When I think of Paris, the old song ‘I love Paris in Spring time’ runs in my head. I love Paris so much, and It kind of feels like I belong to that Place. It’s weird, right..? I been there about 3 times and I believe I would go back there a number of times in future too.
My first visit was in August 2012, with my sibling’s family. In fact, that was my first trip to Europe. The plan was to go to Dubai and spend few days there with my brother’s family and then head to Paris with them, our 1st stop over in Europe. My brother’s family in Dubai had to obtain a sanken visa to travel to Europe and my brother well ahead applied for it. Before we went to Dubai, we made lot of plans for Dubai stay. But as they haven’t received the visa till last moment, we all were in an immense panicked situation, as I have paid for most of the tours, attractions and some hotels as well. (Generally I make booking with free cancellation and there were two hotels I got a really good rates but not with free cancellation. I didn’t want to miss it thinking everything would work fine). There were two other hotels which my brother booked (he works for Star wood hotels), without him we cannot stay. It was two days before our departure and there were no information about the visa. I remember my brother asked me enforce ‘Plan B’, as they will not be able to travel with us. I firmly told him that we are not leaving without his family and there won’t be any Plan B on this trip. We couldn’t do much in Dubai, other than going to malls and waiting eagerly for the phone call from embassy. Finally, just before 2 days, in the evening he got a call from embassy confirming their visa. Oh My God, I have never been so tensed in my life like that before. The entire following day, my sister in law spent her time packing all of their bags, as she didn’t want to do it before getting the visa. Well they say all is well, that ends well, and as planned our trip was so smooth from the time we left Dubai. It was the initial panic. Maybe we needed that to learn to keep ourselves cool and calm in situation like that and leave everything to God. Not sure.
Well, we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport in the evening, and I must tell you I was so disappointed with the standard of Paris International airport. I expected much more glamour and beauty. I guess I was more disappointed after boarding the flight at Dubai Airport, one of the best airports in the world.
But Paris did not disappoint me though. We stayed at one of Meridian hotels and it’s at the heart of the city, a very convenient location. I remember the first day itself once we settled we went out to explore the city. Paris is the most beautiful city for me. The buildings, architecture and all. Even though it was summer, the weather was so perfect. We’d explore most of the city areas on the same day, and ended having a meal at MacDonalds at Champs-Élysées avenue. Champs-Élysées is famous for cafes and all, but as my nieces so wanted to have McDonalds we ended there. I was so excited to walk in Champs-Élysées as I already heard about the boutiques. But I did not buy anything as everything on Champs-Élysées were expensive. Well, that’s not true. I ended up buying perfumes. At one end of Champs-Élysées is Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous monuments in Paris.It’s in the juncture of 12 radiating avenues. We felt we did a lot on the first day exploring the city.
For the 2nd and 3rd day I have bought a Paris Pass. If you have a limited time to see Paris, Paris pass is the best option. It covers most of the attractions, museums, unlimited rides on hop on hop off bus and also metro tickets for 2 days. Also Paris pass helps you to skip the queues in most of the places. But remember it does not cover Eiffel Tower ticket. Hop on hop off bus is so good to explore Paris. It stops at all famous places, and you can hop off and explore the place and hop on to the next bus. In my last trip I noticed the procedures have slightly changed and you have to pay extra for the 2nd day at their office.
We did quite a lot in next two days. Louvre museum was an awesome place to see. My little niece was not so keen about museums and when we went to Louvre she was saying museum? oh no… Kids you can understand. So just to keep her entertained we told her we are going to see Mona Lisa’s original painting. She was some what ok with that, and when we reached Mona Lisa gallery, she saw the portrait and said ‘oh is that it?’ She was so disappointed. We all had a good laugh about her expression. If you are into arts and culture, you can spend a day at Louvre. It is an amazing museum. We spent half day there as we had lot of other point of attraction we had on our list and so limited time.
The other main places we visited were Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Montmartre Tower, Place de la Concorde, Pantheon, Champs-Elysées, Disneyland Paris etc. As a part of my trip planning, I purchased private group tour to Eiffel Tower, it was so useful. The normal queue to on to level 1 was so huge, and we would have spent hours and hours if that was not the case. Also they gave lot of information which most of us didn’t know, such as Mr Effiel bought the rights to the patent on the design, which was initially designed by Koechlin. Anyway all these details you can find it online. You can go up to 3rd floor, and most of the restaurants were in level2. We did have our late lunch there just to make a visit unforgettable.
Another unforgettable event was food. Paris has amazing cafes and restaurants. But as my sister and I were vegetarian and it was so hard to find nice vegetarian cuisine. Most of the time we ended up having baguettes. Croissants in Paris was so awesome. But at the end of our trip we thought we had too much carb. After longing for good vegetarian food, I decided that I will not be having total vegetarian meal when I travel and will be more flexible. Once we wanted to have rice and spicy curries and someone advised us to go to La Chapelle for Indian cuisine. La Chapelle was such a disappointment. There were a number of Indian restaurants and the food did not disappoint us, but the area as whole was a big shocker. It was crowded, polluted and some areas even stinked like nothing. I couldn’t believe this suburb is part of Paris the beautiful city. Then again I think in every country, you will find areas like that.
I found getting around in Paris was so easy. The metro system is so well developed and you can get to any corner of the city by Metro. I felt it was so familiar and didn’t have any problems with directions. In fact, my sister and sister in law said that may be one of my previous births was in Paris, as I walk around and describe the directions like been there and so familiar. I found Parisian too were very friendly. If you ask for help, even some of them didn’t know English, they will try to help you out with the little English they know and rest with hand gestures.
I been to Paris in 2015 as well with my friend, and will write that experience separately as this getting longer. We spent about 5 days in Paris it was well worth it. Oh what a memorable 1st trip it was!!!
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