Europe Trip: Day 12: Paris

This day turned around our fortunes. We checked out of our previous hotel and moved to a new hotel “Hotel Camelia” with a very comfortable room. Then armed with the Paris city and underground metro maps, stepped out to make the most of the day.

Our first stop was the Louvre. The Louvre is arguably the world’s most famous and largest museum. It can take probably two full days to explore it fully.
We entered through the famous glass pyramid and made our way through the various corridors admiring the priceless paintings and sculptures, including the ornate Napoleon Gallery.
We were thrilled to see the original Mona Lisa and many other famous works of art like the “La Vierge aux rochers” (“Virgin of the rocks”) painting and the sculpture of Aphrodite known as the “Venus di Milo”.










Just when we were about to leave, we saw the famous 2 inverted pyramids, made famous in the movie “The Da Vinci Code”.

From the Louvre, we walked down the Rue de Rivoli to the beautiful Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. The construction of the cathedral was spread over 2 centuries and finally saw completion in 1345. At the very top is a thirteen-ton bell named Emmanuel.

As you step inside the cathedral, you feel really humbled and at peace. K remarked that this is a beautiful place for worship. I understood exactly what she meant. The St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was more ornate and splendid but the Notre Dame is where you actually feel at peace and connected to God. I’m not the very religious types, but the atmosphere here even got to me.

Our next stop, while walking along and over the River Seine, was the Soufflot Pantheon. The Pantheon is not nearly as old or famous as the Roman one but makes up for it in architectural beauty. The French architect Soufflot designed this Pantheon and the Latin Quarter, as the area around it is known.

This evening we were blessed with great weather and we moved now to the Tour de Eiffel (Eiffel Tower).
The most famous landmark in Paris gets a lot of tourists and we had to get into a long queue for tickets to the top of the tower (the Sommet).
Once at the top, you are witness to a most incredible view of Paris. You can see in the distance, the Arc de Triomphe standing proudly, the Bois de Boulogne with its symmetric gardens and the River Seine snaking its way through the city. It’s also incredibly windy and chilly and we hugged our jackets and ourselves tightly together for a few quick photographs.

At the very top of the Eiffel tower is a bit of history recreated. The tower constructed in 1889 was at first called a monstrosity by the arty French and a famous anecdote goes thus - Novelist Guy de Maupassant who claimed to hate the tower, supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure.
Well, it appears as if Gustave Eiffel did have his set of famous admirers too. Like inventor Thomas Edison who paid him a visit on 10th September 1889 at the small apartment on top of the tower that Eiffel reserved for intimate receptions with prominent guests. This moment has been recreated in the apartment and shows Edison offering Eiffel a model of his well-known phonograph.

We hung around the Eiffel Tower till the sunset. That’s when you get to see a glittering lights show on the tower, until the sky gets completely dark and the tower lights up in all its splendor.