La Royal with Cheese

Even Quasimoto couldn't resist Rob
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Paris….. the city of grand boulevards, the city of light, the city of romance. The architecture is certainly impressive and a lot more grandiose compared to London,, until of course you get to your hotel room. The Hotel Prince, right in the shadow of the Eiffel tower, not quite sure which prince it is named after. It has the smallest elevator I have ever seen, the two of us could barely fit in together. We had to make two trips to get our three bags up. The wall paper in the corridors gives it an old Alfred Hitchcock movie feel, especially as the lights automatically come on as you walk along the corridor and switch off behind you. At least it is air conditioned, or should I say, it was air conditioned till yesterday when, apparently, the AC broke down. In typical French style, the front desk guy just said ‘no problem’ when Robin wanted to know when it will be fixed.

The bored gargoyle with an incredible view of Paris
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Thankfully there is so much to see in Paris, we manage to spend the whole day outside the room. It has been very long three days so far. We took the ride to the top of the Eiffel tower, it was perfect timing as we got to see the sunset and the lights come on. The tower was supposed to be a temporary thing for a world exposition, still standing a hundred years later. The Notre-Dame was next. Amazing how anyone could conceive of and build something of this magnitude almost a thousand years ago. Just figured out on my third visit to this place that the gargoyles have an actual purpose, they are rain gutters. We decided to stand in line for an hour and a half to climb up to the top of the towers; it turned out to be the right thing to do. The close up of the gargoyles is reward enough. Then there is the stunning view and the giant, monster of a bell in the tower, god only knows how they got it up there. We love the fact that even though it takes a while to get into most of the famous sites here, once you are in, they let you spend as much time as you want in there rather than make you shuffle by in a line.

strolling the streets of Paris
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The Louvre is by far the most impressive museum I have ever been in. The building itself is reason enough to go see the place. It gives you an idea of how decadent the kings of France were, no surprise then, that the people had enough of them. One thing in life is certain, change. Better adapt to change (like the smarter English monarchy) or fall by the wayside. How ironic, the Kings built the immense Louvre and its grounds for their pleasure and now we, common folk get to enjoy it. We took a guided tour and saw a few of the highlights, including the Mona Lisa which is always mobbed like a Hollywood celebrity surrounded by paparazzi clicking away.

Anyting goes as far as parking is concerned
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The other museum on the other side of the river, Musee D’Orsay, is lot smaller but so much more rewarding to see. It is an old train station that now houses hundreds of impressionist paintings, they have done an amazing job with the building, it is the prettiest museum (in my opinion). We had our ipods out and listened to Rick Steve talk us through the collections, it was fun. Almost as good as a guided tour but the pause button lets you slow down and loiter. It was great to see how art changed in the nineteenth century. Robin was even more thrilled watching the little kids sat in the museum trying to copy the paintings in their sketchpads.

Walls of breathtaking stained glass windows in the Sainte-Chappelle
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The cruise down the Seine was another highlight, very romantic. People were picnicking along the embankments with bottle of wine, there were people doing the Tango in a park along the river. The Sainte-Chapelle with its walls of ancient stained glass windows was fabulous. Then we got a taste of the French Revolution at the Conciergerie where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned and thousands were sentenced to death.

Paris, no doubt, is a remarkable city but given the inconveniences one has to put up with it certainly has not been our favorite. They have such pretty stores, but when we went to buy some fruit, we were not even allowed to touch any of them but just point out the apples we wanted to the store keeper and it cost an arm and a leg. If I want to buy groceries I would have to visit five different stores, one for vegetables, the other for meat, then the baker and finally the wine shop. I would rather do it all in one place and pay less. The men in Paris seem to like Rob, she has already been asked out and told she has a wonderful smile. I don’t know how I feel about that. I have been asked if I was an Arab.

Climbing upto the top of Arc De Triomphe
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Today we are off to Versailles, then we get our car tomorrow to brave the roads. Considering internet is still a foreign word here, I am not sure when we will be able to post this on our blog, hopefully soon.