We reached Saarbrucken railway station by 7.30 and boarded ICE(Inter-city Express) for the first time at 8 (superfast express with 350 km/hr).

It is very nice and comfortable. I always wanted to board Rajadhani Express, the fastest train in India. But now I boarded a train which is faster than Rajadhani. But the bad thing is journey is only for 1.30 hr 😦  We reached Paris by 9.50. Then we went to underground metro and took metro pass for 2 days, it is about 6.40 euros. We took it and also a metro map which shows the routes of all metros. We then felt a bit hungry and wanted to have something before we start our journey. We went to a food store in Railway station and took something which is vegetarian and cheaper. Later we found that it is sweet. It is like a bun with something like chocolate inside it. It is so sweet that I couldn’t eat it. I ate it with great difficulty and decided to ask people before taking some food item if it is sweet/hot along with question of veg/non.veg. We first planned to go to Eiffel tower as it is the most important place in Paris(world wonder). We found route to Eiffel by asking some people around and went underground to board the train. Here there is a different way of entering the platform. We have to place the ticket in the slot and then the ticket is scanned and it comes out on other side and door will open. But one thing which I observed is that, Paris is not clean. Germany is very neat and tidy. Underground trains are also not looking nice. German trains are very nice. Paris trains are almost like Chennai metros/Bombay metro trains. We didn’t feel that we are out of our country in Paris.

Then we reached Eiffel by changing 2 stops. All stops will be written on the sides of the train. So,we just need to know the stop name in order to check when it comes. A lady helped us with the stop of Eiffel. She told us that as soon as we come out of the underground train station,we can Eiffel tower. So,we are very excited as soon as we came out. I looked at all the sides to find Eiffel. It is very nice and looking beautiful. We started taking photos there and climate is also very good. We found a person selling Eiffel keychains, 3 for 1 euro. So, we took them for 1 euro. Then we started walking towards Eiffel. There is small pond type one like the one before Tajmahal with blue water and fountains. It looks good at night. We have to cross seine river to reach Eiffel. There is a bridge to cross that. River flows all along the Paris..It is also beautiful.

We finally landed up in the queue before Eiffel for tickets. It is a long queue. It took almost 1 hr for us to take tickets. We bought a popcorn there in queue which is also sweet 😦 Then we finally took tickets to go to the top of Eiffel in the elevator(12 euros). There are 3 levels for Eiffel tower: 1st floor, 2nd floor and top floor. 1st and 2nd are nearby and top floor is very tall and the lift doesn’t go straight. It goes in slant direction as the Eiffel is curved structure. It is really a nice experience. We went first to 2nd floor and it is nice..We got the overall view of Paris from there. Then we took some photos there..and again stood in a queue to go to top floor.We reached top floor and it is very beautiful with magnificent views. We came down to second floor from top floor.

We wanted to have something in Cafeteria inside Eiffel tower as it is a lifetime experience. We went to check out the things available there. I took french fries (only available vegetarian dish there) and had an ice cream 🙂 It costed me about 10 euros. We wanted to walk  downstairs instead of lift, to get a feel of it. It almost took 6 hrs only in Eiffel tower and we have to cover more places, so we quickly walked down.

Then we went to see Notredame cathedral(big church). It is very big and nice, we went inside and sat there for some time. Then we came out and started finding out way for our youth hostel as it is almost 7.30pm by then. We finally found out metro stop for youth hostel using map and we had to walk a lot to reach hostel. We reached the hotel at about 8.30 or so. It is very bright at that time (as sun sets late). There we had to wait for sometime for the receptionist. Then finally receptionist came, took money and gave a separate room for 3 of us and gave 3 cards(used to open room) for each of us..

Then we felt happy that we got a single room..and also our breakfast for tomorrow is free. We reached our room, it is very nice. We felt happy as we expected it to be bad. It is nice with 2 bedsheets , blanket for each person. 2 beds are below and one is above,and there are stairs to climb up(like railway berths). I slept above. One big problem for us now is we wanted to wake up early in the morning to go to Louvre museum at about 7 and we don’t have any alarm. We forgot to get cellphone, but we slept like that only hoping that we will wake up early. Then in the morning, I woke up at about 5.30 and woke up my friends.

We had breakfast in the hostel itself. We felt happy after seeing something which we can eat after long time. There are bread, jam, corn flakes, curd, coffee, milk, fruit juice etc unlimited there. So, we had them full (as we don’t know when we get good food later) and then started to Louvre museum. By the time we reached Louvre, there is a little bit queue and they didn’t open the museum yet. The Underground railway station is very beautiful and we took photos there mean while. There is an inverted pyramid structure there..We finally went inside by 9 and took a map of the Louvre museum as it is very very big and it is difficult to cover it. We took a multimedia guide which is touch screen, to show guidance of the museum for 6 euros (2 euros each) as someone who already went there told us about it. We have to return that again. My student id card is taken as deposit for that.

The famous painting in the museum is the Monalisa painting. We started searching for it. We went to paintings section. Paintings are very beautiful, but the information and story of the painting is in written in French:( It is mostly the paintings about the story of Jesus. I have never seen such great paintings till now. We took photos there and went to Monalisa painting. I didn’t find it so great, but don’t know why it is world famous. I liked many other paintings than Monalisa. Then we went to see king’s crown. It is somewhere very far, we had to walk a lot. There we saw the crown with diamonds, it is very beautiful.

We then went to see Napolean Apartments. It is very very far apart in the museum. We missed the route twice and we had to walk a lot. Finally we reached there. They are like big palaces. It is very nice, big dining tables, different collections of all nice items in the palace. It is a very attractive part of the museum. After seeing that, we went to eat something to a restaurant inside Louvre. It is very costly there. Finally I got a meal with some rice and some curry ,vegetarian meal for 3 euros. I had that one.

We saw the Arc of Triumph, which looks like Gateway of India and then there is a street called Champs-Elysses beside it. It is covered with trees on the both sides. It is the most fashionable street in the world. It is very nice with very big colorful shops, only good to look at (all costly shops only).

Then we went to another place called Sacre coeur basilica which is also very famous cathedral. There there are lot of shops outside. Sacre coeur is on a hill. From the top, we can see the view of Paris..

As it is Sunday, there are many cultural events going on there outside, we had a look at it. It is very lively place. Then we went inside the church , sat there for 1 hr as it is raining outside and we didn’t have anything more to see. Then finally we moved at 5 from there. We shared a pizza in a hotel there. Then we moved on to our railway station to catch the train to Saarbrucken. We reached there an hour before. We came back by train to Saarbrucken by 9pm and took a bus to our campus.