Paris takes your breath away - at every corner and at every turn- it meets whatever expectation you have and more and surprises you when least expected.It beats any other city that I have seen by a mile.Here is a brief account of the I spent in Paris.Subsequent days would have their own posts.
I arrive at CDG airport around 10 in the morning.It is a bit chilly but not really cold.The train journey from the airport to Chatlet Les Halles metro station bang in the middle of Paris is quite agreeable to the eyes.You get to see
Stade de France and the
Sacre Cour rising up from the urban sprawl.A little bit of a perspective about the geography of Paris.It is basically a city with very little variation in elevation which is divided by The river Seine into two almost identical halves.The center of the city being
ile de la cite - the natural island on the Seine which is a point of reference .I take some time to locate my hotel which is actually a youth hostel -The BVJ
Louvre(which was just a stone throws away from the
Louvre as you doubtless would have guessed).I am told on arriving that I would only be able to get inside my room after 2.So I keep my luggage in a locker and head out with a smaller bag to see the
Notre dame.I don't have batteries for my camera (having stupidly left my batteries in Helsinki in my hotel room) and am desperate as all shops are closed (it being a Sunday) .I head out towards the
Notre dame and I reach
Pont Neuf- a bridge on the Seine leading to the
ile de la cite and 
am just completely spell bound by the breathtaking beauty that is the banks of the Seine.I am also utterly frustrated by the fact that I am not able to take pictures.But then there is this roadside stall which sells miscellaneous trinkets where I finally locate a couple of batteries in a remote corner.I am mightily relieved and click away crazily.I reach the ile de la cite and reach a pavement where I see a long queue and assume that it is for the famed cathedral.I am led through a security check and get inside but the cathedral strangely does not seem to be anything like the Notre dame that I imagined.I can see Gargoyles but then I am told that I cannot go to the top of the spires.
This is the insides of what I then find out is the St.Chapelle(which is exquisite in its own right and quite overshadowed on the island by Notre Dame.The glass work especially is of a fine quality)and not the St.Michel Notre Dame. 
St.Chapelle is just adjacent to Préfecture de Police and that explains the stringent policing at the entrance.
Next I headed straight towards what many consider the finest example of French Gothic Architecture.The church of 'our lady'-
Notre Dame de Paris.My first impression on seeing it was to wonder how anything could be more beautiful and I was so excited that I did not take a decent photograph of it and none of my front-on pics do any justice to it.This is a pic I took slightly later in the night.
Notre dame is one of the sights which defines Paris.It is so intricately built and the sculpture on it so exquisite that it can rival any Indian temple like Belur-Halebid or Hampi.Its architecture is beautiful with the two towers at the front,the spire in the middle and and huge stain-glass circular windows on the sides.The best part of the architecture are the Flying Buttresses which are basically rib-like support pillars to prevent the roof from falling in because the side walls have been weakened by carving huge holes in them for windows.you can see them in this pic just behind the clump of trees though again, not a clear view.
The insides are a bit unlike the other churches which I visited as Notre Dame served as a major focal point for religious movements in France.(thats about as informative as I can get without committing a factual error!).There was a lot of Christian symbolism and imagery which I didn't 'get'.However I did see a statue of Joan of arc and the plaque said that after she was burned alive by being falsely accused of being a witch by her enemies,the decision to restore her image to that of a heroine was taken in Notre Dame. The insides:
I spent quite some time there and wanted to go up the stairs to the spire where you get quite a view of Paris but was dissuaded by the pain in my legs and the long queue.It was the first Sunday of the month and the entry was free.Apparently you can get really close to the Gargoyle there.
Next I headed towards the Eiffel Tower.The most visited sight in Paris-what the Parisians affectionately call -'The metal asparagus'.I wanted to get over it pretty fast and I wanted to save time for the other sights.The tower was all lit up when I arrived and looked really-like the tower you see in photographs:
There are a certain few minutes in the evening when the lights on the tower go all shimmering and flickering and it is a really beautiful sight.(which you can see in the above pic).The area surrounding the Tower is very picturesque with great sweeping lawns on one side and the Seine on the other side.This idyllic tourist setting is complimented by hordes of people of all nationalities-Spaniards,Brits,Aussies,Sub-Saharan Africans all standing for at least a couple of hours in the queue putting on their best behaviors.The icing on the cake is the generous sprinkling of very well behaved and meek African and Indian(Punjabi) youth selling the eternal have-been-to-Paris symbol.The showpiece which has to be a part of your show-case back home-The Mini Eiffel Tower replica.
Already it was dark by then.It was a pleasant evening with lots of people.I didn't go up the tower to avoid the tremendous rush and instead took a stroll along the Seine eating a huge bag of fries and clicking snaps. I was very tired after the 4 AM flight and the running around and traveling.So I went back to the hotel.My dorm room had 4 beds and there were two Australians and one Japanese.The Aussies were backpacking across Europe having given themselves a 2 month break between school and college.The Japanese didn't say much and was very apologetic and polite.so much for day 1.Day 2 - The Louvre.will continue.....
