Down With Lido !

The icing on the cake in our trip to Paris was a 'big-dent-in-pocket' but must-see hotspot of the famed nightlife of Paris - The Lido cabret on the Champs Elysees square (akin to the more famed but too crowded Mouline Rouge cabret). It was a formal black tie affair with a sit-down evening complete with champagne served with a flourish while the exotic and elegantly-nude dancers present various spectacular dance and gymnastics sequences on equally elaborate sets.

However after many breathtaking and awe inspiring sets they came up with a "eastern" (read Indian) dance sequence which had some nude dancers dressed like Lord Ganesh and the Deity Nataraja giving the backdrop of the imposing set for that sequence. I can understand their usage of dummy Elephants and may be even Nataraja (which I guess is a godess worshipped by dancers) in designing the sets. I can also understand other dancers dressed in mythological Indian dresses dipicting the Apsaras, because the beautiful Apsaras who used to dance for the Gods are mentioned in Hindu mythology. But neither the nude dancers were any Apsarsas and nor the audience were any Gods. So seeing Lord Ganesha in female form portrayed by boob showing whores was bit of a shock even for a mild atheist like me!! It was out of place and smacks of complete ignorance to cultural sensitivity of the French who boast of their religious tolerance. It was downright disgusting and deplorable and I strongly protest through this humble blog. Though I can try to do it myself, but I leave it to the numerous cadres of the saffron Brigade to book the culprits and bring an end to this sequence in this show (not the show ofcourse because other sequence were really good!!). I hope someone reads this and takes it up in Paris! I am a couch potato for doing all that.

This and all the further acts did not get any applause from us. Period.

Evenings in Paris !!

I am just back from a 3 day vacation to Paris- the numero uno romantic place and the fashion capital of the world!! Me and A had a perfect spring vacation. Memories of the Eiffel, Louvre Museum/Mona Lisa, Champs Elysees square, Notre Dame, Siene river, Arc De Triomphe, Disneyland, Mouline Rouge, Lido, Renault F1 showroom are still fresh in our memorries. And so are the leisure walks on sprawling Parisian boulevards, fashionably dressed french babes and the evenings in Paris in open air bus which are well captured in about 900 odd snaps in my digi cam!!

Paris is a city you will never get tired of, its lively a any time of the day and has got romance in its air. Its fun to just walk hand in hand along the siene river and see the illuminated historic monuments in the evenings. Then there is so much to buy, see, eat and if there is nothing else to do then just travel in the parisian metro during non-peak hours. The metro is fun and it probably ranks the best in the world. I guess after our Italy trip this one would rank next best in our memory! Now we are planning to visit Amsterdam on the coming weekend, hope that turns out even better!

The let downs were the Mona Lisa which seems to be too small a painting for its tall fame and a bit of cultural in-sensitivity of the famous cabret of The Lido. Read the next blog for details.