Vijay Basrur

Paris Airport Blues

To be sitting inside the airport, till late in the night, for nearly 5 hours waiting to take a flight that barely lasts 50 mins, is probably one of my worst experience in flight delays.

We reached London at 1.30 in the night, 3 hours behind schedule. We survived on some horrible food since there was barely anything available at that hour in the night.

Easyjet gave us food worth 5 euros each and we just about got one bottle of water, a sandwich & a bag of chips. We also had a frustrating experience using a credit card phone to keep in touch with our relatives who were waiting for our arrival.

My wife’s cousin had pre booked a cab which was a saviour in that hour of the night. We reached home at 2.30 and had a quick dinner and immediately crashed into bed.

Invalides, Notre Dame Cathedral

Napoleans Tomb is quite and intersting place to go to. The main area where he is buried is quite a structure. Its grandeur and size tell you a lot about how much he would have been respected during his times.

The rest of the Hotel de Invalides is not very exciting. It houses an army museum which was party shut due to some renovation. So after covering most of the area, we settled down on the lawns to finish a bag of chips, fruits, beer & wine which we had to consume since we were leaving Paris the same night.

After lazing around a bit more, we made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The queues were long but we managed to slip in, in true desi style, the only time we’ve broken a queue.

The cathedral has a lovely facade but the interiors were dark and the place was crowded since it was a weekend. Its a nice place with lovely stained glass windows on all sides.

We got out quickly, caught a bite and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.

Chateau Versailles, Siene tour

It took us a little over an hour to get to Versailles.

The grandeur of the Chateau is stunning. The size of it just amazing. The tour takes you through all the different types of rooms, each of which has a different theme. The walls, the ceiling, the paintings on the walls & the furniture are all different in every room.

To think that so much wealth was spent for personal use, gives you a hint as to why people would have been frustrated at that time. Frustration was one of the cornerstones for the French Revolution.

The Versailles Gardens are about 5 times bigger than the Chateau. They spread over a huge area and in some directions go on till the horizon.

Since it was a bit late, we decided to head to Effiel Tower to catch the lighting up at 9 pm. we had some spare time so we took a lovley crusie on the river Siene. The hour long cruise takes you around many tourist attractions, all of which are conveniently located along the riverside.

The lighting up of Eiffel at 9 & 10 pm is something one should never miss. It gives a wonderful touch to the tower and it looks like one huge blinking Christmas tree.

We made dinner out of a real nice & juicy hotdog and a chicken n cheese crepe. This joint is right below the tower on the opposite road and seemed like a family run place. I have never had a better hotdog anywhere else. Period. We also got conned into making a potrait which didn’t turn out quite well as per wifey since I am made out to be a trifle serious in the potrait.

We were so dead tired that we crashed into bed without a change of clothes and woke up in the middle of the night to change.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Paris. Boo Hoo

Louvre, Arc D’Triomphe & Champs Elyeses

If you take a few football fields and keep many an artifacts, you would probably get the Louvre.

Louvre is the worlds biggest museum. It seems if you were to spend one minute in front of every piece in the museum, it would take 4 months to see everything inside the Louvre.

Though the main attraction is the Mona Lisa, frankly it pales in comparison with some of the other paintings. Infact the painting kept right opposite the Mona Lisa is much better but its glory is dwarfed by the Mona Lisa hype.

Though we walked for hours and browsed through with some specific atrefacts in mind, we fell short miserably in covering even 30% of what the Louvre has to offer. Since the rooms begin to close at 5.30, we decided to hang around the pyramid and then head to the Arc D’Triomphe.

The location of the Arc is mind blowing. The central island has 12 roads leading into it & apparently making it the worlds busiest roundabout. We climed on top of the Arc to get a superb 360 deg view of the round about.

The best view is of the Champs Elyses which is the main road leading to the Arc and is Paris’s best destination for “hanging out” and ofcourse “shopping”. The road is lined with trees, wide footpaths and open air cafes giving it a very romantic touch.

After strolling around aimlessly for a bit, checking out a Virgin Megastore & window shopping we finally got back to the hotel. Enroute we packed some hot Chinese dinner which we ate in the room with Hieneken beer and wine.

Ah Paris!

The flight from Nice to Paris was just about an hour and since it was an early morning flight, we just slept through it.

My cousin had told me that the Paris Metro is pretty good. But when you actually end up using it, you find it truly amazing to find the many routes that take you from one point to the other. It was a breeze to get to Daumesnil, where our hotel was, from Paris Orly airport.

The hotel was actually 10 steps from the Metro station and the room was pretty small but very nice & cute. Surprisingly check in was at 2 pm so we just hung around, shopped for some groceries at the supermarket, had lunch and then checked in.

After resting for a bit, we headed to see the Eiffel Tower. The metro takes you 5 mins from the tower.

The queue was horribly long and it took us nearly 2.5 hours to get to the main lift. Every lift which went up or down had a minimum 30 min waiting time.

But every minute of waiting time is worth it. The experience just leaves you spell bound. We were lucky to get to the 2nd floor in daylight and the top floor during the night. It was freezing cold all along but we had loads of fun.

We must have taken countless photos since every view is spectcular. The view from the top is amazing and you can pretty much see all of Paris.

We were dead tired when we got back to the hotel, 6 hours after we started & 5 of which we were standing. We opted for sleep instead of dinner, which was a pretty good idea.

Day one is Paris was very tiring and exhilirating as well.

Monte Carlo

Visited Monte Carlo and enjoyed ogling at the luxuries of the rich and famous.

We strolled into the grand Monte Carlo Casino and heck we even made 7 Euros at our first attempt at gambling. These earning were immediately eroded by a small lunch of tuna salad and a glass of beer.

Outside the main entrace of the Casino you can spot many a expensive cars. We spotted 2 Ferraris and some really cool Mercs.

We also visited the Royal Palace and stolled in the palace ground which give a stunning view of the sea.

We got back to Nice and got on to the hop on hop off tour of Nice which was really nice. We sat on the upper deck and enjoyed ourselves.

The tour takes you through the entire city with explainations of the major landmarks. We missed out paying a visit to Old Nice which was highly recommended by my cousin.

We ended the day with superb palak sabzi, paneer sabzi, hot rotis, rice and my favourite yellow daal.

We wrapped up the packing in about and hour and went to bed excited about our departure to Paris the next morning.

Eze Village

Thanks to some convoluted bus schedules from Nice, we had to postpone our plans to get to Monte Carlo.

But a 30 min bus ride fro Nice is this quiet little town called Eze Village. The entire village is probably a few kms wide but since its on a hill it feels large.

The walk through the village is uphill but beautiful. It has tiny streets with cobblepaths and you can get a superb view of the sea from many spots.

We spent quite a bit of time in a tiny shop that sells home made liqueur, brandy, vinegar & oils. We also ended up shopping for a few things here. The best was Fig liqueur and garlic flavoured olive oil.

We wandered around aimlessly and loved every bit of it. We were told that most hotels shut between 3 to 7 and since it was already 5, we had to make do with sandwiches for lunch. I also tried a beer called 1664 which was pretty good.

We got back by 6.30 and had to struggle with the automated entry system and were glad that someone came from inside the building and we got in just before the door closed.

After a small rest at home we headed to the Promenade D’anglais which is like Marine Drive. It has a wide footpath where you spot quite a few folks cycling, skating or jogging. The view is brilliant and you can sit on the benches and look at planes landing and taking off.

We also walked down to the beach. Its the first time I saw a beach shore with pebbles and practically no sand. The water was very clean and a far cry from the Mumbai beaches.

Dinner was home made idlis, sambar, chutney, rice and pickle. Bliss!