Over the Tower

Remember those cute games which we used to play during our childhood days. Such sweet and such innocent games!! One of the games (rather riddle kind of thing), I vividly remember goes as follows:

"Which is the biggest pan in the world?" . The answer is ............"Japan"!!!

"Which is the biggest gate in the world?". The answer is ............"China Gate"!!!

Another version of the same is:

"Which is the smallest gate in the world?". The answer is ............"Colgate"!!!

I know, I know!! I know for some of you this might seem silly. Then!! mebbe you have switched off the child switch on your dashboard. Why all this tippani (intro)? Last post, I said I flew to France and this post, I am talking about a tower. Its child play to guess I am talking about the much 'hyped' "Eiffel Tower" in Paris. I visited the Eiffel tower 4 times till date. Each time saw it in different light set up, in different moods and from different heights.

First Visit: 11th February 2007

Thats the day, I landed in Paris for the very first time. We just went out for a stroll in the evening. The light set up in the night is real good. There is one rotating light at the summit. I have heard that the light is very powerful and can be seen from real far away, even the suburbs of Paris. The lights on the Eiffel Tower flash on the strike of the hour, hour after hour. That was mesmerising.


That's my first snap with the Eiffel Tower. Man!! the lowest temperatures I knew till then was around 8°C in Ooty. It felt more cold due to the wetness in the breeze. I was freezing!! This snap is taken from a place called Trocadero. Many beautiful snaps of the Eiffel Tower is taken from this place or the gardens on the other side!! Now, dont squeak where else they can be taken from!!

This visit just lasted around 15 minutes. Firstly, I was tired and secondly, I did not wear proper shoes and the chill air was biting my feet!!

Second Visit: 11th March 2007

This was the day I was returning back to India after my one month visit to France. Mood was low as cribbed about in the last post. This time saw the Eiffel Tower, Trocadero and the gardens in daylight.

This is my favourite snap. Isnt it picture perfect? As it was a weekend, there were many kids practising roller skates and one guy was performing on his bicycle. It was a treat to watch these stuff. Along with a cotton candy (known as barbe à papa in French. Yeah!! I have to learn French equivalents everytime now), these cheered me up a little. Shan too tried some cycle stunts and 'tried' to ride with me on the front bar. Man!! This was a laugh riot. It was nostalgic too for him with memories of roller skating and cycling in Trocadero during his student days. These memories are so wierd. They can churn up a concoction of feelings.




Third Visit: 14th July 2007

This visit was after I came to france on a dependent visa. 14th July, Bastille Day, commemorates the uprising of the modern France. We came over to Paris to watch the parade (défile) along with Mr. New President, Mr. Sarkozy. Missed him in a whisker :(. In the evening, we went near the Eiffel Tower once again to watch the fireworks (feux d'artifice). We reached at 6pm. Note that 6pm is still mid-evening in mid-summer days. For a Bangalorean, worst case the sun is down by 7pm and here our dear soleil is up till 11pm!! The fireworks were to start only at 10:30pm and we thought 6pm should be quite early. Man!! did we guess wrong!

There was a concert on. I 'think', some classical French songs were sung. The entire pool of people was humming to the songs. We too set to hum some catchy and peppy numbers. The spirit was overwhelming.


The concert ended and the fireworks started, dot at 10:30pm. MAGICAL, is the word. It was a pleasure watching the fireworks, red, pink, green, blue, white, purple, silver and golden dance to the tunes of songs from all over the world. There was the song "Diya" from the movie "Devdas" played too. Some Indians in the crowd whistled :D



Shan and I had missed our Tale Deepavali, our first Diwali after marriage, thanks to French visa. I commented that not many have the luck to celebrate it at the Eiffel Tower to which Mr.Hubby grinned ear-to-ear.

Fourth Visit: 14th September 2007

Recently, we were back to the tower, this time with the intention to mount to the summit.


This is Mr.Eiffel for you. More about him and the tower here.

There are 3 stages for the Eiffel Tower. One could opt to go to the first and second stage by foot and then to the summit by lift. Initially, we had planned to go by foot to the second stage. Long queues and shortage of time insisted to act otherwise. Following is the view as we went up the Eiffel Tower.


The first thing we saw is this placard with distances to India.


I liked this concept. However, Shan just sidelined this saying it is a tourism gimmick. Yeah!! I do agree that certain things are blown out of proportion for tourists. But, whats wrong. They know how to market even the least impressive things. In India, there are much more beautiful things, just orphaned due to inadequate touristic marketing. Difficult to debate, which is correct. Both have pros and cons.

Some other shots taken from the summit are as follows:

Trocadero

Garden beside the Eiffel Tower

Rugby Stadium

Bird's eye view of Paris

Finally, my favorite

This is the view all the way till Montparnasse (the black building), the tallest structure in Paris. It is prohibited to construct tall buildings in Paris. This is to ensure that the monarchial beauty of Paris is preserved. Wow!!

Later, we took a lift to the second stage. The snaps taken there just seem zoomed in :D Savoured the cool breeze with a sip of hot chocolate and cappucino and window shopping (rather peeping) of souvenir shops.

The first stage is a bit commercialised adorned my expensive restaurants and banquet halls. Cool idea to have a conference over the Eiffel tower :D Someone game!! There are some "Did you know?" stuff like Did you know that the tip of Eiffel Tower sways around 10cm with the breeze. Lots of boards with details about the visits of the dignitaries were also displayed. France is the host of the World Cup Rugby 2007. So a huge rugby ball like balloon swayed around.


After an enjoyable mount and descent, we rushed to meet a friend. Though, Eiffel Tower(Tour Eiffel) is adorable , I personally dont think that it is the best thing in Paris. I wonder why it was the "Wonder of the World" (It is not anymore). There are better things in Paris like The MontMarte or The Sacre Coeur. Come to Normandy. You will see wonders in every road you take. Or the Mont St Michel!!

Did you get to know what are the topics of the coming posts? ;) Nah!! Though some memorable moments and fascinating facts will be scribbled down on my scratch pad.

Signing off!!

Facts of the Moment:

Rajiv Gandhi inaugarated the Indian Mela in France in 1985 and had presented a baby elephant to France!!

Citroen used the Eiffel Tower as a billboard for mannnny years.

Next to Come: People People Everywhere...

Flight to France

Last post, I celebrated my first wedding anniversary with a return on my blog. This time will do a little flashback of my first year of marriage. No!! It would not be written as a series like my “Me in Chinkyland Series”. I would not bore you so much. Just a quick update on my life in the non blogging days!!

To speak my heart out, the first year of marriage was not all that colour filled with the honeymooning, travelling and all those sweet filmy moments. It was way different!! The first 16 days of marriage was tightly packed with travelling to Tirupathi and Kerala, a pooja at home and lunches at relatives’ houses. We hardly had some personal time. On the 16^th night, September 12^th 2006, exactly a year back, Shan left to France :(. Actually, I did not feel anything at that moment for the following reasons

-I usually never miss anybody!! I am kind of strange!! Maybe thanks to the development of technology that I am always in touch with family and friends through e-mails, telephone and even video chat.

- Secondly, I had prepared mentally before marriage for this 'separation'. I had quite some things on my checklist to be completed before I left India.

- Thirdly, as per the details collected by us, the dependent visa would take about 9 to 12 weeks. This time frame seemed encouraging!!

The visa took a great deal more!! It was as if we had misread 9 months as 9 weeks!! Yes, you got it!! It took 9 months!! It seemed longer with constant enquiry from family, friends and colleagues. I do agree that they were genuinely concerned but at times these enquiries were really like adding fuel to fire!!

Life was going a bit monotonous. A work day was as follows:

- Get up at 4:45am!! Ya!! I had just one office bus from my in-laws place to office at 6:45am. After getting up, put the water to boil and help my MIL with the breakfast. I must admit I hardly had time to cook. My MIL and FIL were really very co-operative in getting my breakfast ready and lunch packed for me by 6:45am. After taking bath and having breakfast, off I went to the office bus.

- In the office bus, listen to some damn FM channel playing a devotional hymn!! Badly, needed this to keep it going!! Then do some French reading for about 30 minutes during my bus travel! Then listen to some songs and bak bak going on the FM channels!!

- Then 8am to 'God knows what time' were my office hours. Usually, worked till 7 or 8 in the evening. Of course, very well intervened with lunch and tea breaks with colleagues! I could not work longer as I had no bus after that!! Uff!! Even if I tried to leave early, I would be stuck in the traffic jam!!

- After work, reach home around 10pm. Thanks to all the traffic jam on the clogged roads of Bangalore, I would be dead like a dodo by then!

- Dinner was an exercise. I call it an exercise as I hardly felt like eating after such a hectic day. Just ate to keep up the routine!

- After dinner, chat with hubby deary. Thanks to just 4.5 hrs time difference, I could catch up with him at around 10:30pm. So talk about an hour or two. By then, the needle of the clock has already crossed midnight! Remember the next day starts at 4:45am!!

So, I was managing with less than 5 hours sleep day after day! Shan used to plead me to go to sleep and suggested we would talk only over the weekends. The head listens to such practical suggestions but what about the heart!! It is a cribby machine throwing tantrums all the time!!

That was about the weekdays!! What about weekends!! They seemed to fly, one faster than the other. Weekends were utilised for French classes, visiting my parents and some odd chores including cheering up myself!! So that was 3/4^th of my first year of marriage!! How boring! Lesser talked about the better!!

Was it all? Nah!! After 6 months wait for visa, I could not wait anymore. I took a month off from office and flew to France in February. Why! Just a month!! Nah!! It was not office that was holding me back! My boss was quite co-operative that way!! I did not get tourist visa for more than a month though I applied for 3 months!! Really cursed the French consulate for this!

Shan and I were teasing each other, if we would recognise one another in the airport. We did!! I was so relieved to see him! That one month in France

- We visited various well known places in Paris. We live away from Paris, in the beautiful land of Normandy.

- After a week in Paris, we reached ‘home’. I must say, it was a wonderful feeling when I stepped into my new home. We caught up with some lost time at “Home Sweet home”

- We had some lunches with Shan’s colleagues-cum-friends here. We went on a trek too with them.

But heck!! One month just vanished in thin air!! Don’t call me greedy now!! The day I left to India, I could feel it, almost for the first time. I ‘missed’ him.

After returning to India, I was cursing myself for not having waited. After having lived with Shan for a month, it was all the more difficult. My brother was pulling my leg that it was not Shan, but France that I missed! Sick timing for his jokes!!

Finally on May 15th 2007, I had my dependent visa interview. I was really nervous about this interview after the tourist visa episode. I got my visa with just 2 minutes visa interview. I was not able to believe it!! I checked and re-checked the stamped page on my passport. Shan took 2 weeks off and landed in India. After these two action packed weeks, both of us flew to France on 10th June 2007.

In spite of all this drama, I must say I had a wonderful and fruitful first year!! The long calls with Shan were such a boon for strengthening our relationship. Some cheering moments, lots of cribbing moments and lot more understanding moments over the phone added great energy to our marriage. I strongly believe that “communication” is the key for a marriage or any relationship for that matter. Ironically, I miss those long calls these days!! Touch Wood!! Me == Weirdo!!

Signing off!!

Photo of the Moment:

Next to Come: Over the Tower