Paris

I have been in Paris before. But the situation cannot be more contrasting. Earlier I was here for pleasure (with my wife), during summer and had roamed about the city. This time I came here for Business, during winter and saw Paris only through train/metro. So my observations are restricted to my time in train.

The 1st thing which would strike you here is the diversity. There are people from all ethnicity, in all kind of clothes, of all shape & sizes. And it is beautiful.

The metro here is vast. We got down at Paris Nord (North) and it has multi levels of metro line. It is Dadar of Mumbai (as I have been told, since I am neither an expert of Mumbai nor Paris trains). The vastness of the place becomes evident especially since I was carrying heavy suitcase and like most Indians, we pack heavily. I miss the friendly 'Coolie' (A profession made famous by Amitabh Bachchan) we find in North Indian railway stations.

I found some similarities between Indian and Paris trains. In Paris one person came in the compartment and left small piece of paper on our seats and then came back expecting some donations. If you have traveled in trains around Kolkata, you would have seen fellow dressed in all orange coming inside the compartment and doing the same. I did not give any donation because of the same reasons. I do not understand French & Benagli writings :).

Secondly I saw one lady coming in the compartment and singing. May be because of the upcoming holidays and she too asked for donations. This I am sure all of us who have traveled in Indian Railway have experienced.

I had heard of French people frowning on English language, but I saw things changing. There was a poster ad in the train which advertised learning street English. Again I couldn't help the Indian comparison. Be it Kapil Dev promoting Rapidex courses or posters all over Indian tier 1&2 cities advertising skills for call center jobs.

Talk about 'taking an Indian out of India, but you cannot take India out of Indian'. Hmm, sounds too cliche.

Anyway after less than 24 hrs in Paris, I was off to Brussels in train this time in TRV.

Crossed Lille Europe station, which is a tourist destination. One of the wall of the platform was completely painted. My understanding of Lille Europe is that it would a mini Europe with streets and shops. Wish to come back here later. One more thing about this station. Our train change directions here. It reminded me of 'Mugalsarai' and 'Gaya' station. You would have been here if you have traveled to north India from east. The trains here sometime change directions, with engine from head going to tail.

And so my Paris trip ended. I would talk about Brussels in my next blog.