The City of lights and the joy of being there.

Our trip to France and Switzerland in the year 2013 had been nothing short of a dream come true for me! 'Paris', whatever I say about her, would be nothing that hasn't been described or expressed before. I however feel that everyone who visits this city goes thru one common emotion, and that is an overwhelming love for this bewitching beauty of a city.
Here, I write about our experiences and the joy we had in the City of love!

Having done an extensive research on the airport terminals and metros, we found 'Charles De Gaulle' to be quite familiar. It was an easy way to the ticket counter, for a 'five-day Paris Visite pass'. The mistake we made here was to take a train to our hotel (Tim hotel) in Boulogne Billancourt. This travel required a change of trains three times, and considering we had two big suitcases and one laptop bag, it was a bad idea; and we realized that later, on our way back to the airport via taxi, which cost us just about 38 Euros! Anyway, on reaching our destination we were thoroughly down and out.. but what the heck!! we were in 'The City of Joy' afterall, and no matter what, it was the much awaited Eiffel time and nothing in the world would spoil it!

We took a metro from the closest station (Marcel Sembat) just about 100 meters (may be) from our hotel to metro Bir Hakeim on Line 6. We got down and as we walked about 50 metres, there it was, the Eiffel, lit up, though the sky had a few shades of orange left. Its practically difficult to explain the sheer euphoria. the rising of our heartbeats and the broadening of our smiles as we were approached this wonder of the world. Giant, beautiful, mesmerizing! The lights twinkled brighter as darkness unfolded, making it absolutely hypnotic! We did of course take a tour to the top of the Eiffel later that evening.

I was bold enough not to carry a scarf or muffler or even a cap, and not surprising at all, that the topmost level of the tower was severely cold and windy! I could bear all the chill for not more than 10 mins, though I wanted to have more of it, but had to come inside and see the rest from the glass windows on that same floor.

I am visualizing every moment, as I write this today, and will do so for the rest of my life! We went back the next morning to see the Eiffel in the daylight, and oh its gorgeous as ever every minute of the day!

We visited all the major attractions, in Paris, and most importantly did a lot of walking and a thorough metro ride like a Parisian! One can never enjoy the city unless you walk.

A visit to the banks of Seine and a boat cruise of the City of Paris in the evening was simply intoxicating! The reflections of lights on the water was grandeur. Its a must do in Paris, if you like lights.

A trip to La Defense, that's the contemporary Paris City with high rises, and State-of-the-art buildings, big corporate names, shining glass walls, very unlike the quintessential Paris, but an 'avant-garde' indeed!

Needless to say, we had great food like, foie gras, beef bourguignon, french onion soup, delectable french breakfast, visit to a few Patisseries and Boulangeries and enjoying the delights like croissants, baguettes, crème brûlée, eclairs, Madeleine, and of course the french macarons, Religieuse and more. The subway stations too, had such pastries and sandwiches, that we just could not get enough of those in the three days we were there. 3 days is way too short for a city like Paris.

Coming to shopping, Paris can be a shopper's paradise indeed, but only when you have your pocket weighing handsomely:) The thing I noticed is, if you go for cheap or less expensive items, like apparels, sunglasses etc, they would be really less than ordinary ones, and quite tacky actually, and its not worth spending anything. Perfumes, fridge stickers, bags, macarons would be some ideal take away as souvenirs.

The weather was more than fantastic, sunny with cool breeze, the only time we experienced rains, was on landing at Charles de Gaulle, which then had a sinking effect to our hearts. However, by the time we reached our hotel, the rain was all gone, bringing the excitement back! For the rest of the five days we only soaked in sunlight and lots of it!

If you want to see Paris like a local, walk an take the subway ride. When you are in the train, there's a station practically, at every five minutes. so you will have every big and small tourist spots you want to visit at a walking distance from the respective metro station in that area. Download an offline Metro timetable App on Apple/Android on your handhelds. It makes travelling on a Paris Metro line such cakewalk.

We left Paris on the 5th day for our next destination, Geneva, Switzerland. I cannot help but mention here, that the food by the highway at regular gas station stops are mind blowing! I dont know about other countries, but I am yet to see such delectable varieties on any highway food joints. We so wished we hadn't had breakfast. Got a few sandwiches though. And yes there were food trucks at some places, making scrumptious 'crepes', we could not resist but had one, a 'jambon fromage', a classic french ham and cheese crepe!