These days, 24 hours in a day are just not enough for me. Time flies away like anything, leaving hardly any moment to think of writing blogs. Yesterday my minors got over, and then and there I got entangled in a submission for one of the most boring and unproductive labs I ever had (not that others were any better), the due date for which was today. As Parkinson’s Law states, that work always expands it to take over all the available time. In spite of my sincere intentions to complete it yesterday itself, (no prizes for guessing) I just got over with it and unable to muster enough energy to start studying, I took up writing this blog post.
I remember having thought of writing this post nearly 18 months ago, but better late than never. This post is about my experiences about a journey to one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world, known for its art, culture, fashion, cuisine and design. Ah bon!! C’est Paris!!
If you ask a French if he/she would like to live in Paris for ever, he might say NO!!, for French consider it to be one of the most crowded, polluted and snobbish French cities, but for me, an Indian, a pseudo Delhite (currently) and an English speaking fellow, Paris is a dream destination.
I visited this city de lumieres in les vacances de Toussaint during my one semester in INSA, Toulouse. Though I dearly wished to spend the hefty vacations in Alps of Switzerland, but procrastination always takes its toll on me and I could not procure a visa in time for that. Unlike my previous travels across France, this time I being all alone to plan my travel (with Pinak!), I decided to spend 3 days in Paris and then take a detour towards the western coast to visit the Normandy Beaches of World War fame.
Being a peak season, the train tickets to Paris were being quoted at exorbitant prices, giving me despair as the days came closer. So we thought of trying the Carpool, a cheap way to travel and environment friendly too, suggested by one of our friends. At very reasonable price and a decently comfortable 600 km car journey, we arrived at the hostel of Ecole Centrale Paris (a friend who was leaving himself for a week had allowed us to stay in, saving us many Euros), our lodge for next few days. We reached there late in the night and needed lots of rest to wake up next day into one of the most memorable days of my life.
We woke up next day to find a pleasant cloudy weather with light drizzle occasionally spurring the mood. Though we hadn’t much on charts in the name of itinerary, but unanimously, we decided to start with nothing but The Eiffel Tower. Our hostel was located in Antony, an area in suburbs of Paris and quite far away from the central city. But thanks to the excellent network of express railways, the RER and Metro in Paris, travelling around Paris was never a problem. Our friend had told us about the ways around the hostel, but the nearest station told by him wasn’t very near and we got lost as soon as we left. Though Parisiens are infamous for their indifferent attitude, against this reputation we were immediately helped by a sweet damsel to locate the station. The subsequent journey to Champ de Mars (place where Eiffel is situated) was rather more of a dream, with both me and Pinak preparing ourselves for encounter with the global icon.
As soon as I got out of the RER station, I took a 360 degree turn around to catch a glimpse of the tower. And there it was, lurking through the nearby trees and buildings. We literally ran towards it making our way through the hustle and bustle of people from all over the world, skittering on the streets as if we knew the place by heart. And soon we were facing it, tall and proud, with our necks strained to see its top, which was playing hide and seek behind the clouds floating past it. That was an awesome moment, a moment of lifetime for me.
Too eager to reach the top we hurried towards the ticket counter. Now one thing I would always like about France is the special favour they do to youth and students, irrespective of the nationality, by giving them huge discounts on the tickets. Pinak wanted to take tickets of taking a lift for all the floors, but I preferred climbing on foot and told him that it would save us money. In fact, I never wanted to miss the splendid experience of climbing 300+300 steps upto the second floor of monument and enjoying the panoramic view of the city below. Though the idea of lifting my body mass by 130 metres was already making me breathe hard, but the cool weather and fresh air made things so easy. It was fun to read the facts about the marvel and its great engineer Gustav Eiffel displayed along the stairs. After resting for few minutes at both first and second floor looking around the small models about the structure of tower and its suspension architecture and munching a sandwich from the restaurant at second floor, we took the compulsory lift for the third floor. In a couple of minutes, elevator placed us at the summit of the 324 meters tall and 120 years old structure. Even breeze felt like strong winds gushing at that height. But the exponential shape of Eiffel describes as a non-linear integral equation counterbalances the wind pressure very efficiently and the tip of tower hardly swings by few inches in the wind. The tower is used an observatory and is house to many transmission antennas and communication devices.
(to be continued....)
We woke up next day to find a pleasant cloudy weather with light drizzle occasionally spurring the mood. Though we hadn’t much on charts in the name of itinerary, but unanimously, we decided to start with nothing but The Eiffel Tower. Our hostel was located in Antony, an area in suburbs of Paris and quite far away from the central city. But thanks to the excellent network of express railways, the RER and Metro in Paris, travelling around Paris was never a problem. Our friend had told us about the ways around the hostel, but the nearest station told by him wasn’t very near and we got lost as soon as we left. Though Parisiens are infamous for their indifferent attitude, against this reputation we were immediately helped by a sweet damsel to locate the station. The subsequent journey to Champ de Mars (place where Eiffel is situated) was rather more of a dream, with both me and Pinak preparing ourselves for encounter with the global icon.
As soon as I got out of the RER station, I took a 360 degree turn around to catch a glimpse of the tower. And there it was, lurking through the nearby trees and buildings. We literally ran towards it making our way through the hustle and bustle of people from all over the world, skittering on the streets as if we knew the place by heart. And soon we were facing it, tall and proud, with our necks strained to see its top, which was playing hide and seek behind the clouds floating past it. That was an awesome moment, a moment of lifetime for me. 
Too eager to reach the top we hurried towards the ticket counter. Now one thing I would always like about France is the special favour they do to youth and students, irrespective of the nationality, by giving them huge discounts on the tickets. Pinak wanted to take tickets of taking a lift for all the floors, but I preferred climbing on foot and told him that it would save us money. In fact, I never wanted to miss the splendid experience of climbing 300+300 steps upto the second floor of monument and enjoying the panoramic view of the city below. Though the idea of lifting my body mass by 130 metres was already making me breathe hard, but the cool weather and fresh air made things so easy. It was fun to read the facts about the marvel and its great engineer Gustav Eiffel displayed along the stairs. After resting for few minutes at both first and second floor looking around the small models about the structure of tower and its suspension architecture and munching a sandwich from the restaurant at second floor, we took the compulsory lift for the third floor. In a couple of minutes, elevator placed us at the summit of the 324 meters tall and 120 years old structure. Even breeze felt like strong winds gushing at that height. But the exponential shape of Eiffel describes as a non-linear integral equation counterbalances the wind pressure very efficiently and the tip of tower hardly swings by few inches in the wind. The tower is used an observatory and is house to many transmission antennas and communication devices.
The full panoramic view of Paris was enchanting. With River Seine meandering through the city and banking right below us, and all other monuments of Paris – Arc de Triumph, the dome of Napolean Bonaparte’s tomb, the Champs Elysee, the lush green Parc du Champs de Mars, Palais de Chaillot visible from one place, seeing all this I couldn’t wait to get to all these places. After a brief stay and some camera clicks we took the elevator to descend back. Those 2 minutes down the Eiffel were full of memories permanently engraved into our minds.
