Every time I visit a place for the first time, I make it a point to explore the sights by walking — Bob’s Walkathon as what some of my friends call it.
Yesterday, 14th of February 2014 marked the first day of my weekend in the City of Lights — Paris, France. I am here for the Mozilla Reps (ReMo) Leadership Meetup (LeMe or #ReMoLeMe for hashtag purposes).
Touchdown Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) Paris, France after more than 17 hours of flight time! Took the Roissy Bus from CDG to Paris (travel time: 45 minutes).
I arrived at the Holiday Inn Paris Opera (along Grands Blvds) minutes before 1000H and I was told that my room will not be available until 1400H or so (hotel check-in time is 1500H). So I decided to leave my luggage at the hotel and started exploring the city, walking. Using the hotel’s FREE WiFi, I checked on the fastest route to The Louvre — a straight walk along Rue de Richelieu. Some 20 minutes after, I reached this famous museum.Good thing I already bought my 2-day Paris Museum Pass at the airport, as the queue at the entrance of the Louvre is quite long.
Going inside the museum reminds me of that scene from Angels & Demons. But my real intent in going inside The Louvre is to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The Louvre is so big that the reception area is comparable to that of a convention center somewhere near the Manila Bay.
After passing through a couple of galleries, I finally reached the place where the Mona Lisa is displayed.
That’s one item off my bucket list: seeing the Mona Lisa right in front of my eyes. Thinking that the weather might get worst, I hurriedly went out of the Louvre Palace and started walking back to the hotel. Being adventurous, I decided not to take the same route from the hotel to the Louvre, instead I took the side street thinking that it is parallel to Rue de Richelieu — but I was wrong. I walked the stretch of Avenue de l’Opera and after a couple hundred of meters, I have this feeling of being lost (in Paris). I saw a Starbucks with a WiFi sign — good, I will be able to navigate back to the hotel.
I don’t know if I am jet-lagged or my Android mobi is not cooperating, but Google Maps is not helpful at all — I cannot locate with Holiday Inn Paris Opera is! So I decided to navigate back to the Opera House (Opéra Garnier; where the Roissy Bus Stop is) and I know that the hotel is just a kilometer away from there. Eventually, I managed to reach the hotel just in time to check-in.
Google Maps told me that I walked a total of 3.9 kilometers that afternoon. Not bad, owing to the fact that I was walking under a 6-degree Celsius weather.