Europe Trip- Day 1,Paris.

Day 1: 17 April 2005

With the two weeks of module behind us, we set out for the long anticipated and long planned tour. The flight out of Copenhagen was at 7 am. We reached Paris Charles de Gaulle at around half past nine on Sunday the 17th of April. We had booked hostels from India over the internet in addition to taking the Eurail passes. The first thing we had to do was to get hold of a Paris underground metro map and make sense of it. The metro system is huge and complex, but at the same time very effective. We had to change a couple of trains to reach the hostel (the airport, like many other airports was located far away from the city).

The initial feel of Paris was not that great. The outskirts were very dirty with graffiti, garbage etc everywhere. I felt like being in Mumbai. The first sign of being in a big city was when we reached the gare du nord railway station and had to catch a different route metro to reach barbes-roucherout. The station was so enormous with around 5 metro lines converging and also many high speed and TGV lines. It took us a while to get to the correct platform. But thanks to the directions and maps in every corner of the station and on the platforms, we did not get lost. Our hostel, Friends international, was located bang outside the Barbes –roucherout station. We had taken a 6 bed room which turned out to be pretty okay. One interesting thing that I noted about the hostels that apart from advertising amenities like internet, swimming pool , 24 hours check in and stuff they also display that they have English speaking staff.

The first place we went to was the Notre dame church. It was related to the hunch back of Notre dame I suppose, some one told me the story but it has escaped me now. Anyway, it was a beautiful church...the vibrations inside was great. This was the first of the many churches that we would be visiting during the tour. There is this open top tourist buses for which u get a 2 day pass for 22 euros and which takes u to all the major attractions of Paris. We got tickets for them and hopped aboard one of them. We were on the road which was running parallel to the seine, crossed it and reached the Champs Elysees, which is the most famous road in Paris.

The shops lined along either side of the Champs Elysees read like the who is who in the world of fashion and luxury. Also this is the place where the Tour De France ends, with the cyclists thundering down the avenue to make a grand finish in front of the Arc De Triomphe – another of Paris’ picture postcard monuments. The building was built by Napolean the Great to celebrate his military might. The Arc is at the centre of a huge roundabout around which roads lead in all the different directions. This makes for an amazing sight from the top of the structure. Another thing that one notices is that the Paris skyline doesn’t have any skyscrapers. All the buildings are max 7 floors... it is a policy and that has made the city even more beautiful...

From there we went to the Eiffel tower...by the time we reached it was around 8 pm and the sight of the tower all lighted up was just breathtaking... that picture will remain in my mind for ever. It looked as if it was made in gold. There are blinking lights placed all over the tower and those are activated every half an hour or so for a few minutes. That adds to the magic, and u would be seeing in front of you a 300 foot tall dazzling, glittering and seemingly gold tower. It’s a sight to behold. Since we were very late...we couldn’t climb up the top of the tower. But we had another day to go. While on the way back to the hostel chanced upon a building, it was the Paris Hilton. Looked pretty much simple, quiet, unassuming, and non controversial. Couldn’t help but think about its famous namesake as I retired for the day.