Travel » Paris

After a wonderful week at the Sunset Beach Club in Malaga in June last year, we headed to France—a country famous for its romance, rich heritage and culture, and a dream destination for any person fond of elegance, rich cuisine, breathtaking shows and the never-ending museums, full of original art. A city of romance, with an aura of the magnificent past hanging about in almost everything and every place. The weather was just perfect with temperatures around 20-22°C, although the nights were chilly.

The excursions of the city by going to the Eiffel Tower. The view of the Eiffel Tower was absolutely stunning from below, and the view from the second floor was simply awesome. It takes some time for the fact to sink in as to how much time and effort it must have taken to build such a massive steel structure, which we were told is repainted all year round: three different shades of brown are used to make it look the same from top to bottom. Here, we also took the boat ride down the River Seine, which runs across the city.

Paris boasts of a number of museums, of which the Chateau de Versailles and the Louvre can be rated as the best. At the Louvre, we got to see the original works of Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso. The Louvre attracts visitors through the glass pyramid that serves as the entrance to the museum. I wondered how they manage to keep the museum so clean despite the huge inflow of visitors—thousands every day! The Louvre accommodates this inflow with so much ease that it still appears to be empty, such is its massive size. As a matter of fact, we had to leave some sections unseen as we got tired walking.

The Chateau de Versailles is the true picture of what royalty must have been like in the era of kings and queens. I am not surprised by the French Revolution! One look at the palace and the never-ending gardens in each direction, and the royal crown and other jewellery, tells you instantly about the vast difference there must have been between the royals and the common man, leading to unrest and ultimately the revolution that changed France once and for all.

Walking down the streets of Paris we ended up at Grevin Wax Museum, which took us completely by surprise. We had heard of Madame Tussauds in London, but never did we imagine that Grevin could give competition to that! The wax figures are so. we mistook real people to be statues and the other way around. In a picture of my son with the figure of Jackie Chan, the actor, no one back home is ready to believe that it is a wax figure that my son is standing next to. My compliments to the craftsman who made this possible!

Adults visiting Paris have to see the Lido Show: anybody who comes back without being to the show misses out on something very unique. There are four shows daily, which may include champagne or dinner depending on what you pay for. The one­and-a-half hour show is something unimaginable. There are shows from all across the globe—yes, including India, where they have depicted the Khajuraho temples, with a fusion of Western and Indian music, and dances by European ladies in Indian attire. With champagne being served by well-groomed men in black, one feels pampered, and the feel of being treated as the Rich and Famous stays with you for a long, long time.

The best day of the stay at Paris was our visit to Disneyland Park, which brought out the child in my wife and me. As we reached the park by Metro, which stops right at the gates of the Park, the shine in the eyes of the children gave us our money's worth. We had heard about the Park, but had never imagined that some manmade imaginary world could be so nice and realistic. We were in a fairy tale, with all the comic characters roaming around us mingling with the crowds. The theme parks are just awesome, and some of the rides are so realistic that we were glad we were wearing our seat belts! The parade that takes place at about 4.30 in the evening, and lasts a good 45 minutes, must be watched, with all the fairy tale characters like the Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion King walking the street, with wonderful loud music, and the huge props giving you the feel that you are actually part of their world.