It was an official trip to Germany in the month of April, from 7th to 12th. our flight back to Bangalore was on 14th morning. i was wondering how best i can utilize one day in Europe, initial plan was to just roam around the city and end the day. but a wild thought came to visit France, Paris to be specific.
we are skeptical about the tickets and the way of transport to reach there and of all the things apart we actually had hardly 7 hours to spend time in Paris. Finally we are happy to get tickets at DB Bhan, stuttgart railway station, the lady at the counter understood our requirement and gave a discounted price of 200 Euros each with return ticket to paris from Germany in high speed train (TGV).
Myself and Manjunath were all set to visit the most romantic city in the world Paris.our train was at 6:55am from stuttgart to Paris Est. it was 3 n half hours journey, where train was at max speeds of 320km/hr. it was an amazing experience. we packed some food for the day on the previous day itself, so that we don't waste time n money in search of food in a new place.
we reached Paris by 10 30am and started our exploration by walking down the streets of Paris. The problem is only very few, very very few people know english and can reply in english, even though they understand what we are asking they refuse to reply in english, so learn basic French language before you go to France. some shopkeepers helped us to locate the underground metro. we took a daily pass in which we can travel in metro, buses and in regional trains, took a map of city and started our journey.
Our first point of the world famous Eiffel Tower. we got down at Trocadero station and Eiffel tower was very hard to be hidden from our eyes. The pics talk about the beauty of the wonder of the world.
The Louvre Museum or simply The Louvre—is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum.[5]
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682,Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.[6] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.[7] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces. -- source : wikipedia.
we are skeptical about the tickets and the way of transport to reach there and of all the things apart we actually had hardly 7 hours to spend time in Paris. Finally we are happy to get tickets at DB Bhan, stuttgart railway station, the lady at the counter understood our requirement and gave a discounted price of 200 Euros each with return ticket to paris from Germany in high speed train (TGV).
Myself and Manjunath were all set to visit the most romantic city in the world Paris.our train was at 6:55am from stuttgart to Paris Est. it was 3 n half hours journey, where train was at max speeds of 320km/hr. it was an amazing experience. we packed some food for the day on the previous day itself, so that we don't waste time n money in search of food in a new place.
we reached Paris by 10 30am and started our exploration by walking down the streets of Paris. The problem is only very few, very very few people know english and can reply in english, even though they understand what we are asking they refuse to reply in english, so learn basic French language before you go to France. some shopkeepers helped us to locate the underground metro. we took a daily pass in which we can travel in metro, buses and in regional trains, took a map of city and started our journey.
Our first point of the world famous Eiffel Tower. we got down at Trocadero station and Eiffel tower was very hard to be hidden from our eyes. The pics talk about the beauty of the wonder of the world.
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| Me |
Road directions on the roads
Carrousel opposite to the tower.
Lovely couple posed for me near the fountains
After spending enough time around the tower clicking lots of photos, we decided to head towards the next must see place in Paris. we had a city map given at Metro station, the important places are marked in the maps and tracing the train route and the station to get down was made easier. walked to near by metro Dupliex and took train to Charles de Gaulle Etoile.
Arc De Triomphe :
as we dint hire any guide we got to know ourselves about the place we are visiting and the speciality of the place. but this was simple it was an arc built for the remembrance of the war happened in France.
After the Arc De Triomphe we started towards Musée du Louvre. we are unsure whats there in the place but something marked in bold on the map made us stand in front of a very big building. it was a palace built in 1400- 1500. one of the world's largest museum.
The Louvre Museum or simply The Louvre—is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum.[5]
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682,Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.[6] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.[7] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces. -- source : wikipedia.
seriously we had very very less time to just look around the place, it was a huge palace and museum.
we covered as much as possible with brisk walking and came out of the place and rested in the near by park. beside the road we saw a cruise on the water, we just crossed the road to see the beautiful seine river.
we walked beside the river it was almost evening 5, while crossing over the bridge saw many locks locked to the bridge panes. Love locks..!! belief of people that write the name of the loved one on the lock, lock it and throw the key into the river forever.
it started to rain n time was very less, we need to catch our train back to stuttgart, which was at 6 50 pm from Paris Est. we took metro towards Paris Est station and luckily we wee on time for the train.
it was a very short trip to world famous city, yet we saw max out of 7 hrs we had, and bought home lots of good memories of the beautiful place.
Everyone, if you get a chance please visit with your loved one to this city. you will have the time of your life. :)
