Paris: A moveable feast

When I went to Paris, I had a clear expectation in my mind that I didn’t want to just see Paris, I wanted to experience it. I did some research and shortlisted on only 6 places I wanted to go in Paris. Of course, Eiffel tower and Mona Lisa (Louvre) was on top of the priority. But thanks to Karthik, and his enthusiasm in showing me all the monuments and museums in Paris, I ended up going to lot more places than that.

Unaware of the excellent metro system in Paris, I thought of dropping Versailles palace as it was a little far from the city.  I am glad I went there, for Versailles is the most beautiful palace I've ever seen. Versailles is where Napoleon ruled from. Versailles has many more historical relevance to it. This is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed that recognized absolute independence of America (current USA). Also, Versailles is home to many scientific inventions such as invention of static electricity. There is an excellent display of the working models and it was a sheer pleasure in exploring them.

Eiffel tower is a beauty. I ended up being there thrice in two days. Although in pictures, Eiffel tower looks beautiful in the night, in reality the beauty, I feel, is in the day light. It takes a while for the entire steel structure and its magnanimity to sink in. And the view from the top is spectacular. One of my achievements in Paris was that from the top of Eiffel tower I tracked down the route from Louvre museum to Karthik’s place.

Mona Lisa requires no introduction, but when we really see that painting, on the first look it isn’t all that beautiful. Neither is her smile that great. I feel Karthik and I can smile a lot better! But the way that painting is placed, the image looks directly into your eyes and there is a faint smile on her face, kind of a notorious one. You feel as if she is just about to explode, about to reveal some secret and you just stand there waiting for her to start. Some historians have even gone out saying that she was unhappy about her marriage etc. But that something mysterious is what I think is the beauty of that painting because the mystery can never be revealed and it always amuses and creates anxiety among the viewers. Apart from that I also wanted to explore some other masterpieces and renaissance paintings at Louvre museum. Having read a lot in history about the influence of art during the renaissance period, I always wanted to know how art could bring in such changes. I think I have a few answers now. 

Regarding food, French cuisine has never disappointed me. Its always rich and very tasty. We tried a lot of authentic food, the ones I mentioned in my last posts. Unlike in Spain, I didn’t have to specify meat well done. I have always been a fan of french breakfasts. But what I liked the most during our trip are the street food like the croissant, crepe etc. while Crepe was dosa with chocolate, the croissant had some similarities to the Tie biscuits that we get in Irani cafés in Hyderabad. One of the things I liked a lot was that many restaurants had its tables on the street and it was a lot fun eating outside.

Contrary to popular opinion that French do not speak English even when they know English, I have a different take on that. Most of the people whom we met asking for directions etc. were kind and tried to help us. They tried to speak in English as much as they could. English and French, having a lot of Latin words in Common, people could understand what we were trying to tell them, unlike in Spain. Except that I found it difficult with numbers especially when exchanging money, for example, three is tetra, four is Quadra etc. Sounds geeky ain’t it? Apart from numbers, I found it difficult to explain some simple words like “Wait” and tried to explain by saying “later” or something like that. It was until the next day I understood that for ‘wait’, its ‘patientz’ in French. Sweet! What I felt even more sweet was the way the greet each other. It starts with ‘bon jour’ which doesn’t have a literal english translation, I guess, but is same as ‘Namaskar’ in Hindi. And they promptly respond to that. Its pronunciation is interesting: Bon is just ‘Bo’ and jour is similar to ‘zha’ sound in malayalam except that it starts with ‘j’. So its like ‘bo j(z)ha’! And thank you is Mercy!

If I had mentioned Madrid as fashionable, then Paris is even more fashionable than Madrid. In fact, Paris is the fashion hub of the world not because fashion TV is broadcasted from Paris, but I think it’s the people, who can appreciate that. They say it takes two years for the fashion retail to reach USA from Paris and by the time it goes to rest of the world, two other lines are already introduced in Paris. I explored two major streets for shopping, Champs Elysees and St. Germain, but ended up purchasing not much as anything that I touch was over 100 euros.

I’m very keen on exploring night life in places I go for 2 reasons. One any city looks beautiful in lights and two, Night presents the other side of the city and its people. And in the little over 60 hours I spent in Paris I slept for just about 8-10 hours. We went around exploring restaurants in Paris that serve till morning and on one night we walked for almost 3 hours straight. Paris looks spectacular in the night as I had mentioned in one of the earlier posts. We find people on the streets even until 6 am. In fact at 6 am, we find two kinds of people in Paris, one who are drunk and going to get some sleep and two, who are going to office.

Although Karthik feels I haven’t seen enough of Paris, I ‘m satisfied as I feel like having lived in Paris and experienced it. I really miss eating on the streets. It's been over a week since I left Paris and I've already started missing Paris that I can't stop myself from re-quoting Ernest Hemmingway who said "If you were lucky enough to live in Paris as a young man, then where ever you go, it will always remain with you, for Paris is a moveable feast".