Say hi to monolisa !

Ask any European traveler or a honey moon couple traveled back from Europe, They will have some sweet memories of PARIS.

Europe stands 1st in Vacation destination and PARIS is one of my favorite destination.

if you ever planned for a Paris trip make sure you have a minimum of 3 to 4 days with you, so that you can roam around all the places in and around the city very peacefully.
Here are some useful information,

You can go to Paris by Eurolines. If you plan sufficiently early, then may be by flight also. You can reach Paris by Ikarus travels also.Better keep Ikarus as the last option as he leaves there in the afternoon and half day will be wasted.
this is the link of that travels

http://www.ikarus-reisen.de/English.htm?p=100

You can find that ikarus is running buses for various destinations. you can trust the company and pay the price for the tickets. we traveled to Paris only through the ikarus as our plan was decided only in the last moment, dont worry about paying the money using postal service. you can trust ikarus-reisen.

To travel inside Paris, have a Metro map of Paris, also a zone map. It is more than enough. It is impossible to manage without these.

You can find metro map here
http://www.aparisguide.com/maps/metro.htm

and zone map here
http://parisbytrain.com/paris-transportation-zone-map/

Reserve any hotel or hostel in city center so that transportation will be easy. Even if we book it a little away from center, then also its not such a big problem as the metro connectivity is too good. if you book the tickets through ikarus then based on your plans you can get your hotel accommodations with breakfast.
if you are some bachelors and just don't want to waste too much of euros then keep some food items ready made in your bags, food stuffs like burgers/breads biscuits and a water bottle will be handy.

Or you can have some nice handy Indian style or foreign style pizza's near the PARIS Central station, this is the place where ikarus will drop you and pick you later.

Here are the interesting places that you can see in PARIS

Grand Arch de La Defense: This is an arch (actually a rectangle built in memory of some soldiers). I was amazed to know that it is an office building n people work inside that. In the night it is good to see it by the light. Also the sky scrapers around it. To reach here you have to get down at the La Defense stop.


Arch de Triomphe: This looks somewhat similar to our India Gate. This was constructed by Napolean as a sign of victory and as a tribute to those who died in war. 12 roads meet at this point and it is an amazing view. To have this marvelous view, we have to climb up the tower by paying the entrance fee.To reach here you have to get down at the Champs Elysees Clemenceau stop.

Champs Elysees: One of the 12 roads joining at the Arch de Triomphe is the Champs Elysees. You can have a walk down this street and it is beautiful (especially during the night). There are many museums in this street – Renault, Peuguot, Daimler Chrysler and Toyota. All are free entrance.


Opera House: Well we don’t get a chance to see the opera because the tickets are always sold out and may be costly too. But you can have a glimpse of the opera house. It is nothing short of any royal palace-nice decorations, grand chandeliers that too with artistic work of French. If you remember the one you had seen in Dil Chahta Hai. It is like that itself, but not as big as that.You have to get down at the Opera stop. The building will be named as ‘Musique Academy’. But i felt this as boring one and not worth the money.


Eiffel Tower: 1 of the 7 wonders. Well it’s altogether a different experience to be on top of it. we can get the view of the entire (most of the ) city Paris from the top of it. Go to top of Eiffel tower at the late afternoon, so that you can see the city by light and by night. There are 4 pillars – East, West, North & South. There are ticket counters at each of the pillars. They give tickets to go the 1st floor, 2nd floor & to the top floor. If many people are there on the top, they stop issuing tickets for some time. So be careful while purchasing the tickets and make sure you take it to the top floor. You can climb till 1st or 2nd floor, but have to take a lift compulsorily from there, or you can also take the elevator directly from the ground floor.
You can get down at the Bir Hakeim stop or Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel stop.
Never miss it.

Boat Ride: The best way to see Paris by lights. Just beside the Eiffel tower there are many counters for boat rides. You can get a ticket in any 1 of them. It will be for 1 hour n the River Seine. Take the boat ride in the night, when the city if full in lights. It is awesome experience. Don’t afford to miss this.if you travel by ikarus then this trip is arranged by the travels itself.

Sacre Coeur: This is one the famous churches in Paris. It is famous because of its architecture.
You have to get down at the Anvers stop for this. From there you can climb up the small hill. Even there is a cable car to go up there.

Notra Dame: This is another famous church. This is the place where Napolean crowned himself as the king. You can also go up the church tower.
You have to get down at the St. Michel or St. Michel Notra Dame stop.Nice one.

Louvre Museum: Well this one of the things not to be missed in Paris. if your are so much art savvy then you definetly need atleast a 3 days to see this museuem completely.. Previously it was a palace. Now it is converted to a museum. It has 2 wings. Each wing is 700m (almost 3/4th of a km) and each wing has 4 floors, so totally (1.5 * 4 ) 6 km. If we have to see everything in the museum, then we have to walk for 16km inside the palace!!!!! That’s humanly impossible in 3 days also. So only look at at the important places in the museum – Mona Lisa, Coronation of Napolean, Napolean Apartments, Greek idols, Italian paintings (hall with endless number of paintings) in order of their preference. There is also audio guide available and if you take it there is a description for each painting - God help the person who listens to the description of all these paintings!!!!! Do not spend more than 4 hours here or else you will get bored and tired and you will not to go anywhere the whole day. Everyday some or the other room of this museum will be closed for maintenance. It is a holiday on Tuesdays.
You have to get down at the Palais Royal Musee de Louvre stop.
i strive harder to go to the luvre museuem just to Say hi to monolisa, but trust me i did not find it so excited, as the monolisa was never looking at me at all...


Invalides: There is Napolean Fort kind of thing here. After looking at everything in Paris, this appears nothing great. But you can go here if you are left with time. It closes at 6.15 in the evening. You can also see the French Parliament. But I do not know whether they will let you in.
You have to get down at the Invalides stop.


Versailles: its a huge place. since we were too much tired visiting luvre, we did not visited this place.. but if you have more time then definetly you can have a visit.
There will be a show in the Palace gardens from 3.30 to 5.00. Mondays the palace is closed. On first Sunday of every month there is no discount and no group tickets available.
To reach here you have to take RER C (named VICK or VERO) from Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel and get down at the Chateau de Versailles (Rive Gauche) stop.

Just remember that Sortie in French is Exit in English, it will be handy.

Just i am uploading very few photos which we took in PARIS,
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shafathhusain/France_Paris
Did you like it ?

Ok in next blog we will discuss about Venice, A nice beautiful place in italy.