European Tour - Part 4 (Paris, France)

Visit Paris, a famous city located in France. It was in October 2009 when I first set foot on the grounds of “The City of Lights” --- PARIS. To start of, here’s a short snippet, Paris is the capital of France, and according to wikipedia the name Paris was derived from its inhabitants while others consider that the name Parisii tribe comes from the Celtic Gallic word Parisio meaning “the working people or the craftsmen.” Paris has an oceanic climate which consists of four seasons Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn while the city also experience sudden rain showers throughout the year. In terms of Architectural, the people of Paris were able to preserve old buildings built since 17th Century consisting of museums and monuments which is amongst the highest esteemed tourist attractions.

We stayed in La Defense “The Financial Business District” located at the west of the city proper. La Defense is a busy district given with the traffic in their labyrinth narrow streets jam-packed with mini cars and motorbikes. Traffic jam is compensated with an easing view of Champs Ely sees’ and Eiffel Tower from afar. Means of transportation are trams or the Metro which is way convenient for travelers because cabs are much expensive. Metro is divided into 4 trams, T1, T2, T3 and T4 this will help you to pick which tram will transport you to your desired destination. Bikes are also readily available which can be rented for short or medium distances including one way trips and if you are worried about the parking, the city allotted parking stations for bicycles as well as designated bicycle lanes. Cost of living in Paris is quite expensive, only few locals can afford to buy or build their own houses while the rest of the residents reside in a rental flat.

From La Defense we took a 5 minute tram ride going to Champs Ely sees’. We got pretty excited as we draw closer to the famous place and have a closer look. The architecture of the grandiose Champs Ely sees’ is splendid and exceptional. It is really worth the visit although we missed its season lighting for it generally happens from late November until early January just in time for the yuletide season. Champs Ely sees’ is one of the famous tourist attractions situated in the prime shopping area lined with cinemas, café’s and restaurants located in Paris. It is a 17th century garden turned avenue connecting Concorde and Arc de Triomphe. Champs Ely sees’ is considered as one of the prestigious avenues in Paris and one of the famous streets in the world.

Our next stop is Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) also known as Notre Dame Cathedral a Roman Catholic Church. The façade of the church is priceless with the detailed architectural showing the Portal of the Virgin, Portal of the Last Judgment and Portal of St. Anne. And on the upper portion of the cathedral you will find sculptures made during the restoration of the cathedral which lasted for 25 years. Additional attraction is the organ with 7,800, 109 stops, five 56-key manuals and 32-key pedal boards. Upon entering the cathedral you will be appeased by the beauty of the French gothic architecture flaunting in your own very eyes. The sight is exemplary added with the dim lights that suit the atmosphere very well. The place where you will find peace and solemnity that you’ve longed for.

After we had our short morning snack, we started our short walk going to Musee du Louvre. Louvre Museum is one of the famous and a must see museum in Paris. Inside the museum you will see all sorts of preserved drawings, paintings and sculptures of well acclaimed artists which include the controversial painting of Mona Lisa painted by no other than the well known painter Leonardo da Vinci. The Louvre Museum is owned by French government and contains 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 curatorial departments. The museums landmark is the three pyramids outside the Louvre Palace. I can amicably say that it is one of the best museums and worth every penny spent. We spent ample time to see the entire place and add up the time consumed for photo ops. According to wikipedia, base on an article published in March 2007, Louvre Museum would be completed by 2010 in down town Abu Dhabi, if this will happen, it will definitely attract more tourists to visit the Emirates.

So now it’s time to go and see the highlight of our Paris tour, the prominent and iconic symbol in France, The Eiffel Tower. The feeling is unexplainable when I saw it for the first time with my 2 naked eyes. Watching or seeing it in movies gives you a different feeling, now the wow becomes WOW. Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris located at Charles de Mars and it is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower has 3 levels you can either use the stairs or lifts in ascending in which the ticket cost varies. Using the stairs will be a good exercise for you have to endure over 300 steps to reach the first level. Going up using the stairs is exciting but it is not as easy as you think. The steps at the second level are more or less the same as the first level. The highest level which is the third level is only accessible by lift. Fine dining restaurant are situated at the first and second level of the tower but I must say that it is way expensive to dine while the third level will give you a breath taking panoramic city view that will leave you astonished. I was in cloud 9 after our visit to Eiffel Tower, just feel like I am part of a movie. As we all know Eiffel Tower is featured in numerous Hollywood films as well as television shows.

Our Paris tour did not end from there. We had a side trip visit to Disneyland Resort, Paris. The afternoon drizzles did not constraint us to visit Disneyland Park. The park was not huge as I expect it to be neither crowed as I assumed. Disneyland Paris is situated in the sub-urban of Paris, France which is 45 minutes tram ride from the city centre of Paris which is by the way the last station of the Metro. Even if it is a little far from the City, visitors has the option of booking a hotel close to the area, hotels provide shuttle buses coming to and from Disneyland Park for their guest’s convenience or use the Metro from City Center to Disneyland Resort. The fastest Billet train is located at the station close to the park which makes it more accessible to the visitors coming from different parts of Europe. I suggest you use the Billet train if you want to save time, just imagine our supposed to be 45 minutes tram ride going to Charles de Gaulle Airport, it was squeezed to 7 minutes using the Billet Train, isn’t it amazing?!? Disneyland Paris is the second Disney resort to open outside the United States.