And Outside The Rain Fell...

Day 4- Wow. Just that word.

Waking up in darkness and to the sound of Patwa asking me to call my landlady, I spoke in a half sleepy tone asking Katia to do something about our electricity. Expressing shock, she promptly arrived in an hour, switching on a simple tripped meter. Sigh. Technology. Which reminds me, technology here is everywhere. The door to our apartment has a alphanumeric entry code, credit cards necessarily have a chip, petrol stations are (wo)man-less, cycles can be hired without anyone’s assistance. Everything is just automatic!

We had a breakfast of toast and jam, and set off to finish chores – calling cards, tickets for our trip, rice and tamil street. Splitting into two groups at Gard de Nord, Patwa and me headed towards Tam street and were awed. It was Sri-Lankan Tamilian stores everywhere, selling everything that can be passed off as Indian. As Indian students on a budget are, we asked nearly at every shop for the cheapest calling card available and got something that can be as good as it can get. Too bad we will not be in Paris for the next 10 days to use it, cause we indeed got tickets to our trip outdoors finally. Albeit at an expensive price.

Venturing further into Tam Street, we stumbled upon this rather ancient church Eglise Saint Bernard. A towering gothic spire and some fantastic gargoyle-ish creatures kept me fascinated. The thing about Paris, as I have observed thus far is that every avenue ends in something that would make you go “wow”. The city is just that beautiful.

Taking a deviation on our way back, we hit Ed Superstores, buying apples at a bargain (a Euro a kg), milk(Euro .7 a litre) and cornflakes, we met the other two guys and picked up a calling card. The journey back also had us seeing one of those famous Parisian labour strikes, men and women in orange demanding greater salaries. A silent march, with drums and placards marked their protest. Interesting. Very interesting.

We retraced our steps to home, stumbling upon another church, something nameless. It was unmarked on the map, on the roads leading to it, next to it itself. Almost mysterious.

Coming home to a lunch of parathas and maggi, we worked on our finals profiles till almost 5 p.m. Inevitable delays meant our Paris trip began at almost 6 p.m., with Patwa ji taking the charge as the lead guide. Walking by pretty cafes, women, avenues and buildings, we walked across a labyrinth of streets, all the time heading towards the Siene. No one really bothered which way we were headed, all that mattered was we were seeing things. And today, almost unanimously, we saw the Paris that the world sees. And we fell in love with it.

A city is difficult to love, and today, it almost came instantaneously. We first walked across to the Church of Mother Mary, or BEATAE, Marie Virigini Lavretanae. It was Patwa’s first time at church, and it vaguely reminded me of the school chapel, although it was much larger in size. Next, we walked to the Eglise Sainte Trinite, the Church of the Holy Trinity.






I have always loved churches. Their spookiness and towering structures, their cold silence, the candles, the tiny chapel chairs and the organ, they all just evoke a mixture of emotions – many of reminiscence of bygone school days. Lighting candles in these churches is expensive, although it is completely optional to pay up for them.

Paris, now darker, just got better. We stepped next into Galaries Lafayette, our first Parisian mall. And wow. I say it again, wow! As much as I love to shop, this one would make my bro Sau go crazy! Every single brand that you’ve gone “damn, that’s expensive” was here, and how! Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Mont Blanc – and these are the brands that only I have heard of. A not-so-fantastic Burberry trial perfume still lingers on my hand, the lady at the counter was feeling a bit too altruistic, spraying around euros like that. I’m coming back to this mall before leaving, to see that fantastic dome again, to explore all of its 5-7 floors and to shop! I shall. Soon. Dad, money!

We crossed Avenue upon Avenue of fantastic architecture, fantastic wrought iron lamp-posts, gold embossed angelic statues anointing buildings, you can just absorb so much if you just keep your eyes open.

(Keeping the nose open would make you smoke as much cigarette smoke as a chain smoker). See the Academie Nationale de Music, honouring music greats such as Beethoven, Mozart and Spontini. Flanked by two beautiful statues holding what looked like musical instruments, it was my favourite building thus far in Paris


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Strutting across a few theatres and many more cafes, we reached the end of another avenue to find Place de la Magdalene. Almost reminding me of the Parthenon at Greece, it had superb pillars towering over us. We sat there many minutes, taking it all in. It awed us, to watch the Egyptian Obelisk across the road, to watch traffic zip by, to watch silly tourists use a flash at night.


To breathe in Paris is something few can do, and that’s when it began to sink in, we are at Paris. We are in Europe. Paris. Love. Fashion. Cafes. Cigarettes. Buildings. The Eiffel.

Eiffel?

But where was the Eiffel?

Elusive so far, our first glimpse of it was so totally unexpected that we went “wow, man, this is awesome” almost in tandem. To catch Eiffel towering in the background with its spotlight revolving across the light, a dazzling beam of lights – it was lights all over.

A few disasters with the traffic later, I almost decided I’m going to follow traffic rules here the way Parisians do. Religiously.

Some outstanding photographs, and we came to the Egyptian Obelisk, apparently a gift from the Egyptian empire to the French empire.

Here we were – at Place de la Concorde - standing in a square that was surrounded by few of the most beautiful architecture marvels in all directions. Imagine. Imagine facing the Louvre in one direction, the Arc de Triomphe on another, the French Parliament on another and the Temple of Magdalene on the last. We sat there for what seemed like an age, just admiring it. My first sight of the Eiffel with the Arc, sitting in that square, and I said aloud, “I would want to bring my Mum and Dad here”. It was really that beautiful, speaking about it would only dilute its charm. And what has not been said about the Eiffel before.





We walked down on the banks of the Siene, watching an occasional restaurant or tour-of-Paris-by-the-night boat steam by. We even saw a Segway!

Coming down to our last stop for the day, we wanted to see the Louvre from up close, and man, the Louvre at night was outstanding. The slow trickling fountain, calm water falling down into the gutter, it was music to my ears in the crystal clear cold chilly day. And the glass pyramid, the miles of the former palace, now museum glittering in beautiful tungsten lamps, a facade more beautiful than anything I have ever seen.

Music from a distant wind pipe player could be heard streaming through, a gang of American cyclists, a couple of skaters who were dancing on skates, everything was really really wonderfully Paris.




We walked back 2 kilometres to our home, crashing in around 11.


Dinner was bread and maggi, we had too much to pack, too much to do. The next 10 days will be good. Very very good.

Hitting the sack now.