A trip to the city of fashion, Paris

Finally its a weekend and we have no plans except for going to the fancy dress show in Ranit’s school. So I have some time to pen down some moments from our Paris trip that we did earlier this month.

We had a lot of expectations from our trip when we left for Paris from Brussels. It was the city that I had thought about visiting at least once in this life while I was in junior school and when I first saw that movie “An evening in Paris” starring Shammi Kapoor. Of-course I am lying. But yes it was indeed a place where I wanted to be at least once and after our 5 days stay in Paris Trust me it is worth visiting at least once in your life. So if you happen to be in Europe for sometime for work or anything like that, DON’T MISS IT.

We had got a good deal for staying in Paris for 4 nights. It was actually not in Paris but about 20 km out of it. However, the city is so well connected that you hardly realize it.

We reached Paris on 13th May at around 12:30 PM. From there we directly went to our hotel, checked in and then left for a quick city tour. That day we managed to see Defense Arc, Champs-Elysees, Arc De Triomphe and Concord. It was getting slightly darker and we were planning to call it a day. Just then we got our first glimpse of Eiffel Tower and we were fresh and energetic again and decided to see Eiffel from close before leaving for our hotel. In about 20 minutes and after changing couple of Metros we were there, right next to the Eiffel tower. It was stunningly beautiful. It was glowing in golden color with some white and purple lights twinkling all over it. We kept clicking photographs till both pairs of our batteries were dead. We had no option but to call it a day and leave for the hotel and because Ranit was also with us and it was already around 12 midnight it was a good decision.

Next day we spent at Disneyland, where Ranit was having all the fun and we were enjoying the excitement and spark in his eyes that he was having while waiting for his turn on the rides. Another good day gone.

Third day we was a few more beautiful places like Montmatre, NotreDam, Bercy park and the wooden walking bridge over the Siene river of Paris. Also we couldn’t have enough of Eiffel tower on our first day in Paris, so decided to go there again and this time we spent some 2 hrs or more in the queue to get a ride to the top of Eiffel. Once we were on the second floor of Eiffel and looked at the Paris city from there, we realized that it was worth the wait in the queue. We could not go to the top floor as that was closed for some maintenance :( probably for next time.

On the forth day we admired the history and art crafted on the walls (& Roofs)of Chateau De Versailles. Later we spent a lot of time in the beautiful gardens around the palace.

Now we were at our last day in Paris but the good news was that we had the full day in hand as our bus was leaving from Paris at 6 in the evening. On this day we visited Chateau De Vincennes followed by the Parc Floral de Paris. It is relatively lesser known park but we enjoyed the most here. It was very beautiful and has some nice scenic spots to click some decent snaps. If you are with kids they will love it. We also saw St. Marten canal and Paris De Nord on this day before heading towards our bus.

And just before we were to board our bus for Brussels and when I was feeling happy about being able to accomplish our trip within our allocated budget, Rajni started bargaining for a Perfume form Paris. Eventually we overshot our allocated budget by some 100 € :-(.

PS: I would like to thank this little french guy who helped us in reaching Champs-Elysees after we boarded the wrong bus and realized it half an hour later. It was difficult for him to make us understand(French Only Guy) the route so he came out of his way to make sure that we reach our destination safely . I learnt that language, nationality and color of skin is not a barrier if you are committed to help others, anywhere in this world.