Tag: paris

French Connection – 2025

A month. A Week. A Day. 

France is sometimes lost in Translation. Sometimes lost with the network. 

France – Cannes, The Big question was also. 

Canne We Do It? That became Cannes We Do It. 

The week, that had all the moments of drama and the beginning of the French Summer.

Went off in a slow Flow. With many “Visa rejections” and new challenges unfolding. 

France was an experience again. After 7 Yrs not much had changed, Yet only it was Cannes instead of Monaco this time. 

This was the Grand Prix, Lion and the film fest all rolling into the Carpet of Cannes. 

Nice – If you have read that has Nice it was indeed nice to meet the city. That connects so many other cities within less than an hour.

 A city with a beach, a view and a drone show with 2000 thousand drones too was witnessed here, thanks to a local Indian who we met that day. 

The Indian food by Noori’s Anaz was the highlight of our Nice trip! 

Meeting our group every day for Dinner at Noori for the 4 days we were there felt like a home away from home, With so many more connections we came across. 

Monte Carlo after 7 years – The memories of the streets, where we walked around and bought magnets, the venues ( Le Meridien and Monte Carlo Square) 

Oh! Not to forget the Hermitage tour-Bought back memories of all the wedding functions we did there for the first time, I had visited the South of France. 

The Baraat holding area, The Welcome lunch and the Rituals. 

The only thing the hotel has added is a Japanese Restaurant recently and renovated the Pavilion restaurant.

Menton! 7 Yrs later we do it… and No! We still haven’t done the lemon fest this time too! 

The city is citrusy in colour Orange &  Yellow. 

You will come across a lot of Orange trees and Lemon Stores, where you can taste lemon in sauces, Dip, Jams, Syrups and Paste. 

Eze! The Medieval city and the walk to the top. 

Felt like a Harry Potter city with stores, and cafes built in the medieval city.  It wasn’t Eze-eee! 

The city had buses that would hourly travel to the main village and Bolt/Uber that would take about 15 minutes minimum before it gave in their verdict of approving or denying us a ride.

Provence- The lavender region! Had a lot of violet and lavender fragrance around. 

The two cities: Aix En Provence,  Avignon and Arles each were different. Avignon & Arles felt more like Italy, Rome-like architecture the city was built with. 

Arles also had a mini Colosseum, that overlooked from a cafe. 

Aix en Provence was beautiful with small boutique stores and weekend flea markets. 

Marseille: One of the most underrated cities in France. And we were told to be watchful in the city. 

The city felt like Brazil, the Le Panier district felt like São Paulo Penirinos district and Narrow lanes were built on a hill with cafés and boutique stores. 

The city had all the Rio De Jinero feels. 

The Pardo District and Beach. Felt like the Copacabana beach, A long stretch with a view and shades of blue with mountains as the backdrop. 

The cathedral of Notre De Dame here in Marseille was a beautiful ride to the top and worth viewing the cathedral. 

The Longchamp Palais in the city was another beautiful park that felt inspired by Italy. 

Marseille was too big a city, we hadn’t expected the city to have so many sides to it. 

Paris! A long wait! A decade later… 

The city was now going through the restoration of the Notre Dame that was affected by the fire, the dazzling lights of Effile Tower were the highlight of the trip! And we sat through a long time just viewing the Structure, that has made the city a popular dream destination for many. 

The Walk on the Champs Elyse’s and ride across the Arc De Triumph still felt this is Paris! 

We did travel to a few more neighbourhoods around Paris, but the trees, and the energy at the champ Elyse’s was very different from the other parts. 

Oh! This time too we did a few touristy things. 

The new addition is Bacha cafe now in Paris, the experience was good. But nothing like the Marrakech one! 

The Angelina Hot Chocolate: The 45-minute Queue for the experience had to be done once. 

I felt I had better hot chocolate at Pierre Herme and Valrhona cafe. 

We did visit Lenotre too, the team that we worked with on a recent project in Cannes. 

And tasted some amazing desserts. 

48 Hrs in Paris were more than enough. 

Public Trans!!

Public Transport

How important is the public transport   facilities?

Living in metro city and traveling to other Metro cities in india like Delhi,Bangalore,Chennai,Kolkata,Ahmedabad,Pune

and to Global metro cities like  London,Paris,New York.I have found that The most important  part of living remains the public transport.

Imagine how easy! you find it travelling from one point to another,Without worrying about where would I park,The timing of parking at “No Parking” Zone to day when one could park at the “No Parking “ Zone. To worrying about the fuel tank,Whether its Half Full,Half empty or reaching the E mark.

To worrying about getting a parking space.

Mind you Even in NYC! You have to wait to get one parking lot for your car.

Worrying about the servicing cost for your vecihiles.

Wouldn’t you like to be chauffered around in a car of your choice everyday! To not worrying about Starting your car and taking a rickshaw to the station for longer journeys.

But,Only if this could be improved in the other metro cities of our country, would it be easier to travel around and have the traffic flow smoothly too. Why can’t buses in our country run on the routes with an assigned timetable. A.C buses could be priced reasonably to encourage people to use them.

Why are cities like london and new York a breeze to move around. And Guess  What. Most of  these cities citizen  don’t even own a single car. All they use is Buses,Train,Metro,Subways to commute around.

Then why can’t this be done here in our country?

Pancakes in Paris!!!

Pancake in Paris- A journey of an American,Craig who fell in love with Paris.

Craig  Carlson  was a screenwriter in the past in Hollywood.

Books on Food,Chefs or lifestyle can hardly be read or imagined by one why? You couldn’t find something Better!! To read!!

But,Trust me This one book “pancake in Paris” was on my reading list for the last year and thank God !! I read it !! It’s a pleasant read to know the nuisance of the hospitality industry and how much ones goes through when one is living abroad and missing his food …It’s full of pain…But worth all the gains,The satisfaction one gets from living their Dream.

Pancake in Paris…Breakfast in America is about Craig’s journey of falling in love with Paris during his teens on an exchange programs and years later opening his diner ‘Breakfast in America.’Living the American dream in Paris is  the Yummiest read for me this year so far.

The book written in parts titled starters, Main Course and Desserts ,making the read an appetizing one .

week In Paris !!!

 
Paris the first three days Have really being a mix of emotions from being disappointed after seeing the louvre and effiletower in terms of the structure .The Louis Vuitton store in singapore seems a better bet .And as far as the effiletower is considered it’s a disappointment in terms of being  nominated as a wonder of the world ,there are many other beautiful sites in the world which are better .The champ élysées when compared to the other streets the fifth avenue in NYC ,orchid street in singapore or Oxford street in London .The champ elysee is beautiful with trees around making it feel good to walk around ,the macarons at Laudree were really amazing not too sweet .The walk around have been less tiring then ever ,the first 3 days have ended making us taking the next journey to Brussels for a day .The last 3 days in Paris ,were covered on foot again ,going through the famous sites of effiletower & louvre ,Notre dame ,the cathedrals The Sunday was one of the most restless days Everything all the shopping places were shut ,why ??? Taxi ride to the only store opened ,and a few interesting things bought ,Monday is here the day to shop and yes we shopped at the home stores ,walked it all the way to and from the hotel to the shopping malls and then enjoyed the Night drive and view from the effiletower  ,imagine if we wouldn’t have seen this ,it would have surely been the worst crime committed on this holiday .Tuesday the last morning in Paris and packing and leaving walking around for a taxi and finally get one at 9:20 and traffic ,10:00 and we might miss the train for Zurich it’s 10:12 and here we are for our train at 10:20 ,we have boarded the train … 

Day 7 begins now …