As long as it stands, the Eiffel Tower will remain the foremost image of Paris, the City of Light. Photo Basudha Banerji
By Rahul Banerji
You will have seen it in the cinema, in countless photographs and illustrations, read about it in a hundred stories, but nothing quite prepares you for a first sight of the Eiffel Tower.
Emerging from the Trocadero Metro station, I was momentarily distracted by the massive statue of French war hero Marshal Ferdinand Foch that stands facing Gustav Eiffel’s monumental creation soaring 1,083 feet into the Parisian sky.
It was when I turned around that the sight of the tower hit like a punch to the gut.
It is everything one had imagined over the years, and more. At that point, if I had been asked to pack up and go home, it would’nt have mattered in the least. My trip to Paris was already complete.
Of course, there was so much more.
Jim Morrison’s final resting place at the Cimetiere Pere-Lachaise for one.
The charismatic frontsman and driving force of The Doors, sleeps in Paris’ largest and most beautiful graveyard. Photo Rahul Banerji.
The Doors (Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) and their free-spirited poet-songwriter carried us through three booze and marijuana-driven years in college with athems like Roadhouse Blues, Light My Fire, Riders On The Storm and so many more.
Morrison’s songs would remain a foundational pillar and no visit to Paris waas ever going to be complete without paying homage to the Lizard King.
The iconic Concorde supersonic passenger jet (registration F-BVFF) which last flew in 2003 after the tragic accident at Charles De Gaulle airport in 2000. This Air France version now stands as a tourist attraction on a plinth alongside one of CDG’s runways. Photo Rahul Banerji.
Thanks to a cancelled flight by Air India we arrived in France one day before schedule.
The Better Half had bustled her way through Paris a few years ago and wanted some quality time at the airport hotel she had stayed at the last time.
The bonus of this option was its proximity to the picturesque village of Roissy en France, a short bus ride away.
Great location
The CDG airport complex is superbly designed with its three terminals, large parking areas, a well-used airport hotel complex all tied together by an automated tram service.
Roissy-en-Pole is the central halt on the tram line and has a bus station, more hotels and a large Relay convenience store outlet that stocks everything everything from travel essentials to food and drink.
Our first meal on French soil was this quite superb burrata nestled on slices of glowing tomatoes and generously doused in olive oil. With thickly sliced baguettes and a couple of glasses of wine as accompaniment. Photo Basudha Banerji.
A midday bus ride into Roissy, a lazy stroll along deserted streets and an inviting bylane.
We were suddenly at a busy little bistro that served up eye-poppingly colourful tomato slices with two thick blocks of burrata cheese. Not French, granted, but the house wine more than made up for that.
The bucolic part done, it was off and into La Ville Lumiere, the City of Light, Paris, next and a tiny flat in the wonderfully-central 11th Arrondissement. Our Air BnB host Florence was a font of helpful information and assistance, and it was time to sink out teeth into Paris.
Paris is packed with beautiful and intricate bronzes, this one representing the Republic that sat on a roundabout at the end of Boulevard Voltaire, out location in the central 11th Arrondissement. Photo Rahul Banerji.
Top of the list, literally, was the spectacular Bouillon Chartier in Montmartre, one of the oldest such establishments in Paris purveying traditional French cuisine at highly affordable rates to a never-ending line of eager patrons.
Bouillons began life as inexpensive soup kitchens catering to the working class that have transitioned into eating halls that serve authentic French food at prices well below Michelin-starred restaurants.
At the Bouillon Chartier in Montmartre dining with the Onguchis, on their honeymoon from Japan.. Photo courtesy Mitsuhiro Onguchi.
Thus, seated alongside a charming Japanese couple on their honeymoon, we dived into escargots in steaming hot garlic butter and other toothsome goodies that left my wallet breathing a sigh of relief.
Montmartre, besides its fame as the Artists Quarter, is also home to the Basilica of Sacre Couer, which looms over Paris from its highest point.
Recent fame
A relatively recent addition to the French capital and built only in 1914, it acquired real fame in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, and is today the second most popular destination in Paris.
Be prepared for a lung-busting climb though.
The Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre, to give the church its formal name. Photo Basudha Banerji.
Well before Sacre Coeur came along, Montmartre was the centre of Bohemian Paris and drew artists from around Europe and teh rest of the world to its twisty cobbled streets including the likes of van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso.
Their spirit lucks in its picturesque lanes and little squares, not to mention the myriad bistros and cafes.
La Maison Rose in Montmartre which was frequented by the likes of Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. Photo Basudha Banerji.
And to see art at its finest at a single venue, you can do no better than Musee d’Orsay, a disused railway station converted into one of the coolest museums Paris has to offer.
A bird’s eye view od the Musee d’Orsday from its highest point. Photo Rahul Banerji.
FInally, there was my chosen mode of transport along the Seine River that would stop at each destination on its banks worth visiting, the Batobus.
Day-long tickets allow you to hop on and off this bare-bones service, but by golly, it gives you access to almost anywhere a visitor to Paris would wish to go to. Loved the fat ducks!!
My beloved Batobus, the bare-bones hop on-hop ferry service along the Seine. Photo Rahul Banerji.
Also read: TeeTimeTales in Sri Lanka: Travelling to Timeless Trincomalee
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