Paris - A tryst with history

After a long 8 hour flight where sleep evaded us for the most part (you cannot cheat the body clock after all. We were all up at 6 am IST!), we landed in Paris. We looked up the electronic schedule board and took a metro to the station closest to our place of stay. The do it yourself started right there :)

After lugging the heavy baggage up two flights of staircases, we emerged on the streets of Paris. I was impressed by the first sight! Chilly and rainy weather, European style buildings, broad roads and a 'Cafe Metro' that beckoned our hungry souls. We had a sumptuous cheesy veg pizza and chocolate mousse for lunch. The kid instantly gave a thumbs up to this life :)

First look of Paris

Kid digging into the treat at Cafe Metro 

A misjudged distance and really long walk later, we tumbled into our apartment, set everything down and dived into bed for a much needed nap. Refreshed after sleep, shower and coffee, we set out to the Seine river. At the metro station, we had trouble figuring out what destination to give as input in the ticket machine. A sign language conversation between us and the lady at the counter ensued and ended with her throwing up her hands and storming out to print out our tickets. Nevertheless, we thanked her and a dark dingy metro ride later, we emerged into this beautiful rainy scene.

A short stroll took us to the Seine river and breathtaking would be an understatement to describe the long watery strip crisscrossed by bridges and surrounded by historic architecture.

After strolling up and down the riverside to our hearts content, we hunted down the starting point to the sunset cruise. Tickets bought, hot chocolate in hand, we sat on the deck of a cruise boat and a chirpy guide started her monologue to educate all of us on all the sites that we would pass by.
The weather was perfect and we took our first sight of Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and several other magnificent historic buildings, as we sailed past them. It was like a trailer to what all we were going to see later on and a perfectly picturesque one at that!

Cruising by history :)

When we passed the Eiffel tower

Kid and I look up to catch a view of Notre Dame

After an hour of floating by history, we jumped off at the dock and tried our hand at some local cuisine at this quaint little crepe stall. Tasted like a very eggy dosa :)

The crepe stall by the seine river bank

Our Cheesey crepe being prepared 

Night fell and Paris lit up to give a very surreal feel to all its inhabitants.

We took a bus ride back to the apartment and drank in all the sights that we passed by. This was totally new scenery after all. The day ended with hot upma that we made in the kitchenette and we settled down to escape into dreamland from dreamland :)