La Vie en Rose

- Akanksha Maker

After spending a few days in the slow paced French Riviera, I boarded an Air France flight from Nice Côte d’Azur Airport to the French capital. It was my second visit to Paris and the busy Charles de Gaulle airport quickly snapped me out of my holiday on the coast. Being a big-city girl all my life, a part of me had missed this chaos. Besides, Paris is never really a bad idea.

On reaching the hotel, quick unpacking followed by two shots of Nespresso; I headed out to fall in love with this city all over again. Walking mindlessly on the banks of river Seine, I descended the stairs near Pont Neuf (directly translating to “New Bridge”, but is in fact the oldest bridge of Paris). Sitting by the banks of the river Seine, it’s easy to get drawn into this city’s vivacious charm. Devouring a caramel crêpe that was prepared at a street crêperie close by, I watched boats of various shapes and sizes pass by.

Seine is that one thread that sews this city together. A cruise on its waterway was long overdue. Taking the number nine metro line to Bir-Hakeim station (the Parisian metro is well mapped and quite easy to follow), I walked towards Port de la Bourdonnais, where a lunch reservation was made with Bateux Parisiens’ (bateauxparisiens.com) boat cruise. Relishing a four-course meal with Paris’ architectural marvels in the backdrop wasn’t a bad way of reigniting my love-affair with this city.