Every travel magazine, every travel channel, every piece of information, that talked about the topic of Romance, touched a place called 'Paris', almost inadvertatnly. What's with romance and Paris, that has everyone hooked to this city. Infact Europe has 2 places prominently labelled for Romance (Romantic Destinations) .Paris and the other... Venice. Well.... a million people can't be wrong. So I thought, till I personally visited Paris last weekend, after trying to shuffle it off my travel list for 3 years, fending off the visit on numerous occasions.I didn't want to visit these so called 'romantic' destinations with my friends. Why would I want to rob the 'first kiss' experience, going with a group of sambar guys? Well I was partly happy at my procastination and partly disappointed as well.

I'll try to throw the towel first. As with every European city this is a over hyped city. Period. I really can't stop admiring the Caucasians (damn I'm sounding racist) for their relative proximity towards our primate ancestors. When the travel guide book says 'visit a cathedral. Sip wine sitting in the sun in a bar outside. It's romantic'. The bible is followed even if the damn wine costs 3 times more. One more guide says 'Take a boat ride in the Seine and bask in the sun, holding hands with your loved ones'. I see a hundred, if not thousand primate ancestors doing exactly the same. Come one guys, there's a spongy stuff, stuffed inside the cranium. Use that. I thought we Indians are clueless travelers. These guys beat us hands down, only in a more stylish manner.

Ok enough of brainstorming (read bashing). This is my travelogue. Will write about that first. Ok. So on a fine Friday morning I arrive in CDG (Charles de Gaulle International Airport). I had booked by room through a couch surfing/room sharing site http://airbnb.com/ and that place was in a place called La Defance, which is accessible by RER Lines. But the owners were out on work on Friday and by the time I reached Paris, they were away at work. So had to work out a way to store my luggage from Friday morning till the evening and on searching the worldwideweb, found that the Gare De Nord station had locker facilities and so took a RER B line from CDG to Gare De Nord and after meandering throw a maze of escalators and subway levels, reached the place to store the luggage. It could take some time to find this place. The easy way is to go to the platforms from where the Thallys runs. There are sign boards that lead you to the luggage storage area. Interestingly they had body scanners and baggage scanners installed, much like the airport security albeit the queue.The rent was nominal, about 4 EUR for a day and that is from 6.30 a.m till 11.15 p.m. not bad eh. Also the location couldn't be better. North Paris is the place for feasting your taste buds with Indian food, as the places around Gare De Nord abound with Indian restaurants.

So got out of the station with no fixed agenda in mind, meandered around the streets of Gare De Nord, read some menus of the Indian restaurants and realized this part of the world offers relatively cheaper Indian food and then roamed the streets where my legs took me. After an hour, at around 11.00 a.m found a street that went uphill. Any road that leads uphill, has something, at least a nice view to offer. The road ended at the foot of a staircase that was neatly lined with linestone carvings. Interesting I thought. More so if the path is throw lush green vegetation. People have told me paris is not really a green city. But one view at this could prove it wrong. Started claiming the stairs (winding stairs) through a nice park and at the end of it I see a white building. Wait  minute, I've seen this place in pictures. It's called 'Basilique du Sacré-Cœur'. People have told me, the way to reach this place is get down at Metro Station 'Anvers' and walk straight up. But this seems to be a 'off the tourist track'. I have put in the google maps link to reach this place, the way i reached it.
The church was nice and so was the surroundings. After loitering around, decide to explore and went down behind the church to climb down staired apartments. It was a nice walk, quite shady. Then it was time to taste some Indian Food.

When i googled for good Indian restaurants, there was not really many options, but one did mention that Krishna Bhavan (24 rue Cail, Paris 75010, France) is a better place especially their vegetarian thali for 8 EUR. I had a hard time finding this place and the name of the street didn't appear in any of the maps that I had. Every damn street in paris starts with rue and differentiating from rue cail rue cuil from the tiny map I had was like trying to find the gender of a mosquito. After almost getting lost in the city, decided to roam around Gare De Nord and did managed to find the place. Getting down at La Chapelle is a better option. Search for rue cail in gogle maps and you can figure out quite easily. The food was not bad at all for 8 EUR. Infact it was a unlimited meals for 8 EUR. Dosa here costs 4 EUR.

Came out of the restaurant and found Anjappar net door. Checked the dosa price, it was 3 EUR !. Tomorrow's lunch place decided.

Then it was time to check out the Eiffel tower. I had gathered that visiting the Eiffel up and close and personal could intimidate you. And so decided to get down at the Tracadero metro stop, to have a full view of the Eiffel tower and boy i was not let down. The view from here is uninterrupted. Truly majestic.

I have heard folks going up the Eiffel tower in the lift and I also gathered that the queues would be quite long. True to the warnings, the queues were long, but there was absolutely no soul in the counter that sells the 'climbing up' tickets. Umm...lucky me. The ticket was 4 EUR you know. You wouldn't believe, it took me about 30 mins to reach the 2nd level, while I could see folks still waiting down to get in to the lift. I think it makes sense to climb up and that is if you are inclined to physical labor. But I think I was not completely lucky. For some strange reason, may be 'coz Obama was in Paris that day, the lift to the upper floor was suspended. I had to be contend with the view from the second level. Eventually I didn't manage to go up the top level on any other day. Umm....

Wanted to see the sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower. But the sun was very active and decided not to get to bed at least till 11.00 p.m and I had to get back to Gare de nord collect my luggage and check in to the place, which I had booked. I couldn't bother to disturb the hosts after they are asleep and hence had to climb down at 10.00 a.m, collect my luggage and reached the place which was about 20 mins away by train from Gare de nord. The hosts were very nice people and since I was drop dead tired, went to bed immediately.

To be continued

Labels: Travel

• The bigger YOUR seat, the bigger seat you can demand in the government.

• Now that the council of ministers have resigned and the portfolios are yet to be allocated, you can reserve your seat by putting a 'thundu' in the seat. Even better put a saree. (Pakkathula irukavanga saree-ai uruviraadheenga.....kazhaga kanmanigalukku idhu kai vandha kalai ache)

• If you have asked for the Surface Transport & Shipping post and the govt is unwilling to part with it, then scale down your demand...may be... pallavan transport or better ABT transports. Don't give up.
  

• If you have asked for the defence ministry and govt is reluctant, give them your credentials, of you defending your vaeti , sattai during the panchayat council meeting. They will be mighty impressed. if you show the photo credentials (of you holding on to your dear vetti, coz the local saraya lady had uruvified your undrawer earlier in the day and you wanted to protect your ....), published in DinaMakku.

• Don't ask the home ministry to be given to your wife, just because she handles YOUR home.

• Don't imagine something else, when you desire to be external AFFAIRS ministers. It's NOT what you think. So are the following ministries - Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports,Ministry of Tribal Affairs,Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs,Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs,Ministry of Minority Affairs,Ministry of Corporate Affairs

• If you have 10 kids and you have 5 more in the pipeline, you are qualified to be Minister of Labour and Employment.
  

• If you don't get a ministerial berth, don't ask for availability of ministerial RAC or ministerial sitting

Labels: Kusumbu