essence is a very old and very famous
cathedral. Entrance is free and it is open most days, but like every tourist
place in Paris – very very crowded! Took a few photos and then decided to make
the tour as well just to see what it was like inside and honestly it is really
very impressive. There are huge oil paintings, very nice sculptures and the
good thing was that there was a service going on so took part in it and was
great to see the huge pipe organ they have there actually being played. It is a
bit distracting to have tourists in the cathedral during the actual service but
they managed. Took a lot of photos of the outside and as much of the inside I
could.
Walked outside the Cathedral and bought myself a sandwich and sat on a
bridge nearby where yet another guitarist was busking. Whilst I was wondering
what to do next, I stumbled upon an alley way which led to yet another set of
alleys that were filled with cafes and pubs and food joints so took a nice long
walk around there. These don’t have wide enough paths for vehicles and so was
full of pedestrians and to be honest looked like every type of cuisine could be
found here including Biryani! Also happened to see a group of guys doing a very
funky street dance which was martial artistic in nature. Don’t know what it’s
called but I think its Capoeira as I remember the moves. Didn’t think if capturing on Video (doh!) but
it was really nice.
Whilst continuing my walk I came upon another street and some nice water
fountains. This was called the Fontaine Saint Michel also another
historical monument constructed in 1858. At this place I came across a Piano
Busker and he was awesome. He was sitting in the middle of the square and
belting some tunes away on a real piano. I did manage to get some videos of
this guy and will get around to putting it up sometime once I figure it out! I
think I spent a lot of time here and even bought a CD of his as the music was
really quite nice. 
After this it was off to the Avenue Des Champs Elysees. Now, all I knew about this place was that it
was a famous street. I realized later that this is one of the most expensive
streets in the world property wise and has some of the big shopping brands. The
ones that you and I possibly can’t afford – I can’t actually! However it was
good fun walking along and seeing some of the stores that they have and again
street side cafes and bistros. It was here that I got to also see the Mercedes
Benz Galerie. This was an awesome experience
and unfortunately even the souvenirs were way too expensive here. The best part of this was the showcase of
cars from across the years.
Brilliantly enough, very close to this was a Peugeot showroom as well so
took a wander around this place as well. Saw some super nice looking cars here.
After this was done it was off to see one the most famous architectural
masterpieces of Paris – The Arc De Triomphe.
Again for the artistic or architecturally inclined this is really good
to see. All I did (as usual) was just walk around take a few photos and then
decide – oh well – what next! ;)
With light going down, I was all done with what I wanted to see but
decided to take my favorite concierges advice and head to the Sacre Coeur Basilica which basically means The Sacred
Heart Basilica of Montmartre. I took a route to the correct station but was
misguided to the actual cathedral not through the normal route but through back
alleys and steep steps up to reach this famous basilica which was on top of a
small hill. This turned out to be a good detour though as I came across some
more street plays in French! And some really nice restaurants that were in the
square near the basilica. 
Got some nice pictures and then came across a view point that showed me
a nice view of Paris. More busking and generally people chilling out on the
expansive steps and lawns with some nice French wine. Did the usual photo taking and then proceed
to head back towards the station to get back to the hotel. On the way to the
station came across a lot of souvenir shops and was quite pleasantly surprised
when someone asked me in Tamil if I was a Tamilian! Most of the shops are owned
by Tamilians/Srilankans and I was advised to go to Saravanna Bhavan if I wanted to get
some good veg Indian food. Obviously
didn’t go. Headed back to the hotel and saw a nice restaurant called Le Corail Brasserie by the
side where I decided to get some food. The good thing was that one of the
waitresses was able to speak decent English and was able to suggest a good meal
for me. So had some nice Duck and then proceeded back to the hotel to ensure
that I was early for the important meeting the next day. So there you go, Paris in a day! Possible and doable.
I would have thought this was the end of my Paris sojourn; however my
meeting was so good the next day that I was asked to head back to Paris the
following week and so the next section continues.
On my second trip, which was equally short, I didn’t have much time this
around as well, but happened to stay in a hotel called Edouard VII which happened to be a boutique hotel situated right bang in the middle
of the city with some awesome views of the famous National Opera (L’Opera Nationale) and very walkable
distance to the Louvre.
So this time around I managed to do the short walk to the Louvre. This
museum is famous for a couple of things (at least) – 1 – the Mona Lisa hangs here. And 2 – this museum has
the famous Louvre Glass Pyramid that features in
Dan Browns – Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately it was a Tuesday if
memory serves me right and that meant the museum wasn’t actually open. Thinking
about it and seeing the actual size of the museum I believe that even a week
here would not do justice if you were interested in history. For me, if I had
seen Mona, that would have been good enough.
Once I finished with the Louvre and the customary photographs, I headed
on in search of Escargot! I had missed it the last time and
as snails were a specialty I actually walked and looked for a restaurant that
had these. I finally found a nice small restaurant called the Café de L’Olympia that had an open
air area and enjoyed eating these fishy things! J The waiter here was
very helpful and even showed me how to eat them. He was especially nice to say
that the steak that I wanted was actually raw meat and therefore I may not find
it quite palatable.
Headed back to my hotel and took a few pictures from the balcony and
then called it a day.
Phew, there it is. Done and Dusted. Now to figure out how to get the
videos online.
If you survived this far, thanks for reading and I hope you now know
that Paris in a day is definitely doable for a guy like me ;)
