Parlez vous anglais? :)

I wonder what I could write about traveling through France that hasn’t already been written about before. And since I’m harbouring the delusion that long-form travel reads are still a thing, I have to try…

Ruki and I took a long-awaited trip to France earlier this month, and it turned out to be an experience of a lifetime. We haven’t travelled a lot together in the short time that we’ve been married, and this was my first time outside the subcontinent for reasons other than work. But we were very clear from the start that we wanted to explore the world, one country at a time, and not really travel the way our parents did – covering multiple countries in a fortnight or less, constantly on the move with barely any time to soak anything in.

Our nine-day itinerary covered three cities and started from Paris, known for social media pictures of people pinching the Eiffel Tower. Our first stop was the Louvre, one of the largest museums in the world. It’s pretty much impossible to cover its three wings and all they offer in one day. If you’re a dilettante and indifferent to art, then you’re probably there to see Da Vinci’s most famous work, The Mona Lisa, with the added attraction of walking the same halls that Tom Hanks did in The Da Vinci Code, concluding with the Piramide Invertida, the supposed tomb of Mary Magdalene in the movie. There’s enough literature available that talks about what each of the three wings carry, and you could pick one and spend the day there. There are Nintendo audio guides available as well, but they’re a little pointless; it takes time to figure out how to operate them and it’s an added distraction when there’s already a lot to see and do. There are two entrances to the museum, and the smaller one near the Tuileries Garden is generally less crowded. The highlight of our day was an early dinner (with lots of champagne) in a double decker bus that took us through Paris and its pretty sights.

The Deposition

Supper at Emmaus

Cathedral of Milan

Ceiling art at the Louvre

So Dark The Con of Man 😉

The Shipwreck of Don Juan

Ceiling art at the Louvre

By the second day, we’d become “experts” at riding the metro and taking the bus, one of the cheapest and most convenient ways to travel in Paris. When you travel for the first time, purchase a wad of 16 tickets at any station. This works out to be cheaper than buying a card, and is convenient since you’re not under pressure to use the card a minimum number of times to break even. There’s also an app called Rome2Rio that’ll tell you exactly which lines to take and which stations to change, and it’s always a good idea to check with the travel desk or your host where you’re staying. There are metro maps, mobile apps and enough literature about do’s and don’ts available online 🙂

The Happy Coincidence Called Serendip

The word serendipity originates from an ancient folktale about the three princes of Serendip – the Persian name for Sri Lanka. This had, from the time I heard it, become one of my favorite conversation starters. It was thus a happy coincidence that my partner and I decided to visit the island nation for our first vacation as a wedded pair. Our trip took us through the cooler climes of Kandy and the hill-station of Nuwara Eliya to the hot and humid beaches of Unawatuna and Bentota. It was a much-needed break after the madness of an Indian wedding spanning three cultures, three cities, and five functions.

Postcards from the Spiti Valley

This picture was taken at Langza, a small hamlet near Kaza. This village and the area around it are home to fossils of marine plants and animals.

 

The Fossil Village – as Langza is also known – is home to about 120 people. The main sources of income are agriculture and tourism.

Postcards from Chopta and Tungnath

Campsite below Tungnath, the highest Shiva temple in the world (elevation of 3680 m.)

The Shiv temple at Tungnath (literally translated as ‘the God of the mountain peaks’)

Sheep dogs of the mountain villages of Chopta – Tungnath