Three Days in Paris.

Preamble :

Since the decline of COVID, life is getting back to normal mode so is travel time.  

If you live in Europe, you will be tempted to visit Paris one or the other day. We are no exception. 

Last weekend we left for Paris on Saturday. Returned on Wednesday. Three full days in Paris. (17th Sept 2022 to 21st Sept 2022)

How did we travel :

We took THALYS train from Amsterdam to Paris. It takes around 4 hrs. Very comfortable. 

Where we stayed:

We normally book AIRBNB apartments when we travel out. We do not stay in hotels for two main reasons. First - Hotels are more expensive and second - we would like to cook / carry our own food. 

This time my AIRBNB booking went haywire. I do search a lot and plan quite good - generally. This time  it failed. The apartment was way too small, unorganised, away from Paris city, in suburb. I should have booked something with in Paris zone. 

Booking an apartment is always not easy. It will be too expensive if you are looking for a place in a central place. Not worth it. Far away is also no use. Since you would spend more time and for ticket for traveling to places of interest, that too when you have taken your wife along with promising a wonderful vacation.  My wife was with me. 

Problem is - those who built the places of interest  (forts, museums, castles, malls, palaces...etc) did not have we tourists in mind when they built them. They are normally scattered , spread across the city in different directions. With limited time and budget one need to carefully plan the places that you want to cover. But if you are prepared to walk a bit (1 or 2 km per place) surely you can cover most and enjoy the trip. 

One can take Hop in Hop Off Bus as well. However do not expect too much from it too. They may not have stops where you want to get down. 

How did we cover the places :

We mixed and matched our trip. First two days we chose our locations and booked the tickets online. Third day we had booked HOHO bus. In between we walked, used bus and trams.

Surely you can not see all Paris in three days. Innumerable number of museums, historical places, palaces. 

You can buy tickets for per trip, day ticket or for number of days. Paris is categorised in 5 zones. Depending upon where you stay, where you want to travel, you choose your zone tickets. Generally if you are on your own buying zone 1 to 3 makes sense. If you have prebooked with HOHO bus or any travel agency then you may not need these tickets. This zone tickets are good for tram, train, bus or train with in the zone. 

What did we see :

We visited Versailles palace, Museum Louvre, Sacre Coer Church, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomph, Tuileries garden and many shopping streets. Another famous museum Muss de Orsay was in the list. We had booked the tickets. But after seeing Louvre, my wife said no more museums. We cancelled it. 

Now enjoy the pictures.

Versailles palace:

The Palace of Versailles is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 15 KM west of Paris, France. 

It has hundreds  of collections of paintings, sculptures and artefacts. It takes few days to view all of them. 

Statue of King Louis XIV

Palace entrance

Beautiful painting. 

A beautiful marble sculpture

Chapel inside the Palace

Another Statue of King XIV

Palace Garden

Another large painting. 

Kings Library

One of the many bed rooms

Hall with large paintings along the wall. 

Statue of King XIV

Exquisite Chandelier

The palace is huge. Hundreds of collections. 

Need many days to view all of them in detail.  It once had around 4000 people staying together with Kings family - it is said. 

Muss de Louvre - Louvre Museum. 

Our next destination was another huge museum. 

The Louvre, or the Louvre Museum, is the world's most-visited museum, and a historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. It holds the works of Leonardo da Vinci the genius of the era.  

Not everyone has a tase for museums. I have a limited interest in them. I am ok to see the beautiful paintings, historical artefacts, sculptures, but not really the modern paintings, nor of Picasso type. I do not understand them. There are people who buy such paintings for millions of rupees I believe. 

The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek; Etruscan, Roman Antiquities, Islamic Art, Sculpture, decorative Arts. 

The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection.

It is estimated that you need almost three months to view all the collections. We tried to view it in five hours. 

Most paintings & sculptures are nude category. Some battle field paintings are non nude & marvellous. 

Museum Louvre. Nice building and entrance. 

We first rushed to the floor that  held the famous Monalisa. Then we randomly moved around. I had seen the picture of Monalisa like most people would have seen. It did not impress me much even after seeing the original image. 

There was big crowd and Q in front of the display. I managed to go through the Q and clicked some unhindered pictures. Here is one below. 

I have never understood the reason for the kind of fame that this image gained. There are more beautiful woman portraits in the same gallery or in many other galleries i am sure. May be it was created by none other than Leonardo da Vinci.  Am I dumb enough not to understand the image?

It is famous for its innocent smile - they say. Yes of course you can see the smile on the face. The expression is truly captured. Yet I do not understand as to why it is so famous.  

Look at Damayanati & Hamsa from Raja Ravi Verma. It looks far more impressive. 

PC: Internet

There is a small - may be a foot size, stone sculpture in Lingaraja temple in Orissa with a beautiful smiling face, really mesmerising. Camera was not allowed inside hence no picture. If you go there ever, do not miss it. you have ask some one local about it. It is not visible directly, it is not in Garbhagrha. It is on a small pedestal that you need to climb up and see. For me that statue should have become famous too. Alas, we do not know well about our own heritage, history and art. 

Anyway coming back to Louvre - 

Below is another famous greek collection - Believed to be of Venus de Milo. Greek god for love. Creator is not known, but there is a guess about its creator and time. Believed to be Greek period. 

pc : Internet

Winged Victory of Samothrace

This is another famous piece of art from Greek period - Winged Victory of Samothrace. 

It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Greek Era, dating from the beginning of the 2nd century BCE. It is composed of a statue representing the goddess Nike(Victory), whose head and arms are missing, and its base in the shape of a ship's bow.

Our next destination was Arc De Triomph. 

The Arc de Triomph is situated in a busy traffic location. Very difficult to get a clear view. However you can go round it and find the suitable time and light. you can climb up to see the panoramic view of Paris. Need to buy tickets to go on top of it. 

Arc de Triomph

Panoramic view of Paris from Atop arc de Triomph.

This is a war memorial originally initiated by Napoleon. He died before its completion. 

You can find similar arc war memorial in many parts of Europe. 

India Gate in Delhi looks similar too. It is also war memorial. 

Our next destination : Montmartre Church and the market:

This is a beautiful architecture. It is on a small hill overlooking Paris. 

The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica and often simply Sacré-Cœur, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris, France, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre.

Inside view of the church. 

The market where we bought some souvenirs.  

Paris is super expensive in general. Hence no clothing or any other things from here. 

Our next Destination : Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower is synonym to Paris. It is an iconic metal structural construction. 330 mtr height. Top observatory floor 276 mtr. First, second and last floor are open to public. It has lifts and staircases too to reach the floors. 

Need to buy tickets for entry and go the floors. Top floor entry ticket is different. First and second floor has restaurants. 

Panoramic view from top floor is fabulous.  

I clicked the photos of the tower from different angles, at different time of the day also by close and far locations. No captions needed. 

The tower is lit during the night. I also understand that on special occasions different kind of lighting is done. 

We also passed by several other beautiful bridges, sculptures, opera houses. Some of the pictures are here.

National Opera House of Paris. Beautiful building. 

Tuileries garden that we visited was unimpressive. On the net it looks good. Hence no pictures.

Love locks:

You will find this in many places in Paris. It is said, Couple in love put this lock in many prominent places, on the bridges, symbolising and /or wishing for long lasting loveable relationship. You will find hawkers selling these in tourist places. 

This is strictly prohibited on Eiffel tower floors for the fear of killing some one on the ground if it falls down on their head. 

Last word : 

Over all we enjoyed the trip. There was much more to see, but our limited time and budget restricted us. 

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