On the lap of history...

this is my reaction to our latest vacation. we literally were in the lap of history, with each building, nay each brick in the city of Paris, having some history attached to it.
it is difficult to have savoured the city in just five days... one really needs to be there for five years... only if one can retain her status as a tourist and does not have to get into the fray of earning a living, can one do real justice to the awesome place.
a bird's eye view of the city one gets on top of both the Eiffel Tower (do not bother to go to the topmost level, since with fog, visibility is limited; the second level is good enough) and the Arc de Triomphe. it is from this latter landmark that the fashion capital of the world pans out in 12 different directions, with La Defence and the Louvre equidistant on either side.
for one, the country has and knows how to preserve history. they have kept the memories of its stalwarts (that we laymen from other countries know only as characters popping out of history pages) alive... so Napoleon and his family, De Gaulle and his exploits have been preserved in museums dedicated to them...
when monarchy died out in this advanced nation, palaces fell vacant, but not the memories associated with them... and what better use can a nation do of its old palaces than to convert them into museaums?
so one has the Louvre, a museaum that has the largest art largesse in the world, including the Mona Lisa, the Invalides that has Napolean's tomb on the one hand and his daily budget on the other... such is the detailing that has gone into the thought behind the collection...
why leave out the Siene? a cruise on it takes one from the Sorborne University to the Notre Dam, the Versailles Palace and the French Assembly...
and if history does not interest you and fashion does, go for Paris. the average man and woman in the city looks and carries as much fashion and style that sets the tone and direction of the whole world. so stroll on Champs Elysees and you'll see budding models who may make it to the cover of Vogue some day on the open ramps in the many shops that line this avenue. and believe me, all the images of Hollywood from the late 1960s till this day fall in perspective on the Champs Elysees... each lady/man that you see on the roads remind you of some Western movie or the other... they carry colours, bright and muted; new patterns, loud and understated; new cuts, bold and traditional, with equal elan.
and what about the open romancing? o la la... each couple had their lips locked, be it on the Metro, or the Champs Elysees or lift taking us to the top of Eiffel Tower... inspired by all these lip-locking romantics, B and i, managed to hug a couple of times and requested R to click us... that was very romantic for us and the photographer merely managed the shots, with a lot of unasked questions...
it is all a question of perspective... where the West believes in showing off their love, we feel it is something to be felt...
all in all, nice trip, great weather, good food, smooth wine and memories of a lifetime... while i have put this down here, R is busy her Paris collage and B is humming Champs Elysees... that's his way of compensating himself for not having seen the Lido show...