A week had already passed since I arrived in Europe and I was now in Paris with Andrej. I had enjoyed myself so thoroughly all this while that I got used to the feeling quickly and wanted it to last forever. I was in Paris, a city that evokes art, music, fashion, passion, love, and sophistication among other finer things of life. It felt as if I were in a dream but the dream was so real I could have control over where I wanted to go, who I wanted to be with and what I wanted to feel. Perhaps, I had felt this magical before in my life but it seemed from another life. This was something new, something promising and something that made me look forward to living life. We woke up at about 7:30 AM, got ready and walked towards Montmartre. Andrej wanted to take me to see the St. Pierre Church behind the Sacre Coeur Cathedral where his parents got married. I remembered him mentioning that his parents got married in Paris long ago in one of our online conversations; and to be able to see it with him with my own eyes felt like a dream come true. He wanted to go inside the church but I tired of walking wasn’t up for it. We got into a little argument because of my hesitance and because of his assumption that there must be a reason for my unwillingness to do. I caved it but by then he had lost interest so I didn’t push him further. We walked up the stairs and went behind the Cathedral to take a look at the place his parents got married. It looked like an old, medieval church made from dark grey stones. We did not go inside but took a few pictures of the place. We walked around the complex and came across a French-Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. I ordered Pork Lacque and Andrej had some noodles and chicken. Andrej’s tasted better than my pork and I was impressed as well as embarrassed to learn than he could use chopsticks with flair and I being the “Asian” person did not know how. After lunch, we scouted some book shops which were nothing less than paradise in this highly cultured city. I kept on drooling at all the sweet shops that we passed by. I had to stop at one and as I looked at the assortments in the patisserie it became too arduous as task for me to pick one as they all looked amazing. I finally settled for a crème brule which tasted like a slice of heaven. I had tried one here in New Delhi before at a relatively fancy restaurant but it paled in comparison with the brule from this tiny patisserie. Andrej felt it would be best to purchase metro tickets for the duration of our stay so we bought for three days. The Parisian metro is highly efficient and connects every nook and corner of the city effortlessly. The stations were cleaner than most I’ve been to in New York City (except for the Grand Central) but the trains were more compact than the ones in NYC and not as spacious.
We then went to Le Jardin de Tuileries, situated between the Louvre and La Place de la Concorde. The garden is a name I first heard back in middle school (8th grade to be precise) when I started learning French. The place did not strike me as extraordinary and was not as grand as I had imagined it to be but it looked pretty and sculptures in marble on the sides of the gardens added to its charm. I was filled with joy to even the say the name on my lips despite my bad French pronunciation because it was as if a picture from a book was coming to life. French is one of the most beautiful languages to me and I was envious of Andrej because he could speak it so well even though he stated that his French has become a bit rusty from not using it frequently. I thought he was good and knew more than enough. After Tuileries, we made our journey to the Louvre Museum. I was filled with excitement from head to toes because I may not be the connoisseur of art but I certainly love ancient as well as modern art and being at museums always trigger in me a sense of blissful ecstasy. Andrej wasn’t very keen on this place as he felt he had no knowledge about art. He joked that I would have to be his tour guide for the day…which would never happen because I always have problems navigating through maps even within enclosed spaces such as a museum. The museum was massive and I became convinced that there was no way we could check out all the exhibits in one single day. I was most interested in seeing the highly overrated Mona Lisa. We walked round and round the corridors following directions pointing towards the painting. We finally arrived in the hall and as expected the room was filled with tourists crowding around the famous painting. Andrej managed to take a picture of me and just the Lady minus the thronging crowd. The other exhibitions I wanted to check were ancient Egyptian and Greek. We skipped the Oriental art section. We saw a few sculptures of Olympian gods and goddesses and popular mythological characters such as Cupid and Psyche among others. We came to the ground floor to have some coffee at Starbucks and also to use the wifi there.
After Louvre, we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The place was as crowded as other tourist hotspots of Paris. The Cathedral looked spectacular even from the outside. We entered into the grandiose building and appreciated the Gothic architecture in its entire splendor. There was a mass taking place at the time of our visit as tourists such as I behaved like shutterbugs inside the place. Andrej was correct in telling me that the cathedrals in Europe built in the gothic architectural style were unique and I would have never seen something like them before at any place. After Notre Dame, we took the metro to Champs-Élysées to visit the L’Arc de Triomphe and other attractions there. It was almost late evening when we arrived at L’Arc de Triomphe and took a few shots of the monument. It was a beautiful moment, no doubt, but I felt the Notre Dame was more impressive. We walked around the promenades and checked out a couple of stores but did not buy anything. We went into my favorite McDonalds and sat down for some junk food. I was rather pleased to know that I had been to a McDonald’s in every country I had visited so far—Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and France. But I forgot to check out the restaurant in Slovenia, this made me regret a little. After touring around the area for a few more hours we headed back to our hotel. We discussed about tomorrow’s plan of action before turning off the lights. What a first great day in Paris and I was relieved to know we had two more nights to ourselves in this amazing city!
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