When life takes you on strange Arcs..

Day 9 on our Europe trip had already seen the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Sienne boat cruise, Notre Dame cathedral and we found ourselves at a boat stop ready to hail an Uber to go back to the Air B&B for a quick rest, wash and maybe something to eat.. before going on to the next stop I had been planning.

The previous post on this series is here..

The Montmartre area where we were supposed to go up the steps to another unique piece of architecture, watch street painters do their caricatures, art etc. and watch the sun set over Paris and see the Eiffel tower and all of Paris light up.. 

Many a friend had recommended this to me as a not to miss.. 

However, after all those staircases, sun in the face and head on open boats, walking through museums as fast as your legs could carry, wandering around cathedrals.. the family had.. how to say it? "HAD IT!"

So my plan to go to the hill was not materializing. If you are a photographer, you want to see the Eiffel tower light up .. not see it as just a steel monster towering above Paris.. but there we were, no one talking to anyone else, quietly sitting in an Uber and almost at the Air B&B. Was taking pictures of interesting streets and corner buildings on the way..

We went, sat in the Air B&B for a few minutes and decided to get out and do "something".. but first food!

When I am tired, hungry and cranky (if you lug a 30lb camera bag around your back the entire day you might be too.. especially with a corn in your foot that is getting worse by the day and you are practically hobbling), I usually gravitate towards Indian food.. no surprises there..

Even San, who works very hard to steer me away didn't argue. She had a slight cold and thought a milagu rasam would do her a world of good. The kids, were not for it. They wanted to have Crepes or anything French... given French food wasn't exactly the top on a Vegetarian families choice we had a conflict. 

By the time we decided what to eat (I had already given up on Saravana Bhavan although we were not that far away from it) we just stopped the discussion and walked into the first restaurant that came our way. It was an empty but newly renovated Pakistani restaurant. 

The kids stopped talking to us, we stopped talking to each other and with enough hate to go around the table for years to come, we ordered a biriyani, nan and two side dishes. Except for one of the side dishes, the rest of the items were below par. The price was way cheaper than any other place though and we thought we got what we paid for. There was more silence as we walked out. It wasn't exactly dinner time yet and we were probably early and the fact that some food had gone inside and the family was willing to walk again was a plus. 

Then I suggested that we walk around the Champs Elysses as that was one thing we were planning to do on our last day in Paris. So there were some silent approving nods and shoulder shrugs and the Uber was hailed again. 

It so happened that we had to cross the Arc to go to the shopping part, so I asked the driver to just stop before we reached the roundabout in front of the Arc de Triumphe. The driver said "thanks" and I didn't know why he was thanking me..

History has failed to teach me in all its repetitive glory that when I dig my self a hole, I dig really well. The god Saturn was probably dancing at the tip of my tongue (at least my Grandma would have concurred with that statement) when I said "how about we just go up the Arc and see if we can catch the Eiffel tower light up from there?"

The silent approvals and shoulder shrugs that had gotten us that far evaporated and turned into "I hate you!" stares. Was pretty sure the family was putting silent curses on me. 

Then they realized that daddy was not going leave Paris without taking photos of the Eiffel Tower by night. There was deliberate shoe shuffling, feet dragging noises but we went through the tunnel and ended up at the entrance to the Arc's stairs. There was a freaking line to buy tickets for climbing the stairs and no one was at the counter!  

This was not helping my cause. After standing there for a good 20 minutes and going through security, we came across a board that clearly indicated how narrow the stairs were and how many steps had to be climbed to go to the top. That was not helping my cause either! 

Basilisks would have been scared of San and the kids after seeing them stare in my direction. We climbed, slowly and just before we started, the little one decided to turn all her anger at her mom. Sparks were flying and then silence. No one talks to anyone anymore. Given it was Paris and if there was one time I HAD to take my wifes side, I said something nice and at least the two of us walked together.  Jr. was trying to mediate with minimal results. 

Everyone was right and everyone was wrong at the same time for all the same reasons. It was 8:45 PM and we had reached the top of the Arc. The views from the top of the Arc were spectacular and we could see the Montmartre area and the hill from the Arc. This would top anything from that hill hands down, is what we all realized and there were some smiles. The family was together again, realizing that this was more comfortable and closer to the Air B&B and we could see the tower up close!

There was a lively crowd all jostling for space to catch the lights and we parked ourselves. Got a lot of pano shots from the top including the sun that was about to set..

We saw a glorious sunset at 9:54 PM and the lights were to come on in 6 minutes.

They did come on slowly. Unfortunately the lights were not making an impression as it was still pretty bright outside. 

Also the lights did not do the twinkling thing that was advertised earier in the day. We had to wait till 11 PM for that.. but the Arc kicks out people before 11 as it closed around that time. So we stayed there till 10:20 in the museum area..

Some photos from the 2 hours we spent up there..

Then something happened again.. no one knows what, maybe because the kids decided to go down without telling us and we kept searching for them between the two levels.. and silence returned. The kids would not sit with us to watch the little video that was on auto play at the gift shop level below the open terrace..

Again, by some strange miracle, we patched up and decided to walk around the Champs Elysses.. hunger it must have been.. the big golden arches were spotted and we ran in for some fries and Ice cream cones.. It was midnight at McDonalds and we had refueled to get back to the Air B&B...

Everyone was glad to be back on an Uber. Without saying much except "don't bother waking me up in the morning" , "me neither", "me neither" to me from different locations within that small apartment, the lights went out.. 

Day 9 came to an end! I was actually glad it did..

Happiness

Vaguely remember a TED talk where the author talks about Happiness being in Love in a Paris Cafe while drinking coffee or some such thing..

The three women in the house have been in love with the concept of being in Paris for a long time. That said they were all way too excited and I was worried that there is no way they can end the day happy, and I was almost right!

The previous post in this series is here...

We went from the Louvre for a short walk to the Cruise boat stop. It was a large boat.. must have had a few hundred people on it. The ride was a loop and we had an all day pass as part of the package. The group went on the boat and got off at the Eiffel tower.

There was a long line at the security checkpoint that cost us dearly in time. There was no bypassing that. After we got through, the guide quickly took us to the first level of the tower, we learned a few things about the place (like how the names of famous French scientists was written along the rim of the tower) and our pre ordered vegetarian option for lunch was served in the restaurant at the first level of the tower.

We had great views (no good photographs unfortunately as the windows were bright and the insides were dark) and the lunch was excellent. 

That is the happiest I have seen this kid in recent times and this is a happy go lucky kid we are talking about!

We were then told that our tickets were not for the elevator to the 2nd level landing, but it was 500 steps? one way and if we could run up and down and make it back in 30 minutes we won't miss the group on its way out. 

San decided to sit this one out and the girls and me ran up the steps as fast as we could. After a heavy lunch it seemed to be an ordeal but we did it and were not disappointed. The views were much better from the 2nd landing and we took some photos...

got a lot of Pano shots of Paris from the 2nd level..

then we ran back down in time to take the elevator to the ground. 

The girls actually had enough energy to run all the way to the ground floor from the first level. We still had to wait another 20 minutes for the group to gather after we reached the ground.  There is always the one family within the group that has to be 10 minutes late.. was telling myself "next time I want to be that family!" and realized it was not in our nature to be that family. 

We spent the 20 minutes wandering through the gift shop on one of the legs of the tower, bought a nice miniature replica of the Eiffel tower for 25 Euro, walked out of the tower and saw a bunch of African immigrants selling the same thing without the box for 8 Euro, smiled at how the kids were saying "but the one we got is in a box and is better quality Appa!"  and went back to the boat stop. Today was not the day to have any conversation about objects, value, economics, etc. etc. Today was their day.. 

Slide shows of the pictures from our Eiffel Tower Visit..

It was time to see the famous Notre Dame cathedral!

So far it was so good. The girls were on cloud 9 after this experience and I wished to freeze those moments for a long time..