My God , my family and my travels: Paris The City of Romance in France

David and me at the St. Pancras Station , London

On the 11th of May 2011 at about 6.00am Simon our gracious host offered to drive us to St. Pancras Station to take the train to Paris.The drive through London City was a bit stressful for Simon as the traffic jam was building up for the day...but the sight of the big shops and beautiful English buildings made it worthwhile. We were dropped off right in front of the station and we bid Simon bye as were going away for 2 weeks. The check in process for simple and of course the UK Border Agency immigration officers were an unfriendly lot like in any part of the world. So we got our passports stamped as we were leaving England. Got into the very long Eurostar train at Coach 18 and sat ourselves and met this very nice Scottish gentleman who chatted away with us. The train moved on time at 8.55am.

And at about 10am we hit the French border and we passed by little towns and pretty green fields and cows grazing. And the amazing thing that struck me was that all these small towns had churches with high steeples and houses that looked like Monopoly houses. It was a sight to experience. At about 12.15 we arrived at Gare De Nord in Paris and we made our way to Metro Line 5. And what amazed us was that there was no immigration checkpoints and no stamp on our passport to say were in France. We took the train to D italie station after a hard time trying to get through the gates for the train. We arrived at D Italie station and after a few inquiries we walked and reached the hotel that I booked online..Coypel Paris. Easy check in...nice room that could fit us 3 and the bags. After freshening up a little we walked to a Subway nearby and had our lunch. We made our way to the D Italie station again to get to Bir Hakim. We got off and walked a little way off when I first got a glimpse of The Eiffel Tower....my heart skipped a beat....there she was standing majestically...and I could only think of seeing it on postcards and a very old Hindi movie" An Evening in Paris" and the numerous films and adverts that said...London New York and Paris. We walked towards the Tower and took numerous photos. And then we boarded the L Open Tour...a hop on hop off tour. and took the green line for a start.

And all we saw in amazement as the bus driver drove on Parisian roads was all the beautiful architecture of the numerous buildings and monuments...Espalnade Des Invalides , Concorde Royale...Madeleine...Opera House...Lourve Museum...Champ Elysee...the Charles De Gaulle Palace...and many more. It was like a dream...a movie like Andrew told me after he visited this city in 2004. Then we got off at The Notre Dame Cathedral and what an amazing church...beautiful architecture...and as we went in the serenity of it all. We lit candles for our dear brother Matt Kraal as his wife had requested us to do so at every church. And almost instantly we were overcome with tears as we prayed for his soul..like as if he was there with us...and then we went on to light candles for us and our loved ones. What an experience! ( And when we returned we related it to Chemayne and she said she was not surprised as that was his favourite church ) Brother Matt we love you and thanks for 'being' there with us that day. And after being there for about an hour we took the bus back to the Eiffel Tower.

And Mel suggested we do the Seine River Cruise...and we did. What a beautiful feeling in our hearts as we sailed under all the beautiful bridges with very good commentary from our guide and the background French music...just like in a romantic movie shot in Paris. There was this feeling of love coming over the 3 of us and of course were missing Andrew. And as we were to go under the Bridge of Love the guide reminded us to kiss the one we love and I reached over to David and planted a kiss on him and we both planted one on either cheek of Mel. We were so thankful for that moment...as we were for just being there together.

After a full half day of sightseeing we decided to head back to the hotel after a dinner of French Pizza and Crepe near our hotel. It was such a beautiful day and we thanked God for this blessed trip..and being able to see this City of Romance that aptly describes. Paris.