French Hangover

The "French Hangover" is not over yet. I don't know how long it will take to get over the excitement of this awesome, exciting, and incredibly beautiful trip, but writing the whole thing down would help, I guess! So here it is! My first official travel blog. Mind you, it is going to be a little long since the trip was 12 days of full-fledged backpacking!

The concept behind it was to get away from the cold loneliness and into the cosy comfort of meeting some IISERB friends, and I am really happy to go all around France by train or bus, stayed at Airbnb, then came back to Paris and parted our ways. The route was Paris, then Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, then Toulouse, Dordogne, Bordeaux and then back to Paris. But  (spoiler alert!) due to the train strikes in France, we had to modify this on multiple occasions.

 Les Invalides

So, we first met on 21st morning on the train station of Parc des exposition near the airport and started our tour together. Getting to our Airbnb in Creteil was a challenge, because of the train strikes. Finally, with patience and frustration and booking an Uber, we reached there, freshened up and started the outing in the afternoon. First, we went to see the most precious Eiffel Tower (read "My Precious"!), then les Invalides (palace-like structure) and the l'arch de Triomph (Arc of Triomphe). It was a beautiful start to the fabulous trip that we were to embark. We had a Dominos pizza for dinner and went back home by Uber again.

Louvre in the night

L'arc de Triomphe

The Museum halls in the night

Me trying to pose like 
a statue in Louvre
(PC: Diksha)

Mona Lisa!!

The next day was something even more challenging. We started late (owing to different sleeping habits!), were lost in a suburb due to unavailability of public transport, booked an Uber, went to Subway (since we were famished!) and finally, in the afternoon, reached Louvre! The museum is beyond expectations! The grandiose of the art there made me speechless. People from all over the world came to see various centuries-old arts and it amazes me. This gives me hope that the world will sustain! We saw many many halls full of paintings, sculptures, vessels and also, the Mona Lisa! The time flew very fast there. I spent 4-5 hours, just flowing from one gallery to the other. Then after the closing time, when the guards told me to leave, I went to see the Notre-Dame of Paris. Since it caught on fire in April 2019, we cannot see it from inside, but nevertheless, it was grand and the holy spirit was all around the place. We had some pasta and Ubered back to home.

Next day, December 23rd, 2019, was the most happening day of this trip!! In the morning, we had a train to Nancy at 7:28. We left home at 6, went to the station for a metro, which was supposedly working. But they terminated it midway, from where there was no public transport available and we Ubered to the station. We missed this train and were really stressed about our next journey. But, to our surprise, we could exchange tickets for the same journey in the evening and got one more day in Paris. We decided to make the most of it! We kept our bags in nanny-bags and started our day on foot (because there was no public transport whatsoever!). First, we went to Sainte-Chapelle, a 14th century, royal Gothic style Chapelle, the inside of which gave off sacred vibes. This started our series of churches in France!. In front of this, they have their Justice court. Next, we wanted to visit the Picasso Museum, but it was closed (Meh!). So we sat in a park nearby and had a little aloo bhujia. The pigeons in that area also grew fond of it! 

Paris from Montmarte

Then we went to the Montmarte, also known as Sacre-Coeur, which was a challenge after the "spectacular" start of the day we have had! It is one of the highest points in Paris. It is a beautiful Church from outside and inside. It also has a high tower, from where the view of the city is fantastic! It takes more than 300 steps to reach the top of the tower, and it is totally worth it! 

The corner where my friend

almost got mugged!
(PC: Diksha)

Here, a guy tried to mug my friend by taking her phone from her jacket pocket. I saw it and as a reflex, I shouted really loudly, "Abey, kya kar Raha hai!" (Hey, what are you doing?) He gave back the phone and disappeared on the stairs. The people around us came to me and they consoled us. We were in shock. Things that happen to you in Paris! We had an Indian Lunch at a closed restaurant where we ate with the staff because they felt like offering us some food! While coming back from there, since we have been walking for the whole day, we were tired. We waited for a (tasteless) Falafel and headed back to the station. After getting the bags back we were short of time and ran for 30 minutes to catch the train to Nancy! That was a cutthroat experience! Then there was this connecting train to Strasbourg and we had a much-needed sleep at night.

A scene in the quartier Petite France

In the morning, even though we started a little late (than I expected), we saw the whole Strasbourg. First, we went to the most sacred Notre-Dame. It is a really old church, touching the skies. There is a museum near it which shows the evolution of the city and the architecture of the old church. Then we went to "petite France" - a quartier (area) in Strasbourg, which has houses and structures in the old village. It has a canal through it, which makes it even more serene. 

The bridge in front of this quartier, now named as Vieux Strasbourg, was a dam constructed in the 17th century. There the river Rhine is divided into four parts so that the streams become narrower and big attacking ships cannot come in the village. This defence mechanism is very intelligent and it also benefits the villagers as the water bodies are more accessible now.

The division of the river as seen from the wall of the dam turned bridge

Christmas Market in the Christmas Capital

 In the evening, we went to the park near the united nations building. The main aim of going to Strasbourg was to experience the Christmas market. Strasbourg is the Christmas Capitol of France! It was fantabulous. We had Chaud/Glogg, which is the masaledar (spicy) orange juice hot wine that most of the Europeans drink during this holiday season. We also had a vegetable bagel. Then we went to an Indian restaurant and caught a night bus to Lyon.

Vieux Lyon

Intricate design inside the Basilica

We reached a little early in the morning (surprise surprise!). We were supposed to reach at 4:50, but since we were half asleep, I will not comment on the exact time that we reached, but we spent the time till around 7 in the bus station sleeping on the staircase and freshening up, and then we went to the nearby nanny-bags in the Hotel Campanile. There we spent another hour couch-surfing and then after "enough rest" we started our day! We had an incredible pain au chocolat (chocolate bread) with chakli that I brought, in a cafe and went straight to the cathedral. We saw the Christmas mass and offerings in the church. 

Lyon from the banks at the sunset

The Notre Dame is situated on the top of the city. It has brilliant Vieux de Lyon (view of the city Lyon). after seeing this traditional Christmas celebration, we went back to the city via the old town in search of the food! All the restaurants and eateries were closed because of the festival. Luckily one falafel place was open and we had the first meal of the day! After that, we went to the beautiful banks of the Saone river and roamed around in a park till the sunset. Then we went to the capitol place: place du comedy, bought some groceries and sat on a quiet park bench and ate cheese and bread as our dinner (the whole city was closed, remember?). We roamed around for a while and went back to the hotel Campanile to kill time till our bus at 00:20 arrives! Those hotel people were really very nice to let us stay (read sleep) on their couch till 11:30-45. Then we went for the bus to Nice.

The bench where we had our best meal

We reached Nice early in the morning. We went to the nanny-bags place directly from the bus station, freshened up, had breakfast and went on foot. First, we saw the cathedral, and then the stunning Capitol place where they have the dance of fountains.

French Riviera

The grandiose inside the cathedral

Then from the small capillary-like streets, we went to the basilica. We wanted to eat, but the restaurants open only after 12, so we had some chakli and brownies and started for the Vieux Nice: the palace. we went all the way up, saw the ruins of the ancient palace, a small park and the waterfall of the palace. But most importantly, the view from the top was mind-blowing: the orange city on the side of sparkling blue water on the mediterranean sea. We clicked several pictures there, listened to some live music that a guy was playing and came back to the sea level half-heartedly! I would have loved to stay there for a longer time, but we had to eat! We had an Indian lunch and then we went straight to the beach to experience the French Riviera. The beach didn't have sand, it had tiny boulders! This was new to me.

mandatory click

Me enjoying the sun and sea (PC: Diksha)

We went mad and clicked uncountable pictures and while it was still a little sunny, went on a spree of museums. Through the small streets first, we stopped at the music of France museum, which had several different never-seen-never-heard-of instruments, and then to the Musee du beaux-arts. It was a contemporary art museum, which had loads of modern arts! I tried to understand or feel the art (and failed! Modern art is “different” for me!).

Collection of violins in the music museum, 
the smallest one is called 'kit'

One of the artefacts inthe modern art museum

Next, we went to the unique Russian Cathedral. It is very asymmetric and tiny from inside. It had an entirely different structure and it stood out from all the churches that we visited on this trip. Then we went to the Airbnb, had warm dinner(upma and Maggi), some dessert (the host offered us some cake that she made) and slept like babies!

The uniqueness of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Nice, seen from the top of the museum building

We left the home at 5:40, caught the train at 6:23 to Marseille, which was to be followed by the train to Montpellier. This train got cancelled! We managed to exchange it for a ticket on the next train and had 2 hours to spare. So we went to see the Palais Longchamp. It was one of the most wonderful structures that we saw in a while! We clicked some pictures and came back to the station to go to our destination.

Palais Longchamp

Porte de Peyrou

Long arches at Porte de Peyrou

Notre Dame

One of the structures in the Antigone area

Basilica Saint Sernin

After reaching Montpellier, we had a pizza and went to the Musee Fabre via the place de Comedie. It is the museum of evolution of arts. Then we went to Airbnb via the cathedral. This Airbnb was like a treasure hunt. The host gave us instructions to get the keys via a number lock and after opening the building gate climbing two flights of spiral stairs, we reach an iron gate followed by a glass gate, which led to the home which has a bathroom on the upstairs! It was a very mysterious place. (I got an odd nightmare in the night and couldn't sleep!) After keeping our bags and freshening up, we went to the Porte du Peyrou. It is a bridge on the road in from of l'arc de Triomphe. In the shades of sunset, it was very pretty. There is a very famous Dance school in Montpellier. People were performing their art-forms on the streets and it was a pleasant sight. Then, we walked to the Notre Dame of Montpellier and went on to see the Antigone. It is one of the areas which has inculcated old gothic styles in modern structures. We saw the gigantic Olympics swimming pool there and came back to our home. Had warm dinner (upma and sandwiches) and slept.

We left home at 5:30 as we had a train to Toulouse at 6:20. It got cancelled (and I found out that all the further tickets that she booked were on the same day!!!). All the upcoming trains were cancelled and there was no way to get out of Montpellier by rails. The bus was very late and expensive too. So we decided to go by Blabla car, which is a service where people post their route and we can book seats in their car (carpooling with strangers). We booked one, and the owner left without picking us up.  Then we booked another blabla car and luckily she waited for us and we got our ride to Toulouse. We had our "breakfast" and some leftover sleep in the car. 

Saint Stephan's Cathedral

We reached Toulouse by 12:30 and saw the first glimpse of the pink city as the jail which was made of pink bricks. Then we went home, managed to get inside by contacting the "best friend" of the owner and finally rest our shoulders by putting the bags in the home! Here there is this side story of "accents". The owner was in Paris celebrating the holidays with his family there. He left his best friend in charge of the house and left keys with him. He had written Flexi timing on the Airbnb site. So when we reached the home by 2 in the afternoon, we thought we should get inside. When we called him he gave us the number of his "best friend" (we never knew the name of this guy!). He said that he has to walk till 4 and then he will come to let us in. We thought, how could he just let us stay on the road for two hours, for walking! These people are fitness freaks, but this was not acceptable. So we made him come and let us inside the beautiful home. It turned out that he had to "work"! If only we could communicate better! Anywho, then we went to roam around the pink city of France.

Pont Neuf

First, we went to basilica Saint Sernin, which is the largest church there and then to Saint Stephen's cathedral, which is pretty asymmetric. Then, since the Musee des Augustins was closed (to be opened in August 2020), we just clicked some pictures there and were headed to the Pont Neuf. It is the most beautiful place on the river Garonne. There the old building of aeronautical industry is situated. It is out of work now, but an amazing piece of architecture.

Then we went to the place du capitol. Next to the Couvent des Jacobins, which had the ashes of saints from the fourth century. There we saw many police cars rushing to the church because some public strike was about to take place. It was really very quiet. People gathered, shouted quietly (I know, but for this, you need to see public outrages in India) for a maximum five minutes and went away peacefully. I was amazed! So then, we bought some groceries, had warm dinner (Dal and Maggi, separately!) and we were done for the day.

Le Capitol

Canal Du Midi

This day, we were supposed to be in Dordogne. But alas! We had a calmer and more relaxing day. We started our morning late, went to a nearby cemetery, visited the canal du midi in Toulouse and letting the host's black-cat-with-neon-green-eyes inside the house, we went to Bordeaux. We had no trouble finding the place there. We went to the railway station for confirming the refund procedure for our cancelled trains, had Indian dinner (in a SriLankan restaurant, we were greeted with "vanakkam" (Tamil greetings) and surprised by that, I greeted back with "Bonjour"!), and called it a night.

Chat Noir

The asymmetric Church of Holy Cross

Cailhau Gate

Pey Berland Tower

Next morning, we first went to the church of holy cross which is triangular originally ( in 14th century) but has been constructed in stages so now just asymmetric. It was closed, and they were not going to open it since the next day they had multiple masses for new years eve. I saw a man going in from the back door and interestingly he let me inside this UNESCO site to see the interiors of this historic place. It was simple and elegant. Then via the Pey Berland Tower, we went to the Cathedral. Then we visited the capitol, which was holding a circus at that time and we saw the place of Quinconces.  Next, we visited the Cailhau gate which is a castle-like structure in the middle of the road. They offer short films about the history of Bordeaux in french. Then we went to the Miroir d'eau. But there was no water.

Mirror of water (without water!)

Also, the palace behind was under refurbishment. So we clicked some pictures in front of the beautiful backdrop of the castle, monument aux Girondins and the Pont Neuf of Bordeaux and went to have some lunch. We saw the big bell of Bordeaux. They give public access only on Saturdays, so we could see it only from the street. Via Notre Dame, we went to the museum of fine arts in Bordeaux. It was a collection of all the arts that were made by artist staying there. Here we witnessed the cutest thing, a school trip of 5-year-olds to the museum and their teacher explaining them the art, they were very interested and open!

Li'l ones, very curious!

Now the visit to Vieux Bordeaux was pending. I was in time to get in line for that, I was one of the last people to get the chance to see the awe-inspiring view from the top. This is a part of the cathedral saint Andre and had four bells even larger than the big bell. People used to stay inside the tower for almost a century until it was felt safe to use the bell tower in the 18th century. Meanwhile, we also saw the gate of burgundy and the place of Victoria.

Bordeaux from the Pey Berland Tower

This was enough for the day. Our host was a middle-aged man with a kid. He was going to and fro the home to his mother’s place who was struggling for life (in the last stage of cancer!) Still he was smoking a lot! This part of the culture is surprising for me. Anyhow, we went home, made dinner, ate, packed for Paris and went to the bus station.

Sunset from Montparnasse

We reached Paris early in the morning. We ubered to the Airbnb in Arnouville and slept for a while (read hours). After freshening up and eating, we went for the Tour Montparnasse. This was the last thing left in our "to visit" list! It is the skyscraper in Paris which gives access to the top floor and the terrace to the tourists. It has the most marvellous view of the city of Paris. We were happy that we figured out how to go to places in Paris without having to Uber in this time of strike! So, we reached by 4, the sun was about to set. We clicked the crazy cliched pictures, saw the sun setting for the last time in the year on top of this fantastic city, witnessed the dance of lights on the Eiffel Tower and then went to have the last meal of the year.

Spectacular shades of Paris

Us with the chef!

Indian food (made by someone else)
after sooo long

The next morning we left early, we parted our ways, and again using public transport (cannot stress too much on that! Uber is very expensive in Paris) I reached CDG airport and her on the Gare du Est. This was the end of the amazing experience that we had.
There are some observations that I would like to mention here. French people hardly know English, which is good in a way, to conserve the language and unique culture. On the other hand, this makes people not knowing french feel like an outsider. Luckily, I learnt basic level French during my masters, so it was not a problem (I felt satisfied that I have not lost the touch and I could read, listen and understand the people talking, and they could understand me speaking! Another achievement!!)

We went to the Sarvana Bhavan, which is a south Indian restaurants' chain. Upon entering the restaurant, we had the most captivating sambhar khushboo(aroma). It was irresistible. We had idli, dosa, uttapam, Dahi Wada and filter kaapi! After having so many meals of weird sandwiches, upma with namkeen and Maggi, this made us burst into tears! (not really, a figure of speech) We personally thanked the chef (he must have thought that we were high!) and went back to our place (with public transport, achievement unlocked!). The host was a very decent guy, he offered us chocolates. He worked at the museum as a technician. It turns out that he was very interested in physics and when I told him that I am doing a PhD in theoretical Astrophysics, he started showing me all the science books that he reads in his free time. We wished each other Bonne Annee. He was "touched" by my "fluency" in French!

The painted glasses depicting
biblical stories on the

window panes of the churches

Church organs at the backside
 of the church

Another interesting observation is that the whole country has a very homogeneous culture. All the cities we visited had more or less similar structures, no variety (For an Indian this is news!).  Every city has similar-looking gardens, contemporary churches (Notre dame, a basilica, a cathedral, etc.), if there is a river, then Pont Neuf, and so on. These picturesque sights are beautiful and irresistible, no doubt! It is just that they are very similar.  The churches also have very similar structures and patterns.

A Typical French Bridge with locks

Also, smoking is not banned anywhere in this country (maybe churches). Even people with toddlers in one hand smoke with the other! That did not feel right. One more thing, people here like to do public displays of affection! Not only physically, but they also put locks on the bridges, but any bridge on any river also has plenty of locks with names carved on them. It made me a better person. It enriched me in many ways (For example, taught us how to live in an Airbnb, without disappointing the host or how to "backpack" in a whole country!). Also, this gave me a boost. Now I know that I can go on a solo trip! I can carry so much weight on my shoulders (I have had a bad injury!)! I could see the most missed sun (I live in Norway, and it's winter). Being a student, they give us so many concessions! In museums, transportations and wherever you go! This made the trip really affordable. To sum up, going on this trip was one of the best decisions I made in 2019.