The previous story
https://uncouthmusings.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/euro-trip-diaries-when-in-rome/
Paris, the city of love and lights. We started our journey to Paris from Rome and it was beautiful. The highlight of the flight was the view of the Eiffel Tower when we were about to land. The whole tower was sparkling with lights and it is a scene that I will never forget. We disembarked at Charles De Gaulle airport and was out of the airport very quickly. We decided to get a cab to our hotel as it was getting late. The cab ride was uneventful and we reached our hotel. Naveen paid for the hotel and we checked-in. The hotel room was nothing like we expected and it was very different from the photos shown in the website. The whole room was a rectangle with a dimension of 3m x 2m. There were three bunk beds and barely 50 cm of room left. There was a small washbasin and a window. That was it. We did not want this. We went back to the hotel reception and asked for a bigger room that could accommodate 3 people and our own bathroom. Sadly, they did not have any such rooms. We were too tired and resigned to the fact that we had to spend the next three nights here. There was no WiFi connectivity in the room and the whole room had only one power outlet. There were USB Type A ports in the wall, but we did not want to use it.
We took a quick bath and sauntered out in search of food. Google Maps directed us to a restaurant near to the hotel. We ordered some food and the first meal in Paris was not great. We returned and fell asleep soon. We planned to visit the catacombs the next day. We had breakfast from our hotel in Paris and it was a very basic breakfast. We then got ourselves the metro ticket for the 1-5 zones of Paris. I wanted to ask the information center at the station about the metro card and the lady was very rude with me. She said she did not speak English and waved us off. Most of the times, I have seen people make an effort to help us out but this was a real bad experience. She was in a tourist city and was in charge of information.
We arrived at the catacombs around 11 am and was not surprised to see a long queue. We waited patiently in the queue discussing motorcycles and other events. We saw a lot of Honda Goldwings. What is it with Paris and Goldwings? Time flew by quickly and soon we were inside. I had read about the catacombs and had a general idea of what to expect. There was an information centre with a human femur and some descriptions. Nothing big. I thought that this would be it and proceeded deeper into the tunnels. But nothing prepared me for what I saw there. It was rows and rows of femurs and skulls piled high. It must be probably around 1.5m high and around 2 m in depth. I kept thinking about the people to whom these bones belonged to, long gone. It was quite eerie. The occasional cold drafts of air did nothing to soothe my nerves. The tunnels were long and there were bones filled up in all parts. It is said that there are more than a million people interred here. A million is a lot of femurs and skulls. In some places, the person who put the skull in their places, placed them in different shapes. I saw a heart made of skulls. Man, talk about grim humour. I couldn’t help but think about the people who had to stack all these bones and how they would have felt doing this job for months probably. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
Once we were outside, we left to get lunch. We decided to visit a McDonald’s as that was fast and cheap. After we had our burgers, we went to a pastry shop and had some delicious french pastry. We also got some macrons to take back to our hotel. The pastry was delicious. Every bite was like angels dancing across your taste buds. Once we were recharged by the delicious french dessert, we decided to visit the Arc de Triomphe. On the way to the Arc, we visited the Pantheon and the Notre Dame. Sadly, it was still under renovation from the fires and we couldn’t see it in all its splendour.
After the Notre Dame, we got a subway to the Arc de Triomphe. We exited the station to have a look around. Krishna and Naveen stopped for some “delicious” French Crepes. I refrained as I am not particularly fond of crepes. We then spent some time taking photographs of the Arc from various angles. It was getting dark and we decided to go up the Arc. Initially, we couldn’t find the way up as it is literally in the middle of an intersection. We followed some signs pointing towards the entrance and found that the entrance was via the train station itself. We walked up the stairs to the Arc de Triomphe and was greeted to a magnificent view of Paris. We stayed around taking pictures and then the light show on the Eiffel Tower began. It was the same one that we had seen just before landing in Paris. It is even more enthralling to see it up close. I got some souvenirs and we slowly made our way down. We were all hungry and visited another fast food place. Once we were done, we got a cab and returned to our hotel.
Louvre and the Eiffel was planned for the next day. We started for the Louvre after breakfast and reached there very quickly. The queue was very long and only I was excited to stand for another 4 hours in the queue to get into the museum. (People like me can really infuriate their travelling partners). We took some pictures from the Louvre and then decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. We slowly walked taking in the sights along the way. While we were slowly walking, a girl suddenly appeared in front of us. And she was like Namaste. And we were like “yeah right”. What do you want? She said she was collecting signatures and that she did not want any money. We said okay. I added my signature and she was like now you have to pay us money. And I was like “I don’t have any money”. She was getting really frustrated and wouldn’t leave me alone. Krishna and Naveen got separated from me and was being harangued by another girl. I got fed up and showed her my wallet that I did not have any money. Unfortunately, I had some Indian currency with me and she took like 110 INR(1.5 €) from me. I told her that this wasn’t much but I guess the denominations made her see stars in her eyes. She left and I looked around for Krishna and Naveen. Krishna had to pay 5€ to get them off his back. I looked around for the girl who collected my signature and she was no where to be seen. We had fallen for a tourist trap even after being so careful. I was so mad at myself.
We then started searching for restaurants near the Eiffel Tower and found one of Google Maps. The lady behind the counter smiled and asked us whether we were Indian. We replied with the affirmative and she said the other people who worked there were from Sri Lanka and spoke Tamil. I tried conversing with them a bit in the broken Tamil that I know and then we put in our orders. I might have probably insulted his whole family with the Tamil I spoke. I never got to know. The food arrived soon and wasn’t that great. Probably it was the Tamil that I spoke.
We then left for the park opposite the Eiffel Tower and it was very crowded. There were people renting out Ferraris. I also saw a small group of people playing a game. I watched curiously and people were betting 50 and 100€ like it was peanuts. Then we realized that it was a tourist trap and moved forward. We spent the next hours looking at the Eiffel Tower and talking about everything under the sun(mostly automobiles). We wanted to go up the tower and decided to wait in the line. While walking around, I saw the same group of people. The most noticeable characteristic that struck me was the diversity in the group. They were dressed in different ways and were playing the game. Suddenly, there were sirens and this group moved as a whole and not as individual people. Yikes, the chink in their armour. While we were walking back we met another group collecting signs for the deaf. They asked me whether I support the deaf? We just skedaddled our way out of there.
Going up the Eiffel Tower was simply a lot of waiting but it was fun. Looking over the lights in Paris is amazing. It was quite nice to see the city with all the lights. We spent more than an hour taking photos and videos and then slowly made our way down. With that our two day stop for Paris came to an end. But we were excited for our next stop the Nurburgring.
Follow us on the adventure to the green hell
https://uncouthmusings.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/euro-trip-diaries-the-ordeal-to-the-green-hell/
Musings of an uncouth 
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