Around 1,500 people gathered at the Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower for International Day of Yoga.
Paris:
Parisians turned up in thousands to do yoga in several locations all over the city.
The earliest to wake up was the Eiffel tower. At 6 am, there were already a thousand people dressed in white, with yellow mats rolled out. The session was accompanied by a gentle electric harp playing.
"It's a great way to start yoga at the Eiffel tower which is arguably the most visited monument in France," said Indian Ambassador to France, Dr Mohan Kumar, adding, "And, the 1500 people here are actually doing yoga very well."
"We had nearly 9,000 people enrol but we had to cut it down to 1,500 as we didn't have that much room. Next year, we will have to find more space," said Bernard Meriette, director of the sportswear Lole, who co-organised the event.
(An aerial shot of Yoga Day at the Eiffel Tower in Paris shows yoga mats forming a sea of yellow.)
A boat cruise on the Seine river, carrying nearly 100 yoga instructors passed through the best known landmarks of the city. "Parisians don't associate yoga with religion anymore, but see it as a secular form of exercise," Deepali Patel of Art of Living, France, told NDTV.
The biggest public event for International Yoga Day was in the north of Paris, at the Parc de la Villette, one of Europe's largest parks, where more than 2,500 people came for a yoga session that followed a sitar performance by Ustad Akram Khan.
The earliest to wake up was the Eiffel tower. At 6 am, there were already a thousand people dressed in white, with yellow mats rolled out. The session was accompanied by a gentle electric harp playing.
"It's a great way to start yoga at the Eiffel tower which is arguably the most visited monument in France," said Indian Ambassador to France, Dr Mohan Kumar, adding, "And, the 1500 people here are actually doing yoga very well."
"We had nearly 9,000 people enrol but we had to cut it down to 1,500 as we didn't have that much room. Next year, we will have to find more space," said Bernard Meriette, director of the sportswear Lole, who co-organised the event.
(An aerial shot of Yoga Day at the Eiffel Tower in Paris shows yoga mats forming a sea of yellow.)
A boat cruise on the Seine river, carrying nearly 100 yoga instructors passed through the best known landmarks of the city. "Parisians don't associate yoga with religion anymore, but see it as a secular form of exercise," Deepali Patel of Art of Living, France, told NDTV.
The biggest public event for International Yoga Day was in the north of Paris, at the Parc de la Villette, one of Europe's largest parks, where more than 2,500 people came for a yoga session that followed a sitar performance by Ustad Akram Khan.
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