A Weekend To Remember - II

At the Airport -

After all the drama that ended on a most positive note, I finally made it in time to meet him at the airport only to discover the plane has been delayed for another hour. Waiting at the airport with so much tempting food around was just too good to resist. Not surprisingly all the rates were high. I bought a Baguette and sat myself down to watch the movie ‘Flushed Away’. I also had sometime to think over of what all has happened and how good it felt to be there and have my holidaying uninterrupted. Somehow I was reminded of Ravi Teja’s movie ‘Kick’ where he is constantly looking for a ‘Kick’ in his life. With so many experiences under the belt and the most recent one being the Adventure for Visa Stamping to Paris, I can for certain say the excitement and fun only comes with a ‘Kick’. ‘kick’ leka pothe mazaa ne ledu..

Finally around 8:20 walks in my Hero right out of the exit terminal. First thing I noticed was he was quite, how do they say that nicely, hmm, well-proportioned. I mean in the 5 months since he left India, I can say he has changed and gained a LOT. Completely knocked off my feet with this new avatar and asked about the horrendous injustice the photos do to his real figure I get a sly look and a cunning smile as reply. Prodded further, he concedes, he has mastered the art of Photography and has taken a special course in the art of highlighting bodies within certain perspective so that the best part appears. I truly bow to the master and I was fully determined to learn that course. Through our first trip in Metro, I let him into the underbelly of Paris, the network that holds this city bustling continuously with activity.

Nightlife Begins -

We reached home around 9 with pushing and pulling of his suitcase. Like any respectable host I offered him the best of wine, chocolates for him to settle down, get a feel of our house. I then bluntly told him I really didn’t do much groundwork for the next coming days and that we can start off right away doing that. He didn’t have much choice anyway in the sense he had about 5 to 6 things to see around Paris which was the best he could gather. Those we could have covered in a single day at the most. So nothing much to do beyond that. But I wanted him to know Paris has much more grandeur than he believed and we mapped out all our perceived destinations for the upcoming day. With our itinerary settled we set our foot outside to explore the ‘real life’ that he sought.

Notre Dame Cathedral was our first stop we walked near the church for a while. It was built around 1345 B.C in a span of over 200 years since the first brick was laid. It is one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture and the greatest landmarks of the city. Every façade has finest inscriptions of figures, people who looked liked priests, incarnations of Jesus, his disciples and so on. Illuminated at night it was a grand sight to behold.

Once we are done with that we took a walk to St.Germain, one of the posh and most happening area around Paris in the night and in the day. This is where the fashion happens (as my TL said) but you get the drift, right?.  Asking one of the passersby, a tall well-built English guy, who not only told us the locations but also took the pains to come along to the beginning of the lane, leaving his other two friends, and showed us two choices – Rue De Princess Lane, Odeon Lane.

This is where my gyaan into city culture began. I haven’t been a regular drinker nor have been the one who used to binge out a lot in the night. So with a highly experienced chap at the side, it was time for me to listen and enjoy the talks. City is not the same at night as what it is in the day. Especially in different countries like US, Europe where there are no restrictions to close down the bars by 12:00 P.M. One gets to see the local fervor at these bars where lot of people hangout. At both the streets there were numerous bars busily serving the customers. We first strolled around for a while exploring both the streets, Mote mentally ticking off the ones to see and the ones to skip. The time was around midnight. Though the main boulevards were quiet these streets were just fully occupied and teeming with activity.

One of the things that people immediately notice around here is that all the bars/brasseries (as they are called) have a seating arrangement right outside their hotel with double seats facing the street. Of course there is a heater on to keep it warm. It is a very beautiful arrangement as you can enjoy the pleasantness of the city and relish the food at the same time having quality discussions. So the bars having the vacancies outside didn’t have food, much to our disappointment. A bit more walking and enquiring got us to a wonderful nice cozy bar with a really hot ladies serving drinks.

We ordered margaritas along with club sandwich and Ham with bread. We then started talking about American way of life, the freezing cold weather that affects the metabolic activities, the family inheritance laws, the passion behind teaching, the duty of the government, movies, sports, pub culture, friends updates, future plans and so many things. It was so nice and time moved on ever so fast. One of the best things about being with him is it never felt like there had been 6 months of separation. Its as if he just had been away for few weeks. He (apart from Venkat) was the only one with whom I used to converse in English all the time. I just couldn’t bring myself to speak in Telugu with him somehow. Anyways the point is he has tremendous knowledge on various topics that it always feels like you learn something new with him. It might go to trivialities later on but overall it enriches your thoughts.

By the time we came back home it was around 4:30. Checking my mail, I see that my boss William had mailed 4 times at varying intervals asking me to submit one of the deliverables. Actually, before leaving our place I had dropped in a mail asking for a document which I needed to complete it and I thought in the morning I could do the stuff and send him. I immediately drafted a mail and sent him the docs. Within few minutes I had a reply asking for few corrections. My goodness, have I been working with Zombies? Na, just kidding. But still, this was way beyond normal limits. I mean, I further had 3 more mail exchanges with him. He had coherent replies all along.

The time swept past 6:30 A.M and we saw no point in sleeping. We then set out to explore Paris starting with Louvre, Muse De Orsay (which we skipped), Arch De Triumphe and to end with Eiffel Tower. That’s how the first day ended/started.