Missed smile & waiting miles - Euro Trip 2

 Paris from the Eiffel tower

Good day! I finally got over the odd sleeping habit in the weekend. When told, my colleague couldn’t believe jetlag can exist for more than two days and was joking that I cannot be more European! I retracted without a second “yea u would if you get sleep only by 3 am and shit at odd hours”. When I looked it up, I had almost all symptoms like irritation, insomnia, indigestion which are mentioned in the site. I didn’t have this much trouble when I went to Europe. One night sleep was all it took to be on track that may be due to the fact that I was more excited to tour than to get back to work ;)

Anyway getting back to the Europe trip, I was hungry after descend from the tower, so I brought a box of cookies (actually I liked the metal box: P) in the souvenir shop. Its THE BEST cookies I ever had, I highly recommend it. We met the Indian-French couple later and they told us these cookies are one of the best in Paris. I had good year red wine, and an artichoke pizza soaked in hot olive oil for dinner. That’s the first time I ate artichoke and I liked the texture, taste and flower like look of it.

After a good 10 hour sleep and hefty breakfast at Indian restaurant, we bumped our way to the world famous and most beautiful avenue "des Champs-Élysées" pronounced something like "le- shanse-lesay" (check here for better enunciation). This is the most expensive part of Europe. You have to pay more than 1.5 million USD just to rent 1000 square feet of space.

I felt royal just walking through this street .This is the same street King and Queen of France used. It’s the same street German troops marched celebrating the fall of France. This is the same street that has witnessed the ever evolving Parisian life. It runs through many monuments of France and this is where Bastille Day, (National day) parade is held every year.

The first thing I noticed is the beautiful chestnut trees by the sidewalk. This street hosts cinemas, hotels, cafes, restaurants and up market shops like Zara, Adidas, Mercedes, Disney, Nike, Gap etc. In weird way it’s a pride to walk on this street with a branded shopping bag ;) The Champs-Élysées ends at the “Arc de Triomphe”, built by Napoleon Bonaparte

Arc de Triomphe - From Eiffel tower

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous and a must-visit monument in Paris. It was built to honor Napoleon’s greatest victory in the battle of Austerlitz (the battle of the three emperors) during 1805. His body passed under this arch in 1840 before resting in Les Invalides.

Arc de Triomphe

When we took the train to the tower the previous day, we got lost in the metro station that served this place. I was quite surprised by R's knowledge when he told the word 'Invalides' meant disabled ex-serviceman and the place had hospitals and retirement homes for war veterans. Around this area we can find monuments and museums all relating to military history of France

Part of Louvre museum

Paris full of age old buildings, monuments and churches; itself is a museum to say. To top it all, it also has the most visited museum in the world, “Musée du Louvre” (The grand Louvre museum).

Louvre museum

The museum was opened in 17th century and it boasts to host 380,000 objects and 35,000 artworks from prehistory to last century. I guess the highly controversial cultural seizes during World War 2 and by Napoleon I, adds up to a good number in this. Owing to the collection, the crowd and the little time we had in Paris, I decided to visit the Mona Lisa later :) Be sure to mark a day for this as you are sure to race in snail’s pace with Da Vinci fans

The glass pyramids above the ground level and the inverted ones below are built in last two decades during renovations. The architectural marvel attracted many visitors since then and attendance has doubled

Tired of walking around, we hit the star bucks for quick snack and did the next best thing: brought an illustration book containing 300 masterpieces of the museum and complete information about it.

Whether you visit the museum or not, its perfect souvenir as you won’t scratch your head every time someone asks you about the painting or sculpture that you visited.

The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits. The blade and chalice guarding his gates. Adorned in masters' loving art, he lies. He rests, not very long beneath the shiny sky, for his journey awaits!
( inspired by Da vinci code climax ;P )