My Paris Diary-Part2

At the outset we should thank ourselves for meticulous plan that gone into making our first weekend in Paris successful (patting on my back----it is really paining guys).

It took a while to lift our lazy bodies out of bed and head to rest room. It was 11AM -29 Sept 2007 by that time we headed out to catch the metro (M1) to Eiffel, after having two apples-only source of food to keep us alive here in Paris with no access to Indian food as we live in so-called posh area- La’ Defense-we were told Indians cannot afford to put up their shops here .I talk about our change in food habits some time later.
Eiffel tower is very much visible from the area we live; for that matter many monuments. A day before we thought we can walk toward them. One day we tried walking toward Charles de triumph (for us it is CDG), we burnt our fingers (our legs –that would correctly describes).Here everything appear to be very nearer to you, as you walk towards it goes away from you.
We got off the metro after traveling for 20 minutes at the station close to Eiffel.
We were competing with each other that who would have a first look at the Eiffel. We followed blindly the sign boards to reach there. I am no historian to describe what it is, who built that and when; for all that you can refer Wikipedia. I can only say that it is marvelous structure and manmade wonder.
We were warned by our French colleagues in office-reach there early to avoid crowd. Our fat-bums did not co operate with us to reach early. By that time we reached there it was 12’o clock. We have to stand in huge line for over an hour to get the tickets to reach the second floor of Eiffel. For your information there is lift facility to take you to the top.Unknowly we opted for steps to reach there. It was a good decision given my body. We reached first floor, taken pictures, had food and moved to second floor to repeat the same. We also thought of moving to top floor we could not make it as there was huge line to buy tickets. We said to ourselves “As there will be always a next time”. And also we felt that what is there in Eiffel except steal rods properly balanced (pun intended).
We climbed down this time with the help of lift, with feeling that we must come here in the night time to see this wonder glowing with electric lamps. We are planning to go back to this place this weekend in the night time. One update here: Paris is one of the safest places for night travelers-it is my observation.We walked and north and south sides of Eiffel to take some beautiful pictures. Towards evening headed back to barracks (as you know we are soldiers of Manhattan on Mission Paris).As usual we had some apples and bread before hitting the bed.
Next day-30 Sep 2007 –2 days before my birthday (Whole India is waiting to celebrate my b’day in the name of MKGandhi birthday), we headed to Loure Museum, after answering some phone and nature calls. It is also quite near to our place. One Euro away from our place. As you all know it is the biggest museum in the world. Truly it is the biggest. We were told that last weekend of every month, entry is free. Actually we went there to see if that is so.As you know Lady luck never smiles at me,so there is no free entry.We thought entry fee would be quite high.After going there we found that entry fee was only 9 Euros,it is well within our budget for the day, so we just bought tickets’ picked up route maps and went in. It is truly amazing to see so many things under one roof. We spent whole day there-believe me it is not enough. We saved the best for the last-our rendezvous with “Mona Lisa”. Before we left Loure Museum we went to “French paintings” section. I imagined that “Mona Lisa” would be huge Painting; to my surprise; it is just bigger than A-4 size paper. You can have look at all of these pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/mahesh.thipparthi. Look out for next post on how I celebrated my first birth day outside India and my views on Paris –The city-Culture and also how we are surviving on just apples

My Paris Diary-Part1

It was my maiden visit to any western country. All the worries of logistics are off my mind as my office took care of everything. Our (colleague accompanying me) tickets were booked for Air France. Air Travel was quite smooth. Got into and got off the plane at the right time.
We were welcomed with nice showers with heavy traffic, in Paris. For any Bangalorean, heaven is a place sans heavy traffic. By that standard Paris is no heaven. We felt that way on the first few hours at least. Of course, that perception
is changing.
By that time we arrived in Paris; it was after noon-Tuesday 25th Sep07.Freshed up and headed to nearby Indian restaurent.Reaching that Indian restaurant is a big story in itself; I will reserve that for future writing. With all jetlag headed to office; not to work but have a look at that. To our misfortune Manager was there in office and asked us to set up the entire environment to work; with all cursing we did all that stayed up to 8'oclock in the office. We went back home with the feeling that "Our Bad days are just Started off"

This is the second day: Went to office having some eatables that we carried here by paying "SODEXO COUPOUNS":-it is general feeling among IT People that "SODEXHO is not ours”; and spending SODEXHO is spending somebody's money. Soon we reached office we were asked to go to Client site-Lille.It is another big city north of Paris. Guys, I have been dreaming of traveling by "SUPERFAST Trains" from Hyderabad to New Delhi. My dream came true partially by traveling from PARIS-Lillie-Paris by TGV trains with speed no less than 200Kms.I hope Dr Lallu Yadav would make my dream fully true one day.

Next two days were very much routine. Coding-testing-Checking in the files-label sliding.....all routine stuff.

Then came the Weekend-the time for unraveling the grand ideas we chanced upon in our free time. we went to Eiffel tower, Loure Museum. I’ll write at length about these places in the next post