The City of Eternal Love

In modern times it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe in love outside the family perimeter, let alone believe in eternal love. Acts of violence pop out of newspapers, TV channels, and movies—foolish acts only humans can perform. Such continuous sensory bombardment unnerves me and makes me question—where is love?

A trip to Paris with my family somewhat restored my faith in the strength of love. I have visited several cities around the world, but in my opinion none has been built by humans with so much love. Love is not just in the air—but also in the streets, in the sidewalks, and in the road side cafés. Love can be found on the top of Eiffel Tower, or around the canals of Versailles, or while watching the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Love never ceases to exist in what you see and what you do.

The Mona Lisa incidentally attracted the largest number of people. Considering that the Louvre is the most visited art museum of the world, and the Mona Lisa the most popular artifact in it, I had to wait for a full fifteen minutes to get the shot as you see it.

However, the Mona Lisa was not the only attraction in the Louvre. I'm compelled to use the word "love" again while describing Louvre. Every wall, ceiling, bend, curve was simply an expression of love.

And surely no discussion on Louvre is complete without mentioning the glass pyramid. Commissioned by the then French president François Mitterrand and designed by I. M. Pe, the pyramid welcomes the visitors through the main entrance. Since we had taken the underground route and accessed the museum by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station, the pyramid was on our way out and needless to say we made full use of it by posing for an infinite number of pictures.

Our journey continued, as we crossed Arc de Triomphe and walked along Champs-Élysées—the broadest avenue in Paris and only the second most expensive strip of real estate in the world, after New York City's Fifth Avenue.

After brief visits to the adjoining palaces and while appreciating the ornate structure of Pont Alexandre III, we saw the Eiffel Tower at a distance. So after brief visits to the adjoining palaces we went straight to the tower to get a bird's eye view of the city. And what a view it was.


After a long and eventful day we decided to relax and have our dinner at a café close by the tower. As we gorged on the sumptuous meal we completely forgot what time it was. It was almost 10 PM as we came out of the restaurant, and never imagined what was waiting for us. A starry ... starry night. It was like a gift from God—a gift of love, eternal love.