Palais Royal Musée du Louvre

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The location where the Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code started; one of the most visited art museums in the world; the home of various masterpieces, art and sculpture; Behold - the Louvre.

Beneath the glass pyramid was the underground lobby and in it, hangs the inverted glass pyramid together with the smaller one at the bottom. This was the location mentioned in the fictional novel, which was the final resting place of Mary Magdalene.

For those who are expecting a Mona Lisa photo, please kindly download from anywhere online as the Mona Lisa was displayed behind a glass pane. This made photographing her a really difficult task with the reflection of the visitors without a lens filter.

The galleries in the Louvre were decorated with various masterpieces from different ages and different civilizations. It was almost impossible to visit the Louvre from one end to the other. We had to choose which galleries to visit, as we had only 5 hours. Only 5 hours...

Cupid and Psyche, embracing each other, a wonderful sculpture of the God of Love and the mortal woman he loved for dearly.

A wonderful way to move through the Louvre with all she has to offer was to first visit those that you must, and then at a leisurely pace, go through all the rest as you wish. Never rush as you might miss out one that you yourself really liked, which however may not be the main attraction of the museum.

Our Lady... Notre Dame

The famous cathedral was the center of activities for many generations. Notre Dame is synonymous with Paris itself, Victor Hugo's Quazimodo and Esmeralda, and the mysterious gargoyles. Those cryptic gargoyles that overlooked the cathedral were actually sculpted gutters.

Notre Dame was the first cathedral that I entered which allowed photography. Still there were restrictions, you were not allowed to use flash photography in the cathedral. Tripods were not allowed as well.

The stained glass windows were one characteristics of cathedral. More often than not, they depict biblical stories.

Cathedrals normally consist of several small sections, called chapels where various different services can be performed at the same time. Some with statues, some with altar. This was one with the Virgin Mary as can be seen on the plaques below her. In the cathedral was a sense of serenity, though there were many visitors. Everyone was trying their best to be silent, as a form of respect for the worshipers.

Montparnasse tower offers a spendid view of Notre Dame. Here you can clearly see the flying buttress on the side of the cathedral, as a form of support for the structure. This cathedral tower herself over the other buildings and was immediately noticeable from the high viewpoint.

Eiffel Tower

We went out really early to the tower, fearing a huge turnout of crowd. We arrived and lined up for nearly 15 minutes before being admitted into lift going up the tower. The tower looked like a huge brown electric pylon with all its trusses and rivets. The colour of the lifts to the second floor and the top floor together with the other lifting mechanisms gave a contrasting feel to the tower structure.

There were two observation decks at the top. One which was one floor lower than the other had photo guides detailing the different buildings around the tower, this deck was covered with window panes and air conditioned. We went up a few flight of stairs you exit the covered observation deck to the top. The view from the top was amazing. As the day was pretty sunny and clear, the visibility from the top of the tower was really good. The other tower in the photo which looks like a featureless black block is called Montparnasse Tower.

This was the view from Montparnasse Tower, where you could see the Eiffel Tower and the other famous attractions which were too far to admire from Eiffel Tower. Notre Dame, Les Invalides, the Pantheon and the Louvre can be clearly seen from here.

The Eiffel tower consists of three different paints, with the one at the bottom the darkest brown and fairer nearer to the top of the tower. The fields in front of the tower was considerably empty considering that we arrived early in the morning. Come nightfall, throngs would crowd this field to enjoy the magnificent display of lights on the Eiffel tower which starts at 10pm. Lights lit up randomly across the tower, which gave a feel of a glittering jewel, the iconic jewel of Paris.