Paris - III

Second half of the day and we are at Concorde. The place where Queen Antoinette and King Louis were executed during the French Revolution.






The gold markings you see are real gold and it comes from various French victories in Egypt.



The 'Concorde' square. On the right is the entrance to the palace.





The french parliament.



Plaque which signifies this is the place where Queen Antoinette and King Louis with the exact dates of execution. Just realized the significance of the place I am standing at . Reading in history text books in school I never really thought one day I would be at that exact place. Phew...



View of 'Arc de Triomphe' from Concorde. This is the road we normally see in television. The road goes straight to La Defense, the commercial area of Paris.





2 Snaps of Notre Dame Cathedral. This is the 'zero km' mark in Paris. So all distances in Paris are from a stone near this cathedral.

Post Notre Dame we drop Naru off to the railway station as he takes his train back to . On the way we manage to eat Samosas at a Pakistani sweet shop and a 'Veg' sandwich at a Turkish meat shop (essentially we ask him to just take the bread, add a bit of cheese and cabbage and thats it).



The famous 'pyramid' of Louvre - one of the largest museums in the world. We were told that if you planned to spend 1 minute in front of each item on display, it would take one 3 months to fully finish off the museum.

The museum where 'Monalisa' is smiling peacefully and also the place where bulk of the action in the book 'Da Vinci Code' happens. Unfortunately it was due to close in an hour so we did not have too much time. But I did manage to take a glimpse of the Monalisa.








This might give a sense of how big the museum actually is. What you see above is just one of the three sides of the museum and that too partially. So the actual length of the museum (three sides together) is at least 4 times what you see here!



Just outside the Louvre, crossing the river.



One fascinating thing - there are islands within the river. So what we see above is an island within the river and we were told, one of the most expensive places in Paris.



Another view of the Notre Dame as we begin our journey back to pick up our bags and on to the bus station. We walked for about 1.5hrs from Louvre to pretty much up to Eiffel tower and didn't feel it at all. The weather was pleasant and all around we had new things to absorb.



Concorde in the evening.



This building above we are told, is what the 'White House' is based on. Only difference, the White House is 7 times bigger than this. Americans copying French???? Sounds very far fetched today...



Beautiful Paris roads in the evening.



This is the flame from the Statue of Liberty and is meant to be a symbol of French-American friendship(!?).

Also, below this is a tunnel and coming out of this tunnel, Princess Diana had the fatal car crash few years ago. So this site has also become the de facto memorial for her.



One last view of Eiffel Tower before we pack our bags. Paris was beautiful, very beautiful. I leave Paris with a promise to return again. Vaibhav heads to Düsseldorf and I am back to London. Almost forgot to collect some cash from him for my return journey. I am still cashless you see... :(

But this was one unforgetful trip not least because Paris is extremely beautiful. I ended with the thought (a la Arnold in the Terminator) 'I'll be back'