When we told our colleagues that we are about to go on a ‘weekend’ trip to Paris, they gave us an incredulous look: “Paris? In two days? But, what will you get to see in two days?”

But they didn’t know how big a chance it was for us – a bunch of four young people on an official trip to Germany, who can’t think of making ‘personal’ trips to such places (at least now). A trip to Germany was a boon, as some great places like Paris, Salzburg, and Zurich were just a few hours away. And Paris was everyone’s first favorite. So off we went to Paris!

We had made good plans considering the limited time we had. We had made careful plans of our trip, places that we wanted to see. We had chosen a youth hostel that will quickly let us board metro trains.
We landed in Paris, early morning on a fine summer Saturday. After a quick and sumptuous breakfast of buttered French croissants, we decided to take the metro to our first destination – the Louvre museum

Forget Paris
So we boarded our route, so confident that we have managed to work out the metro routes (which is really fantastic in terms of its simplicity), taking a few photographs here and there (‘Hey, in front of that billboard…pst….pst…with that woman in bikini).

I was the last one to get into the train. I saw that my friend, who had boarded the train just in front of me, was trying to help a guy who had dropped his keys, at my friend’s feet. Somehow, this guy was having a difficult time picking his keys and my friend bent down to help this guy out. Finally, the guy got his keys and left and I boarded the train, just in time for the train’s gates to close. Something struck my friend and he felt his back pockets – his valet was gone!! We quickly realized that the ‘key’ guy had an accomplice, who was standing behind my friend – who had picked his valet, when all our attention was on the ‘key’ guy! The whole incident happened in a fraction of a minute. The whole act was so well choreographed by these guys that we didn’t suspect till it all got over! All we managed to see was the look on the face of the thieves as our train sped out of station!! My friend had his credit cards, a good amount of Euros and everything was gone! We were stunned!! All the enthusiasm just ebbed!

The next 3 hours were spent in a crazy frenzy – getting down at the next station, trying to get the credit cards blocked and to lodge a police complaint (for insurance). All were easier said than done.
The problem of not knowing French quickly took on us. Somehow, I had imagined that French would be a lot easier to understand (though I didn’t know the language). You know, French is more familiar in India – it’s more commonly taught in schools, Paris and Eiffel Tower are more familiar places and so on… But no sire, that was not the case to be.

None in that great city could speak English and we couldn’t make out one (French) word of what they were saying. All I could manage was to say ‘Oui….oui’ and to borrow some good old school-days’ mono-acting, miming and some dancing skills (“left side is this way… right side is the other way”) to get us some help. Finally, a Sri Lankan Tamil running an internet shop helped us to block the cards and get directions to the police station. By this time, we had walked so much on original, quaint French streets and some insolent members of the group, were, as always, busy in capturing the authentic Parisian streets and windows (remember, French windows? We have seen the real ones!).

And when we finally did reach the police station, we had to wait for an hour and a half, by when the station could get an English-speaking policeman. My friend said that it turned out to be a lovely French lady, and that was some consolation.

But everything was squashed! Our great plans had turned awry! The first half of Saturday was gone and we had not seen a single place in Paris (except for the lovely, quaint streets & windows). Everyone was disappointed in one way or the other, and this mood hung around like a mist shrouding the scenic beauty. Instead of that confident, carefree attitude that we sported earlier, we were all had become paranoiac – Is someone too close Are the bags properly zipped? Are the wallets still in their place? But no, it was not a moody trip at all, after that thrilling start, the song and dance sequences did begin.

The Da Vinci Code
We had about one and half days now and we had to tighten our plan. We decided to stick to our first destination – the Louvre Museum of Arts.

There was definitely a reason. We all knew that its one of the world’s biggest art house. But more than that, most of us had just read Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (some reread the novel as homework to this trip!). This museum is the setting for the racy start and the climax of this novel, which describes extensively the museum’s structure, the glass pyramids, the great art works, especially that of Da Vinci, and very specifically, the Mona Lisa. Yeah, we all now knew something more than an average museum visitor and it was time for show off!
The Louvre museum is so huge that it is said that one needs almost a month if he’s to pay attention to every piece of art in this museum. For instance, the museum’s most popular salle Denon hall way, which holds hundreds and hundreds of great art works including that of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio et al, is itself so long that it appears to stretch into the horizon.

Now that we had to shrink the one month experience to four hours, our sole aim was to see the Mona Lisa before anything. The Museum people know the expectations of such tourists that they have put up enough billboards in every corner indicating the directions to reach her. So, crossing many an awe-inspiring paintings and statutes we reached the hallway of the Grand Gallery, which housed the Mona Lisa. The hype was expectedly high with a buzzing crowd and blinding camera flashes everywhere. I had to literally push my way to the painting.
Oh! Is this what I expected? The painting was smaller than I had imagined and looked simple? I didn’t know how to react. Yes, it’s the most popular of all paintings, but should I get awed just for that reason? Nevertheless, I got the feeling of seeing a very important person. I remembered the time when I got to see a movie actor in person, an actor who I didn’t admire too much. Nevertheless, the feeling that I’m seeing a popular actor itself made the moment memorable. Such was my feeling on seeing the Mona Lisa, the lady (or is it a guy? As some theories suggest that it’s the portrait of Da Vinci himself) who gave the name for all bewitching, mysterious, half smiles.
I felt that there were other paintings that were awe-inspiring, such as the huge and splendid ‘The wedding at Cana’, just in front of the Mona Lisa.

And there was a moment of crowning glory – the novel ‘Da Vinci Code’ has references to a painting titled, ‘Madonna of the Rocks’. So I was very interested to see it, but the size of the painting gallery didn’t make it easy to locate the painting. I wandered around, found a museum employee, and asked her in that ‘art bug’ tone, sure that I would impress her with a knowledge that goes beyond Mona Lisa, “Could you please tell me where ‘Madonna of the Rocks’ is located?” The lady simply smiled, “But of course sir! That’s what you’re seeing in front of you!!’ I’m sure, Da Vinci would have failed to recapture that very beautiful foolish grin on my face then.

A Little Romance
After nearly five hours in Louvre, and after several more splendid paintings and artworks, we stepped out into the cheerful, early evening light into the gardens of Tuileries and into Avenue des Champs-Elysees – the popular, beautiful, tree-lined avenue known for its chic, luxury shops (where most people only do window shopping). Many places of touristic interest such as Grande Palais, Esplanade des Invalides, the lovely Alexandre III ponte (bridge) over Seine, are within bounds from this avenue. The much popular monument, the Arc de Triomphe is at the far end of this avenue (with the Louvre at the other end).

Being at the centre of such scenic attractions, we were greeted by a festive mood of tourists from different countries, kids & balloons, coffee and pastry shops, road-side artists busy in making portraits of people. We took a long, relaxed walk along the avenue, taking in these beautiful sights. All the while, the Eiffel was beckoning us with occasional glimpses through trees and beautiful buildings.

As the sun began its descent, we reached Eiffel, the place of dreams, the place where love flutters in the air and hearts flutter along with it.
It’s truly an awesome structure, approximately 1063 feet in height! It’s so tall that its top is said to sway by a few centimeters because of might winds at that level!!

So far, we had walked for nine god hours. But on seeing Eiffel, our enthusiasm hit such high notes that we dared to climb the first 1000-odd steps on foot to reach the 2nd storey of the tower. When our breaths couldn’t match our zeal, we took the elevator to the top, top, top most level of the tower. By then it had grown dark – lights started blinking far, far down and all around below and wow, would I be able to put in words how I felt there?!

The panoramic view of the city, its lights, the lights on the cruise boats floating in the Seine, the distant lights of the traffic – I felt heady. With the winds howling and the tower falling to great depths below, one truly feels that he’s on the top of the world and if jumped out, he’d just start flying!

Of course, one would long for that perfect company for such flights of fantasies, and such pangs are just aggravated by another authentic French stuff, the French kiss, which isn’t too rare at this place.
We stood there taking in the world around us for a long, long time. We knew not that the time was racing past 1 AM in the night. We had forgotten the disappointing moments of the morning. We had forgotten that we had tighter plans for tomorrow. We didn’t care who we were with. We felt comfortably numb, as Pink Floyd had sung and we felt happily content with life.

As Eiffel began to sparkle with its 2000-odd lights, we silently thanked God for putting us at that place at that time. We had had a trip of our lifetime.