We took 5:05 AM train to London on 17 Mar 2001. From there we took Eurostar at 9:53 AM and reached Paris ‘Gare du Nord’ station in 3 hours time. It takes 20 minutes to cross the channel tunnel normally. We reached the hotel (booked in advance) in 10 minutes by walk and set off to see Eiffel Tower! When we saw it for the first time, we were disappointed really! It was actually an engineering marvel, when it was constructed. It appeared like a big piece of iron. We stood in the queue to reach to top of the tower by lift. In about half an hour we got into the lift. There are 3 levels. We were let off on 2nd level. We saw the nice views of Paris from there and took another lift to reach the top of the tower. There was rain and wind at that time. I was frightened to stand at the top! The lift had glass enclosure and you can see yourself gradually being elevated to the top. That experience is frightening to me! Interestingly, we saw the vax models of Gustave Eiffel (the engineer who made the tower), his daughter and Thomas Alva Edison in a small room at the top. We came down and to my surprise found famous French scientists' names inscribed at 1st level on all four sides. I could recognize the names of Poisson, Delaunay, Lagrange, Legendre, Lame, Laplace, Navier, Lavouiser, Cauche. It was perhaps a rich tribute to the great men! Then we waited until it is dark and the lights on the tower are on! The Eiffel Tower is on the banks of Seine River. We crossed the river and walked up to the ‘Arc de Triomphe’. We walked for about half an hour. It is quite a beautiful scene to watch in the lighting. We then returned to the hotel.

The second day we went to the Louvre Museum, the biggest in the world, as people say. The building itself is massive and has architectural richness. The corridors are huge and reminded me of the long corridors in Rameswaram temple and also the fine carvings at Radha Swamy temple in Agra. Louver is too big. We spent about 5 to 6 hours. We saw the Mona Lisa! I was not much pleased by looking at the painting. There are many other rich and massive paintings in the same hall, but no one pays attention to them! I think people tend to see only those items, about which they would have read before in books or heard from people. We saw the Napoleon Apartments in the museum. They have true royal appearance! Personally, if I have to give 10 points on a scale of 10 to the Louvre Museum, I would give 8 to the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad. Of course, I saw it 15 years ago! Now I realise that Salarjung museum too has rich and quality collection of items.

We next went to see the Notre Dame. It is a building of Gothic style and quite old one. (Santhome church in Chennai is built in similar style and size. I now feel ashamed that I never bothered to go in and see.) We spent a couple of minutes inside Notre Dame and went to the Place de la Concorde. It is at this place more than a thousand people were killed on guillotine during French revolution. From there we could see the Arc de Triomphe. The road from Place de la Concorde to Arc de Triumphe is called Champs-Elysees. The view is quite beautiful. I was reminded of the equally beautiful view of the India Gate and Rajpath, we see during Republic Day parade in Delhi.

On the third day we went to Sacre Coeur. It is a Catholic Church built on a small hilltop. We went inside and sat for a few moments. It is big one indeed. We noticed many people lighting candles, like the way we light oil lamps in our temples. I could not stop from comparing them with our massive temples in Tamil Nadu. Our temples are many times bigger. Our temples have very small sanctum sanctorum with no ventilation. I think we want the oil lamps to be undisturbed by the wind. The big festivities like ‘Hari Katha’ or ‘Vutsavam’ are normally held outside the sanctum sanctorum where we get huge open space. I had seen the Notre Dame the day before. Long time ago I had seen St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. They are all huge closed halls and have little ventilation inside. Even there we can light lamps and they would not be disturbed by wind! I think the warm and humid weather in South India had naturally turned architects to create temples with huge open space inside the compound walls. Perhaps the cold weather in the west had motivated the architects to design cathedrals with huge closed space, so that the Father or Bishop can give spiritual message inside.

We moved on to see Opera. We first saw the grand stair case leading to the auditorium and the rich closed halls outside the auditorium (but inside the building) where one can stroll around during a break in the middle of a concert. The Opera building is decorated with rich chandeliers. We were allowed to see the main theatre. It has extremely rich look. But you would perhaps be disappointed to know that the size of the theatre of the Opera is not more than a big cinema hall in India. The Kamaraj Memorial in Chennai is much bigger, but does not have rich look with marble carvings, marvellous chandeliers etc. But, neither our cinema halls can boast of 100 years of history nor can they speak of the traditions of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc.

We also visited Invalides, where Napoleon’s tomb is located. We merely saw it from outside and returned. The building is very huge. Buckingham Palace in London is much smaller than that!

We had time and so went again to Eiffel Tower for a couple of hours. We wanted to wait until it gets dark, so that we can go for a cruise on the Seine River. People say that it would give a beautiful view of the Paris. The water level was low, so there were no cruises. But, I had seen the boats to be quite big and some of them even have Maxim’s. The width of Seine River is little more than a canal that comes out of Krishna or Godavari River. Although we have such huge rivers, we never use them for entertainment. Even in this era we sing songs praising Krishnaveni and Godavari in the movies. We conduct Kumbhmela considering that the Ganga is still sacred. I am perplexed by the difference in the culture of the east and the west. We then went to Place de la Concorde to see the Champs-Elysees in the night-lights. It is a beautiful view not to be missed.

On the fourth and final day we made a trip to Chateau de Versailles (Palace of Versailles), which is half an hour by train from central Paris. It is a massive Palace. We could only see the State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors and the auditorium where French Parliament assembles. We sat in the auditorium and watched a show that was going on for a price. We did not go into the Parliament houses in Delhi, but we did it in France! It was kind of a surprise. But, I feel the JNTata auditorium in IISc is far better in size and richness.

It was raining heavily, so we returned to the hotel and came back to London.