From Paris with Love

So here I am in Paris for a couple of days on my way back home from a long stay in Interlaken, Switzerland. I stayed at a hotel next to the Arc de Triomphe. My room, however, has a view of the alley on the back. but thats fine by me. The first day went well. I walked down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées From the west, where my hotel was, to the east all the way to the Louvre. I had fun fun actually but it wasn't the experience that I've expected. The street is famous for its cinemas and cafés, but all I've seen is American movies in the cinemas and many American and Italian coffee shops. Other than that, global chain stores are all over the place in addition to the largest McDonald's branch I've ever seen! On my second day, I went all the way up to the Eiffel Tower after standing in line for the whole day. Nothing to see up there really. Just the feeling of being there is enough for me. I didn't have a camera at the time as I didn't plan for all of this but however, on my way back I asked, with my modest French mixed with English, a Pakistani Gentleman who was standing near the metro's underground entrance, where I was supposed to use to move freely in Paris, to take a photo of me with a mobile phone camera.

On my last free day before my flight, I visited the Louvre Museum,which is worth visiting not only for its exhibited articles, but also for it's beauty as remarkable building and its exquisite interiors. As many European museum, it is full of stolen exhibitions from all around the world.

On my way to the Grand Gallery, where the Mona Lisa is shown, I've gone through a whole bunch of naked people's portraits. People whom have been considered important and sacred for both muslims and christian Arabs. In the back of my head, I've always imagined certain personalities in certain kind of a way. Such as St. John the Baptist whom he rests in his shrine In the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus

"Is that John the Baptist? Oh my God why is he naked?!!"

All I think is the concept of nudity might differ from one place to another. Finally, I reached the grand gallery and I see a big crowd surrounding the place where the Mona Lisa is should be. So I fought to get through and get a glimpse of the real Mona lisa, the real deal. Is that it ? It's smaller than I thought and the worst thing is that the media didn't leave us anything to explore ourselves. It ruined my experience, whether is it the Mona lisa, the Eiffel Tower or every other famous site in the world. Is that what I've been fighting to see? It's small and identical to what I've been seeing all these years in magazines, TV, news papers, the internet and every other form of the media. Instead of fighting the crowds to get a closer look at the Mona Lisa, I turned to the the opposite direction to see the largest painting in the Louvre. I don't know what it's called or who painted it, but what I know is that it shows the last supper better than Da Vinci's Last Supper. Finally, I returned to the Hotel where I slept it all off and woke up early in the morning prepared to go to the airport where I'll take the evening flight to Dubai where I'll stay for another couple of days before going back home as my usual habit every time I travel, but that's another story.

Photos I've taken from up the Arc de Triomphe with my phone camera:

The eiffel Tower

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Napoleon's Statue inside the Arc de Triomphe