Day 6(24.12.2009) Paris:
Time: Early Morning Hours
It is always good to be lost at some places while finding your native desination place. IT was quite similar when I seprated with my other mates on a way to Cathedral De Notre Dome. Well,it may sounds like a religious place. But this place has lot to offer. This was my second day in Paris and today I was roaming without travelling in a metro( You can guess I was walking on my two feet).
I passed few places on my way to cathedarl de notre dome, WUUU Look at the place just after coming out of nearest Metro Station.
Discovering Paris was a fun with adventure since all the visiting, attractive place lies very near to each other in a close proximity of circle.
Police Station
It is very easy to lost in new cities, places but in Paris I was enjoying getting lost at somewhere, since it leads to the discovery of inner buties of Paris which cant be explained by guide books, internet articles and travel magazines. Well, Well let’s come back to reality.
So it was me totally lost in the city of Paris while going towards Cathedral de notre dome sometime near about noon. Wind was flowing with very high velocity creating a cold sensation as always, but I was on my way to discover cathedral de notre dome. It was a walk besides the river when I spotted a big hoarding mounted on a under contructed gigantic (May be huge) buidling. The hoarding has a poster or lot of policemen with something written on french. Guess, What was my first thought ??
I will count till 5…1,2,3,4,5.. Time up, an instant thought was ‘ Hmm.. seems like a movie theatre with action movie is showcased more often, may be even now’. This building was 10 story high with length as long as an football field. Dont you wanna know the correct answer?? My imagination did not reveal the correct one, may be you can guess something close to accurate.
Well, I discovered later that it was building of Paris City Police Headquaters :D:D:D and poster was showcasing different operational unit and their capabilities of fighting with crime while taking utmost care of people in Paris.
Just after crossing this building, I saw a huge, gignatic but marvellous piece of beautifual Architechtural just in front of me. Yes, It was Cathedral de notre dome , one of the most attaractive destination for tourist visiting Paris. Why dont you spend some time and take a closer look on this beautifully carved masterpiece of french architechtural style.
Cathedral de notre dome(View from the front)
Time to Eat
We ( our gang splitted into two parts and we scheduled to meet t 14.00 inside cathedral). And I reached their quite early(around 12.30), it was time to eat something for lunch. Finding a cheap eating place around such a big monuments is a bizzre stuff, but I found a subway just on the opposite side or river. For those who are puzzled by subway, jus to remind subway is a food chain which sells sandwiches ( As far as I rememebr about them). I went there, ate a sandwich ( which was not so spicy) and then returned back to my original location.
So, it was our second day in Paris and we decided to meet exactly at 14.00 somewhere in-side cathedral(which was very big:D). We were slighlty smart while planning our trip and information gathered indicated a free english guide service around 14.00 each wednesday. I was there much before 14.00, and trung and other mates joined the company around 13.30. There was a slight confusion while finding the guide, but with the help of receptionsit it became possible without much hurdles. When I saw the guide, I could not believe my eyes , I saw something unobvious. Our guide was a female, in her sixties, a history professor having a vast knowledege and experience of French History, Art and Culture. She asked where I am from, I said India. She smiled and told there is an Indian touch too to this cathedral which we will discover during our trip inside later.
Everyone was carefully listening to her during the start of her talk but slowly slowly people strated moving away from the group and till the end (After one hour), there were around 5 people left (off course including me). She explained almost everything about Cathedral and off course about the Indian Touch. I will talk about all these in next post and hope to be regular from now onwards.
Ankit Khandelwal 