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| Leuven, Belgium where I attended the 1 week course about European Affairs at the Institute of European Affairs in 1995. |
Back in April of 1995 when all
the EU-ASEAN Scholars from all over Europe were called to Leuven, Belgium to attend the course,
Introduction to European Affairs, most of us arrived in the place Friday
afternoon. It was a Good Friday and there was not much to do because the course
would start on the Monday thereafter. One enterprising friend from Baguio City
suggested that we buy our train tickets to Paris and enjoy Black Saturday in
France and return to Leuven just the same on Sunday, right in time for the
Monday lectures of our course.
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| Brussels, Belgium and the Eurostar that travels from Brussels to Paris, France |
We then took our backpack and three of us went straight to the Leuven train station and took a train ride to Brussels. From Brussels, we took a train ride to Paris. It was one and one-half hours by train only. After arriving in the train station in Paris, our first itinerary was the Eiffel tower. It is located at the Champ de Mars in the 7thArrondissment (Midwest Paris). My impressions about Paris are only through the books that I have read. Foremost however is that Paris can never be Paris without the Eiffel Tower. It is but proper for the three of us to pay homage to the city and what is the best way to pay our reverence but to go to the tower of our dreams. When we saw the tower, it was as if I was looking at a magnificent lady towering above us all. It was 984 feet above the ground with all its grandeur and magnificence. We do not know what to do. Will we look at it from afar and enjoy its sight? Will we go in and enjoy what it has to offer?
The beauty of our Eiffel Tower
tour is that there is an information booth at the ground floor. There are
brochures and information about the time that the tower opens and what it
offers. It says that in our brochure that the Eiffel Tower has three levels
-the ground floor, second floor and the peak. There were many ways offered to
us how to get to the peak but we decided to get through the elevator. The first
elevator was to take us to the second floor and there is another elevator that
would take us to the peak. We decided this route. There are 9 lifts in total; 5
from the ground to the first two floors and 4 from the second to the top level.
The views going through these lifts are very splendid and it is unrivalled in
terms of its grandeur.
To
reach the summit of the tower, we took another lift but we waited because there
were already a lot of people lining up. It was very exciting at this point.
There were two old ladies who were with us and they were speaking in Italian.
My companion who teaches European language at the Institute of European Language
at the University of the Philippines who speaks French, Italian, Spanish and
German looked at me and started conversing in Italian with me. And the 2 ladies
were so amazed how we were conversing in Italian. And they remarked how we
spoke their language grammatically. They surmised we were students. And we said
yes. And when my friend spoke French with a French gentleman, both ladies were
again amazed to the point that they invited us for lunch at the Le Jules Verne
Restaurant. We graciously accepted their invitation.
"I felt goosebumps looking from this height the panoramic view of Paris. My feeling was like a candle that is losing all its power as the light of its fire continues."
The
lift was quite full during our turn and we were packed like sardines. Of
course, we did have an experience of the French perfume during that April
sojourn we had.(Lolz). We had however and incredible panoramic view of Paris as
we ascend to the top due to the glass slides. Our instant companions, the two
old ladies were quite scared but we advised them to just enjoy the sights as
they are really wonderful.
When
we went down back to the second floor through the lift our ladies invited us to
have lunch at Le Jules Verne Restaurant. This is one of the most fascinating
restaurants in Paris and it has become a landmark within a landmark. We were
served one of the best cuisines in France and we thanked our 2 lady Italian
hosts who treated us for our lunch. They said, they enjoyed conversing with us
and they marveled how Filipinos easily can acquire language. We just smiled
with what they told us as we look in awe the scenery of Paris from our vantage
point.
These are part of the present menu of the restaurant. They may not be the same food that we ate but just to stress the point that the menu is well thought of.
After
our lunch, we would have wanted to walk the stairway down but in deference to
the two old ladies who were with us, we took the elevator just the same. At the
ground floor, we said goodbyes with our instant hosts as we scamper at the
shops to buy our souvenirs from the Eiffel Tower. Of course in my case, I
bought a lot of postcards to send to my friend. Note that in 1995 the internet
was not still the famous mode of communicating with one another. We really have
to write and send postcards to everyone just to show what part of the world we
are in.
This French Doll is very similar to the one I bought. It had a red colored dress however.
I bought an Eiffel Tower replica which I still
have until now in our house in the Philippines. I also bought a French doll to
add to my doll collections. I dream of building a museum where I would showcase
my doll collections from different parts of the world. After buying our
souvenirs, we were off to our next destination but that is all together a
different story.
The Eiffel Tower replicas being sold as souvenirs in the shops
It
is such a wonder that the Eiffel tower is 123 years old already and to think
when it was first constructed it was seen by the French people as an eyesore.
Many famous artists and writers thought that it will change the image of Paris
and that it would become a dangerous monument. However, people eventually
accepted its construction and thus became the most famous landmark of Paris
till the present time. It was built initially as an entrance arch for the
Exposition Universelle, a World’s Fair marking the centennial celebration of
the French Revolution. It was built by Gustave Eiffel with structural design by
Maurice Koechlin. Eiffel was assisted in the design by Engineers Émile Nouguier and Maurice
Koechlin and architect Stephen Sauvestre. Until this time, the
Eiffel tower has been visited by many nationalities totaling to more than 9M
per year.
Picture Credits:
1. eiffeltowertickets.co.uk
2. davidlebovitz.com/2008/le-jules-verne
3. vindivine.com
4. uk.saveurduhour.com/eiffel-tower-replica-mini-p-1127.html
5.
rfid-sec.org/pictures/rfidsec-2009-leuven.jpg
6.
trainsformlondon.com
7.world-visits.blogspot.com
8.prlog.com
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