Paris — Gloriously warm!

We arrived in Paris on June 8 to participate in the 2006 Challenge Bibendum, the 8th of this prestigious series undertaken by Michelin. This company takes its responsibility as a corporate citizen very seriously and actively participates in serious discussions of global concerns. Leading the general concerns are the dire prospects for fossil fuel reserves. This year’s conference had in-depth discussions of issues affecting sustainable mobility in the future, i.e, the energy challenge for world transport of the future, advanced technologies to support urban road mobility, and technology and road safety. I dwelt on the technical issues of the 2006 conference, and the past conferences as well in my column last Wednesday on The STAR’s Motoring Section, so I need not expound on these. For today’s column, it is apt to take another look at Paris, after the mentally-challenging and exhilarating conferences we had with Michelin officials and ranking French government officials for a good four days.

To start off, Paris was uncharacteristically warm that week. We were informed that they expected temperatures ranging from 11 to 23 degrees centigrade, which translated to comfortably cool, plus prospects of rain showers, but it was even warmer than Manila when we left. Still, Paris is, and will always be, the City of Lights, a city built for romantic dreams and endless sightseeing, visits to museums and ancient churches, and enjoying its famous cuisine.

We stayed at the Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel Hotel which is located in front of scenic Seine River. As the hotel’s name suggests, it is just a few steps away from the Eiffel Tower, Paris’celebrated symbol, and the Mirabeau Bridge, and likewise near the Trocadero, and the Champ de Mars.

The elegant and extremely wide avenues, lined with shade trees and old magnificent buildings, never fail to keep the tourists in awe at the old-world charm that has been wonderfully preserved through the centuries. In the well-traversed main avenues like the Champs Elysees, people tend to walk briskly, but off these main avenues, the pace was slightly slower, more subdued. 

In keeping with the renewed interest in the surrounding controversies involving Da Vinci, our group of Pinoy motoring journalists composed of Popong Andolong of the Business-Mirror and Ron delos Reyes of Auto Review and myself found it the perfect occasion for us to relive Dan Brown’s famous hero, Robert Langdon’s adventures throughout Paris in search of Da Vinci’s Code. In all my trips to France, this last one was where I walked most, thanks top ‘Don Popong’ who was actually the ‘promotor’ of the venture.

It was to be a real long walk (the tour brochures aptly call it the Da Vinci Walk) which started from Hotel Riz, itself a famous landmark here, an old but very charming hotel in Place Vendome where symbologist Robert Langdon played superbly by award-winning actor Tom Hanks, supposedly stayed. Through the picturesque Jardin de Tuileries which Dan Brown beautifully described in his novel. The other famous gardens in the city include the Jardin de Luxembourg and Parc Andre-Citroen which are all in Central Paris but which, unfortunately, we could not visit due to time constraints.

Next, we went to the celebrated Carousel du Louvre. If you are familiar with the book, this is where religious fanatic Silas murdered Jacques Saunier, the Louvre’s museum curator. We checked out the inverted pyramid all right (Dan Brown really did his homework!). It was intriguing to watch this pyramid, not for how it looked but for what it represented. It supposedly housed the Holy Grail before it was mysteriously whisked away.

From there we hoped to cross to the Pont des Arts, then to the gallery district of the Left Bank where important galleries that have withstood the test of time were and then maybe proceed to the ancient Church of St-Germain-des-Pres, but by then my wearing the wrong kind of shoes started to tell. I was already starting to feel the cramps teasing my leg muscles.

So, a decision was made to skip some of the places and venture into the subway of Paris – take the Metro. Luckily, ‘Don Popong’ has not forgotten some of his basic French language lessons, enough for our trio to get by through the myriad of subway stops and the seeming endless buying of train tickets.  

If there was one place we could not skip it was the St. Sulpice Church. Again referring to Dan Brown’s novel, here is where the Rose Line became infamous. Tourists follow this Rose Line which leads to the towering Obelisk. The albino Silas believed that this was the repository of the Holy Grail, and in the movie, much of the action took place here. And we were here, in the very same place where the fast-paced action shots took place! But then after all the long walks and the subway transfers we found the church closed for renovation. ‘Don Ron’ was able to push open a door that lead to another door possibly leading to the inside. But then he would have to let the first door close before he could reach the second. But what if it closed shut? Prudence won over curiosity. We just had our fill of having our pictures taken.

It was a very informative tour and everyone in the group enjoyed the scenic views, the museum tour, and the dramatic churches along the way of Dan Brown’s most controversial novel. While doing the unguided tour, as I paid notice to my legs and feet I was also mesmerized by the nuggets of information that we picked up. It was only after two hours when, back in the hotel, I had to knead away the knots in my legs. Should you find yourself in this part of the world next time, do remember to bring comfortable walking shoes. I only brought with me a pair of very comfortable driving shoes, but as their name suggests they were clearly not meant for long walks. I brought them for the anticipated test drives, which normally come with these trips. I had to purchase a pair of walking shoes during our overnight layover in Singapore on our way back due to the lesson learned. But it was certainly worth the tour. The aches and pains were nothing that a good massage could not handle.

Our most sincere thanks again to our hosts, Michelin. And to Riz Dalangin, their country representative, the gracefully ‘infanticipating’ Singapore-based Rebecca Lee of Michelin-Asia for the invite and Grace Chee for providing our media requirements, Merci.

Business & Leisure – Sunday at 10 o’clock in the evening

Yes, Business and Leisure – the TV show, your weekly window to the world of business and guide to the good life will join our other shows on cable television starting July. 

Solar Cable TV Network, our home now for all of Sunshine Television’s shows, graciously added our business and lifestyle show in their roster. For a while, we were in a quandary as to which time slot to get – Sunday or Monday evening, 10 or 11 o’clock – and even requested for our readers’ help in deciding what would be best.

Thank you very much for your response and rest assured that the B&L T-shirts that we promised for your effort are well on their way via our official courier JRS Express. It seems most of our viewers prefer the Sunday slot, at 10 o’clock in the evening immediately after TV Shopping. So, effective July 2nd, the show will regularly air on Sundays, 10 p.m. on Channel 13 on Sky and Home Cable and Channel 9 on Destiny Cable in Metro Manila and likewise all over the country on all cable providers carrying Solar.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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