PARIS…Part One
A place of beauty, architectural marvels, fantastic cuisines, unique pieces of art, choicest place of many great artists is in short the place PARIS.
Its my pleasure to share my experience of visiting the city of Paris. I had been to Paris during the Christmas vacation. It was a most awaited trip filled with all enthusiasm and interest.
I took a train from Baden, Switzerland to Basel. I had to travel via a TGV which was also a first time for me. With some initial hiccups and a journey of almost 5 hours I reached Gare’ De Est station in Paris. I was received by my friend who was to join me in my trip. After having a small dose of coffee we took the network of sub way trains to reach our destination Gare’ De Lyon wherein I had booked the accommodation in Hotel Lyon Bastille.
It was my second stinct with the subway metros and tube stations after the one in London. It brought many pleasant memories of my visit to London some time ago. The subway metros are all well connected and organized. However its not as clean or well informed as in SwitzerlandJ, but it was still quite well maintained.
I reached the hotel, freshened up and in the evening we went for a walk around our hotel although it was cold. It was in the heart of the city where almost all major places were quite closeby and well connected.
We walked along the riverside of River Sienne. She was flowing so gently and merrily. There were a series of arched bridges each with its own design and history all along the river. It was well lit and we could see the glittering Eifel tower far beyond. Then we saw the Notre Dame brightly lit far beyond visible in the foggy night along with the obelisk. We took a walk till Chatelet via Bastille getting to know the streets of Paris. We had a opera house closeby as well. We took the trains to reach back to the hotel.
The next day morning started with a nice French breakfast. Then we had to go hunting for the museum tickets for my friend as we had planned to visit the Louvre as the first thing.
It was kind of hilarious that we went to so many stations that we happened to traveling all the varieties of trains available across the vast subway network that by noon I was quite well acquainted with the subway stations:-).
At last we reached the Musee’ De Louvre station. We got the tickets and reached the pyramids. We were at the entrance of the louvre where the two pyramids meet. The point where Mary Magdalene’s coffin is supposed to have been located according to Dan Brown in his book Da Vinci’s code. It was a amazing place.
Since it was a weekend the place was so crowded. The Louvre was such a magnificient , huge, beautiful place that ever turn every corner had something interesting to look at. It would take days to see the entire Louvre.We tried to cover as much as possible.
We first took the Art and Sculptures section, Napolean’s chambers ..the right wing of the Louvre. There was so much to be covered. We saw the ball room, court room, dining hall used by Napolean, Tapestries, artefacts collected by the monarch etc. It was beautiful. The sculptures were so much alive with all the expressions, movements of the muscles, facial features I loved them. However only a few sculptures interested me if not allJ. There were some artists/students who were trying to sketch the sculptures which I found quite interesting.
By the time we moved towards the paintings section we were tired and the place seemed never ending. It was so marvelous that I din want to miss any of them. We saw the work of many great painters. Each artist had their own style of painting, expressions, features, concept which quite struck me with all the interest.
After passing along some of the works of Da Vinci we reached the famous MONALISA. It’s a beautiful painting with all the extra protection compared to other works. I would’ve expected it to be better preserved though.
There were many such paintings that cannot be explained in few words. On the whole it was a memorable experience. Due to time constraints and the exercise of the day we were tired so had to end the day’s event. We reached back the hotel in the evening. I would like to go back to visit Louvre once again some day….
Thus ended the second day of my visit to Paris….To be continued…:-)
A place of beauty, architectural marvels, fantastic cuisines, unique pieces of art, choicest place of many great artists is in short the place PARIS.
Its my pleasure to share my experience of visiting the city of Paris. I had been to Paris during the Christmas vacation. It was a most awaited trip filled with all enthusiasm and interest.
I took a train from Baden, Switzerland to Basel. I had to travel via a TGV which was also a first time for me. With some initial hiccups and a journey of almost 5 hours I reached Gare’ De Est station in Paris. I was received by my friend who was to join me in my trip. After having a small dose of coffee we took the network of sub way trains to reach our destination Gare’ De Lyon wherein I had booked the accommodation in Hotel Lyon Bastille.
It was my second stinct with the subway metros and tube stations after the one in London. It brought many pleasant memories of my visit to London some time ago. The subway metros are all well connected and organized. However its not as clean or well informed as in SwitzerlandJ, but it was still quite well maintained.
I reached the hotel, freshened up and in the evening we went for a walk around our hotel although it was cold. It was in the heart of the city where almost all major places were quite closeby and well connected.
We walked along the riverside of River Sienne. She was flowing so gently and merrily. There were a series of arched bridges each with its own design and history all along the river. It was well lit and we could see the glittering Eifel tower far beyond. Then we saw the Notre Dame brightly lit far beyond visible in the foggy night along with the obelisk. We took a walk till Chatelet via Bastille getting to know the streets of Paris. We had a opera house closeby as well. We took the trains to reach back to the hotel.
The next day morning started with a nice French breakfast. Then we had to go hunting for the museum tickets for my friend as we had planned to visit the Louvre as the first thing.
It was kind of hilarious that we went to so many stations that we happened to traveling all the varieties of trains available across the vast subway network that by noon I was quite well acquainted with the subway stations:-).
At last we reached the Musee’ De Louvre station. We got the tickets and reached the pyramids. We were at the entrance of the louvre where the two pyramids meet. The point where Mary Magdalene’s coffin is supposed to have been located according to Dan Brown in his book Da Vinci’s code. It was a amazing place.
Since it was a weekend the place was so crowded. The Louvre was such a magnificient , huge, beautiful place that ever turn every corner had something interesting to look at. It would take days to see the entire Louvre.We tried to cover as much as possible.
We first took the Art and Sculptures section, Napolean’s chambers ..the right wing of the Louvre. There was so much to be covered. We saw the ball room, court room, dining hall used by Napolean, Tapestries, artefacts collected by the monarch etc. It was beautiful. The sculptures were so much alive with all the expressions, movements of the muscles, facial features I loved them. However only a few sculptures interested me if not allJ. There were some artists/students who were trying to sketch the sculptures which I found quite interesting.
By the time we moved towards the paintings section we were tired and the place seemed never ending. It was so marvelous that I din want to miss any of them. We saw the work of many great painters. Each artist had their own style of painting, expressions, features, concept which quite struck me with all the interest.
After passing along some of the works of Da Vinci we reached the famous MONALISA. It’s a beautiful painting with all the extra protection compared to other works. I would’ve expected it to be better preserved though.
There were many such paintings that cannot be explained in few words. On the whole it was a memorable experience. Due to time constraints and the exercise of the day we were tired so had to end the day’s event. We reached back the hotel in the evening. I would like to go back to visit Louvre once again some day….
Thus ended the second day of my visit to Paris….To be continued…:-)
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~Sookie