Europe Trip Part 8 - Eiffel Tower

Warning: A very long post. I spent about 3 hrs writing this one. Whew!


Morning

The day dawned in the heavenly city of Lucerne with an excited couple getting ready in a hurry, which had become part of everyday routine now. They had spent the previous night cuddled up in the lazy boy couch, watching some meaningless TV. Err. Thats us so let me stop talking in third person now. As usual we hurried up for breakfast, which was now just hard bread and some cereal and some orange juice. Not fogetting the coffee.

It was going to be a long drive today. In fact we were going to be driving almost all day today. All the way to Paris. Paris! The dream city. The romantic city. Did you know the word romantic was coined from Rome and Romans and because Romans were such passionate lovers, the word romantic came to used as an expression. The French were in their own way suckers for such things. Anyways. So I was doubly triply excited about Paris. For the Eiffel Tower, which I had seen a couple of times on Google Earth, and imagined so many times as to how it would actually be, to be right there, look at the magnificent piece of work. And for the Lourve. Mona Lisa, Da Vinci, art. Frankly I had not heard for the Lourve, before the Da Vinci code. BUT, when I read the book, I so got a liking for that place, I started dreaming about how it would be to go there. I am not very knowledgable when it comes to art, but the magnanimity of the whole thing, never ceased to amaze me.

We sat almost at the end of the coach this time. Behind us were the Mexican couple, the man who was as boisterous as can be, and a little cheap too. Did I tell you about how he wanted to take a picture of his two girls kissing the Casanova at the Chirstmas party? I mean which Dad would want such a picture? I was in a pretty decent mood. I was a little happy. Excited about France. The bus was ambling along the road, as it was snowing a little. We entered France close to ten in the morning, after crossing the French speaking Swiss zone. France is one of the biggest countries in Europe, and Paris was located close to the west and hence the long drive.

We stopped over for coffee at La Boutique. It was not coffee, it was cappucino. In cute small cups. We got munchies and a tshirt for K. We were once again spending in Euros.

Vinyards

It was all snow al over the place, which kind of made the drive a little boring. Luc, our tour guide, let us sleep the whole afternoon, disturbing us only when there was something for us to see and know. Me and K were peacefully juggling between sleeping and reading and listening to music. Also ' konjal' fighting. Like we used to fight for the only arm rest in between us, to keep our elbows in. Or fight like bulls locking their horns. Sometimes those fights turned into teasing and poking fun, quite oblivious to the people around us.

Towards noon, Luc said we were passing through the famous French Vinyards. We were on top of a hill and beneath us was huge vinyard with lines lines of climbers supporting the creepers. Except it was all white and snowy, and we couldnt see them. We stopped over anyway due to popular demand. K got down while I stayed in, I did not want to mess up my shoes and clothes with snow and aggravate my cold. Also I am kinda done with snow now. There was a time, when I used love to play with it, hold it in my hand and wonder just how, does the sky create snow or ice up above. Now, I am done. Walking on it is enough. But K, he still retained some enthusiasm for snow. Well, now, I mean now, he is sick of it, he is glad he is moving to a place where it seldom snows, but then, when we stopped at the vinyards, he did get down to play a ball fight with the Mexican and the other enthusiastic men round. Folks from South Africa and Australia had not seen a lot of snow I think, and the Mexican family from LA were also not so used to snow. I did warn K, that before getting into the bus and sitting beside me, he had to be perfectly snow-free.

We were running late because of the snow. We did not stop over for lunch until about 2 in the afternoon. We had some crazy veggie sandwich. French food sucks big time, really. Bland and cold. Ah. We never realized we would miss good food in Europe until we left Italy. The Italian dinners and luncheon, when compared to French food, was divine.

Battlefields

Late afternoon, we were driving across the Second World War battlefields. And Luc was filling us up with the history. It was stunning, although the fields, grounds on both sides looked just like any other place in the country, what we were hearing from Luc, did not fail to bring goosebumps. We saw this lone patch of the field, which was Canada's land it seems! Just a small enclosed area, which apparently the French gifted to the Canadians, and had a lot of Canadian soldiers buried. If the Canadians wished they could set up a booth to only let people with Visas to get through the patch of land! But they were kind enough to let the land be used as it is.

We saw some other places like Burgundy and all, I have forgotten the details. Sigh! Thats why I thought I should write up soon.

The city

It was about five in the evening when we entered the outskirts of Paris. To me, seriously, it felt like entering Chicago. The roads were kind of deserted until then, and then it was lot of traffic! It was nothing like Rome. Rome looked ancient, and old. Paris looked old in a new kinda way. Lot of traffic. Our hotel was kind of in the city center, hence we had to wade through the traffic. Paris felt more developed. They had a new kind of advertisement technique. Like how we have posters in India on the wall, the french had little TV like things, which scrolled the ads. Like in NY, only smaller.

As we were driving, Luc said we could see the Eiffel Tower from here, sometimes, just the top. There is apparently a rule that no building should be built taller than the one wonder of the world in the middle of the city. Luc said the French were as bickering as anyone can be. They fight a lot, for petty things. They can pick up a fight in a jiffy it seems. The families are not as closely knit as the Italians. The tiny cars which the French drove looked funny. They were impatient people too. It was fun to watch. I was reminded of this one French guy I knew from Grad School, dunno how to spell his name, we called him, 'Anthwaan'. Loved the way he spoke English.

Then we drove in a tunnel underground. And Luc showed us the spot, where the accident which killed Princess Diana took place. We could see the black mark, that was supposedly blood mark. Ah! My day was already made. And we had not even entered Paris.
We reached the Hotel at about six in the evening, and we had to immediately get ready for our Paris at Night tour.

Paris at Night

We had a French driver for our local tour. We drove first close to Arc De Triumphe, and had our dinner at one of the restaurants. Food was in one word - yucky. Taseless beans, chicken breast was raw. Bread and butter was the only food we could eat and not hate. We took some pictures are the Arc de Triumphe and headed towards the city centre. The Arc was actually built in the middle of the road, forming a roundana kind of a thing, with vehicles driving by aimlessly, crazily. The whole place was lighted up for New Years It looked too beautiful. The whole of the main street, which housed all the fancy rich showrooms, was decorated with lights. All the buildings were decorated with lights. There was a giant wheel in the centre which was lighted too.

Oh I forgot, we got the first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower near the Arc de Tirumphe, Sadly it did not look all that impressive from that spot. It looked like this thin stick protuding amongst the buildings.

Appearences are deceptive. Especially appearences from a distance. The Tower was truly magnificent when we did see it up close and personal.

Eiffel Tower:



Ok, I should probably take this moment to explain how the monument is located actually. It is located such that, buses can actually go between its four giant legs. People walk underneath it. Each leg is a mammoth. In fact the lifts to go up are located on one of the legs. The structure itself is huge.

We were surprised to see Indians selling little souveniors at under the tower. There was lot of bargaining to be done, given they were Indians. 'Paanch rupiya dho na' They kept coming behind us and asking us to buy it. After some bargaining we got three of them, one for us and one of each of our parents.



We were able to dodge the long line and got in pretty quickly into the lift to go to the second floor. It was cold out there. It was open, and not enclosed. We went around the floor to drink in the view of Paris from atop Eiffel Tower at night. Dreamy. It was a dream come true really. The Seine River was flowing right by the Tower.



The city itself was well lighted and looked busy. Of course nothing like seeing Chicago while landing in O'Hare, but still, this was something. [I know, dumb comparison]On one side was a football stadium, where kids were playing football.

After that, we got into our buses as Luc said he will take us to good spot, from where we can take good pictures of the tower. We could not get enough of the place. I wanted to save what I was seeing for ever in my heart, for I dont know if I will ever be visiting here again. Little did I know that the next day I would be seeing so much for the Eiffel Tower that I would say enough is enough!



Apparently extra glitter lights come up, for 4 5 mins every hour. In fact it came up when we were on the top of the tower. It was like lot of cameras clicking us, with the white flash lights. We took pictures at the exact hour, with the Eiffel Tower with extra lights, like the ones already there was not enough.

We then drove back to our hotel, past the Lourve Museum. Yes, we did get a night view of the Louvre as we headed back. It was supposedly a palace converted into a museum. But, but, thats the next post. I will stop here.