The Paris Encounter !

The weekend was spent in Paris meeting some close friends - Prashant, Monica & Sukhad. Prashant, I had met about 2.5 years back. Monica/Sukhad... well, the last time I met Monica was in St Xavier's College and the last time I met Sukhad was perhaps in St Xavier's Loyola Hall ! The whole idea of meeting them again after such a long time was phenomenally enticing. So, how did it all go? Well, here's a snippet, in my own words ;p.

Saturday

The route from Nottingham to our apartment in Paris - >>> Click Here For Route <<<

Slept at 3.00am after finishing packing, etc. Had to wake up at 4.00am in order to catch the 6.20am Channel Tunnel Train (or the Chunnel Train, as some would rather call it) from Folkestone. Yep, as usual, woke up late at 4:15am and then ensued a mad scramble to get ready and leave ASAP ! Eventually left at 5:00am and reached Folkestone at 7:40-ish. So, caught the 8:06 "Chunnel" to Calais.

Stopped at Calais to pick up a bottle of whisky - something forgotten during the mad rush in the morning. Got lost on the way trying to find an "Auchan" or a local wine-shop. Stopped at a local "Fleurs" shop to get directions and met a lovely lady who knew not a single word of English! Oh what a great sight it was - two people who didn't understand a single word of the other's language :). But we made it ! Finally managed to understand that there were a few big shops selling wine nearby, got directions, thanked the gorgeous lady profusely and left.

Reached Paris about 12:30am and dropped out luggage at the Rue De Berri apartment. Took a cab to Sainte Chappell to meet up with Pinti/Monica/Sukhi. After a huge bunch of back slapping and hugging we finally decided to get through the security checks and saw some awesome coloured glass-work at the Chapel. Beautiful and equisite as it was, I think it was perhaps a bit over-rated.

Then we decided to take a train to the west-most part of Paris and take a bus which went along "the tourist route" to the east-most part of the town... only we'd get off near the Eiffel Tower. Got off at "Pere Lachaise" and walked into a nice cafe to wait for the next bus (incidentally, the bus number was - "69"... go figure!). Anyway, this gave everybody a chance to freshen up and have a nice cocktail.

Finally boarded the bus only to find Monica chatting up a nice old lady who turned out to be an art historian (or something!). Meanwhile, we chatted away during the entire ride to the Eiffel Tower. We got off at Napolean's tomb and walked across to the Eiffel Tower... taking in a few choice pictures!

Nothing really prepares you for the Eiffel Tower... you know its big... you can see it from miles away... but when you get up close and personal to it... it just blows you away! Took loads of pictures at the Eiffel Tower... some quite unique - or so we think... and kinda set a trend which dozens of people unashamedly copied!

The line to get atop the tower was just too long to bear, so we decided to skip that and move right on to dinner at Trocadero. Found the restaurant and used my charms (!) to request the beautiful Maître d' to give us a table for 6 with the Eiffel Tower as the background. The restaurant was crowded and we had not booked in advance. So, we were kinda prepared to be disappointed. But, hey presto! She turned up a few minutes later with a huge beaming smile and led us to one of the best tables in the courtyard! We had unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower lighting up the pleasant Paris evening.

Perhaps the only disappointment of the evening was that the wine took too long to arrive. But, when it did, boy oh boy... one of the very nicest I've had so far. The food was exceptional as well. So, in all, the evening turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip.

It was too late by the time we left, and Pari had dozed off to sleep. So, I picked her up and we all took a cab back to our apartment. With Rekha and Pari safely tucked into bed, I was now free to party! We went back to Monica's apartment and had some nice wine and broke open the bottle of the 18yo scotch I'd picked up earlier. We talked and drank late into the night... some moments were a bit embarrassing (;p) and some positively hilarious ! 6am and I felt light-headed with sleep. So, trudged back to main road to catch a cab back for my apartment.

Sunday

Crept into the bed by about 7.15am, to be rudely awoken by a naughty girl bouncing on an imaginary trampolin which turned out to be my back - yelling "Daddy! Wake Up!". So, what do you do? You grab her and tickle her till she yells for help... that'll learn her !

Anyway, we packed and signed out of the apartment. Pinti/Monica/Sukhi were running late (as usual!) and so we decided to head off for Chateau de Versailles ourselves. First though... some unfinished business! Arc de Triomphe! We were right next to it, but hadn't visited it! So, we took the extra hour we had to do exactly that!

We reached the Chateau and called up the moppets (Pinti/Monica/Sukhi)... only to find out that their train took a wrong turn (or so they say! hah! ;p) and it'd be a while before they got to the Chateau. So, we decided to have a picnic in the parking lot and wait for them. Almost 2 hours later, they were still lost ;p. By this time we'd moved from the parking lot to the humongous ticket line at the entrance! Decided to take in the musical mountain show instead and went in. "Musical fountains" my foot !! If you ever plan to go to the Chateau for the musical fountains, boy... you're in for a really nasty surprise. If you're going there for the gardens, the chateau itself, etc... lord... what a gorgeous sight it is! After the initial shock of the non-musical fountains, we decided not to waste time and take in the sights of the gardens instead. As far as your eye can see from the top of the stairs of the porch of the Chateau, there are just gardens after gardens after gardens. There's a huge lake where you can do a bit of boating as well. But, the sight is absolutely stunning! There just isn't another word to describe it any better... or perhaps, my vocabulary suddenly feels severely stunted.

Anyway, it was getting chilly and so we decided to call it a day and leave for England. Called up Pinti only to find out that they were finally on their way :) and should be there in about 45 min. Decided to meet up one last time at the station to bid our good-byes. Amidst promises to meet up again and some wet eyes (Paridhi... who else!) we dropped them at the Chateau to take in the last few minutes of the day and we drove off towards Calais.

The ride back was uneventful. Picked up a few cases of wine at the duty-free in Calais. Reached Folkestone at about 9pm. Stopped at a services to grab a bite and drove non-stop to Nottingham. Crashed into bed about 1am... completely bushed out.

Boy... what a trip. Will I do it again, hell, yeah! Did we like it? For sure! Any surprises? Some of Monica's stories LOL !!