Paris

Paris, the fashion capital of the world, a treasure-trove of art with a galore of chronicles was known as Lutetia in ancient times. It is more than a couple of chiliad years old now and is a cosmopolitan city of today. This “City of Lights” looks wonderful at night.

Another impressive feature of this city is the connectivity; the network of underground metro trains (fourteen interconnected local lines and a few more that run within and beyond the city limits) and the waterways along the river “La Seine”.

My three day visit to this acclaimed Gaulish city in the winter of 2006 will be quite a memorable one in the years to come.

The places I covered during my visit were:

Arc de Triomph
The Eiffel Tower
Notre dame de Paris
Louvre
Avenue des Champs Elysees (pronounced Chaunz Elizae).
Invalides
Place de la Concorde

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Arc de Triomph


This Arc of Triumph was what I visited first. The easiest way to reach this would be from the Metro station Charles de Gaulle Etoile. This monument is on the Avenue of Champs Elysees. A walk down this avenue to the other end would lead to the obelisk from the temple of Luxor.

The Arc de Triomph is 51 meters tall and 45 meters wide. Its construction was initiated by The Monarch Napoleon I after his successful conquest of Austerlitz.

This is an Arc that looks grand (and reminded me of India Gate, though the latter is devoid of sculpture at its facade and is not-so-antiquated)


Eiffel Tower

Completed in 1889 and named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed it, this structure stands 320 meters tall. I have heard/read somewhere that Gustave at some point of time had used this structure to conduct aerodynamic experiments and arrive at a few important empirical relations of aerodynamics.

Frankly speaking, I was not very fascinated by this “wonder of the world”. Could be attributed to the reason that I expected a lot from it (The power of imagination can far exceed reality). But it is a fact that this monument was actually considered an eyesore and there were plans of dismantling it at one point of time a few years after its construction.

Also, that it was a cloudy day in winter (which meant limited visibility at the top) and the fact that my camera conked out (thanks to the batteries that I bought that turned out to be incompatible) added to my dissatisfaction.

I reached this structure by a ferry taken from Alexander point and took a few snaps of it as I neared it along La Seine.

The Eiffel tower has lifts at each of the base supports to carry visitors to the top. There are three stages where you can get off the lift. The first two can be accessed without a change of lift but to the reach the third stage it would be necessary to take another lift. Tickets are priced as per the highest stage that you would like to visit. And the one to the third stage cost me 11 Euros.


At a couple of kilometers from the Eiffel Tower is the replica of The Statue of Liberty (on the banks of the river La Seine). It would be possible to reach this statue from the Metro station - Bir Hakim. This replica of the gift from France to its ally is rather weathered and worn out and is scaled one-fourth the size of the one that stands in Newyork and is made of bronze.


Notre dame de Paris

This Church at the heart of Paris for some reason impressed me. The centre of Paris, the point which all distances from Paris are measured from is just outside of the cathedral building.

The structure is built in French Gothic style of architecture as symbolized by the ogive curves (pointed and not rounded)

I liked the lighting effects inside this church (as is the case of all churches, dimly lit as always with candles) and also the statue of Joan of Arc in this church. It is said that the revival of her tarnished name was initiated here.

Also, as the legend goes – “The Hunchback of Notre dame” (Quasimodo), is supposed to have been a bell-ringer here.

Louvre

This is a colossal palace that has been standing for over eight centuries and was used as a storehouse of weapons, as a prison and as a palatial royal residence and is now a museum, the hoard of treasures of art each of which would be worth fortunes.

Its walls have witnessed the events such as the death of Henry IV and the second marriage of Napoleon I. The Louvre Museum has four floors lower ground floor, ground floor, first floor and the second floor. There are three sections on each floor: named Denon, Sully and Richelieu. The pyramidal structure of glass is the entry point.


I had only half a day to explore this wonderful museum with a map and a guide I purchased I was able to cover the best of the top two floors and a few sculptures on the ground and lower ground floors.

The famed Monalisa is on the Denon wing of the First floor.

I found the French paintings like “The lady In Blue” by Corot and “Vigee-Lebrun and Daughter” by Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun herself very pleasing (visually) and some like “The Death of Sardanapalus” by Eugine Delacroix and “The Raft of Medusa” by Theodore Gericault rather saddening (for the theme).

And the Northern paintings seemed to have a different touch somehow and some seemed to be rather small in size.

Rembrandt’s “ Philosopher deep in thought '” had a wonderful depiction of the light effects from a window and the manner in which the spiral stairway (alluding to the twisting and spiraling thoughts in the philosopher’s mind) was painted was wonderful.

“The Lace-maker” and “The Astronomer” by Vermeer made a nice impression.

It was a little displeasing and ironic to learn that the painting of Caravaggio in the Italian section, “The Death of a Virgin” was painted using the bloated body of a drowned prostitute. Caravaggio is said to have been accused of murder shortly after that and had to flee Rome.

I personally admired one particular sculpture of Antonio Canova a lot, "Psyche Revived by the Cupid’s Kiss " as it looked wonderfully romantic and am sure will remain in my memory for the rest of my life.

The sculptures of Michel Angelo and some ancient sculpture retrieved from the islands of Greece like the "Victory of Samothrace" and "Venus de Milo" were fascinating. "Victory of Samothrace" in particular had an excellent depiction of the wet fabric of the winged goddess clinging on to her body (for instance, around the navel) and the other extensions of the layered clothing fluttering. Truly realistic.

I bought two decks of playing cards from Louvre as souvenirs.

Avenue des Champs Elysees

One of the most famous avenues of the world. A wide one and adorned with lights at night, houses the outlets of some of the leading brands in business and cinema halls (like Gaumont). An evening walk down this road can lift your spirits and make you feel good.

At one end of it is the Obelisk (Place de la Concorde) and at the other end is Arc de Triomphe.


Les Invalides

This is a complex of buildings and houses the sarcophagus of Napoleon Bonaparte and also a war museum. This complex was basically built as a home for those rendered invalid by the wars and hence the name.

The war museum displays the war gear, accessories and weapons right from those during the days of knights like armors and shields to the guns and bombs used in First and Second World Wars.

At the Napoleons tomb visitors are given “speaking guides” that are similar to cordless phones. These contain recorded messages that explain the history and significance of the place and the various sculptures and other displayed entities. It even plays the music that was played during various historic events that occured in the monument. The audio recording can be paused, replayed etc. there are various listening points and on choosing corresponding numbers the audio corresponding to that listening point is played. These audio guides are available in various languages and I found it very informative.

“My greatest accomplishment, according to me, is not that I won over a forty battles but that I implemented the uniform civil code and centralized administration” Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have told. All around the sarcophagus (sculpted) are various scenes of Napoleon in Roman attire and with laurels and various ideas are implied by the sculpture.


Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde is a square where once stood the guillotine and it is said that once during the reign of terror more than a thousand people were executed in less than a month here and the place reeked of blood, so much that cattle refused to cross this square.

It is now the home of an obelisk gifted by Egypt that was originally from the Temple of Luxor. The Obelisk has a lot of Hieroglyphics, looks pretty (but I could not understand a thing on it!), gave an ancient feel, left me fascinated.

There are many more places that I could not visit due to lack of time. Maybe I shall visit Paris again someday. I took a train back to Toulouse from Paris (Austerlitz). A seven-and-a-half-hour journey ....carrying home a few fond memories.