We got on the Metro at Luxembourg, this 2nd day of our 4, in Paris, and this lovely Mosaic is on the walls down there, and on the ceiling too! Fabulous!
The object of today's sight seeing is the Tour Eiffel, the Palais de Chaillot, and the Arc de Triomphe/Champs Elysee et al. Quite an ambitious agenda, but you will see!
As always, there is the unexpected, and we got off the Subway a stop early in order to see a little bit more than we were on the way to see, if you know what I mean. This not only gives us a good walk, but allows us to find slightly out of the way place to have our first Grand Crème of the day, and possible see how 'normal' people (if they exist) live and work in a city of this kind.
Well, we did feel lucky, given all the Diplomatic plates on cars sitting and waiting outside this building...It is the Paris Headquarters of UNESCO! We didn't intend to put this one on the agenda, but this is why we walk everywhere. Neat!
We also didn't ever think we would find THIS building...The European Space Agency wasn't even on our list of to DO's!:)
I love it when we just find places that we didn't know existed! Fun and fascinating.
We did find a really good looking Patisserie to buy a Grand Crème at, and of course we had to have a pastry at the same time...you know, to keep us going....but we also ended up buying some long Pizzas for our lunch. It was 11.30am, after all. We sat and ate half the pizza with the coffee! Some things you just cant plan.
Per usual, we marvel at the architecture, the genius that designed and built the buildings, and laid out this lovely city.
Louis XIV, the French King who built the Palace of Versailles, staged many wars in Europe. In 1670, he commissioned Les Invalides in Paris, a 13 hectare hospital for soldiers.
With their large church topped by a 107 meter high golden dome, Les Invalides are one of the masterpieces of French classical architecture
We were walking in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, but couldn't see it yet. We knew we were headed in the right direction, being good at map reading, and knew also that it would just be a matter of time before we saw it. Yes! there is it, around that corner, and as luck would have it, right next to the Ecole Militaire. (Military School) .
The day was overcast to begin with, and it didn't improve as the day went on. Never mind!
Per usual, you have to be in the right place at the right time to see such things. We get a kick out of these little Renault cars which think they are motorcycles, and so they park just like one:) We have seen a lot of women driving them. Not sure what that says, but they look very convenient.
Per usual, we didn't approach the Tower from a typical Tourist kind of direction. We came in sideways, truth be told. By that I mean that we came via a different neighborhood than one would normally come upon the Tower. We had come up Avenue Suffren, to the west of the tower, and then turned in towards the Champ de Mars, and walked up and under the towering structure. People everywhere of course, but not as many as there might have been in the middle of summer.
We had no desire to go to the top, or queue to get to any of the other platforms. We came, we saw, and we moved on across the river to take a better look at the Tower from across the Seine, at the Palais de Chaillot.
We stood next to a family from Cambodia, at this place, and gazed up at this engineering marvel. You can see the Palais in the background.
In all the three previous visits to Paris, I have enjoyed the view of the tower from the other side of the river, where you can look straight down the Champs de Mars, in the background with the fountains at the Chaillot in the foreground, if they were playing. They were today!
It was just starting to spit with rain, as we made our way under the tower. Just to say we have been, here is the photo of Waz and the tower.
This is the sight that greets you as you go to cross the Seine on the Eiffel Tower side. River boats everywhere! We were tempted, but we had a lot of walking to do, and plenty of things to see in the meantime.
We crossed over the Seine, and made our way to the forecourt of the Palais de Chaillot, where we could look down and through the fountains back at the tower.
Having had our fill of the Tower, we went in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe, down Avenue Kleber (he was a French General), all the way to the bottom, and the Arc.
This lovely little park is on the side of the Palais, and it was a quiet place in the middle of all the bustle.
We are certainly fascinated by the creative gardening in this city.
The monument stands 50 metres (164 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The large vault is 29.19 m (95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is built on such a large scale that, three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919 (marking the end of hostilities in World War I, Charles Godfroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.
It was the tallest triumphal Arch in existence until the completion of the Monumento Revolucione in Mexico City in 1938, which is 67 metres (220 ft) high. The Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang completed in 1982, is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe and is slightly taller at 60 m (197 ft).
I have always had a love affair with Paris street signs:) can you see why?
We crossed the necessary streets to get to the Champs Elysee. Having had an early lunch, we were now in desperate need of not only a dry place to plonk ourselves for a short while, but some coffee too!
As much as we hate to admit it, McDonalds on the Champs was the only place that looked likely to provide what we sought. We descended below street level to get our coffee! There we met a couple of English fellows....well, one of them is Irish, but lives in England (London), and we had a conversation about the Rugby world cup...as you do, when England have just lost any chance at the cup, and being the host nation, and all that....know what I mean? We gave them a hard time, and of course the Irishman was gunning for Ireland, which is or was doing ok, in the scheme of things then.
As you can see, it is hosing down now, and even though we knew there was an 80% chance of rain, we opted to leave our rather awkward umbrella at home. Hmmm...maybe not next time!
The Flame of the Unknown Solider under the Arc de Triomphe.
We had gone into the tunnel that took us under the roads of the Etoile at the Arc, to get to the middle. We came back the same way, and walked down the Champs Elysee in the rain...now quite soaked.
As much as I hate to admit it, we went into McDonalds for a cuppa! coffee!!
Fortified, we then made our way down to the Grand Palais...an enormous and enormously ornate building.
and opposite that is the more ornate and gorgeous with a dome, Petit Palais, or little Palace.
Across the Pont Alexandre 111 to Les Invalides and the fantastic dome of that building.
Never mind the rain. We were drenched as it was, so what is a little more wet under such circumstances, and we knew we wouldn't be back here.
You can see the Eiffel Tower in the background from the Pont Alexandre 111.
The Glass Dome of the Grand Palais behind us, with the Carousel on the front of the building.
One of the more ornate bridges in Paris, Pont Alexandre 111 is glorious.
Look at the level of detail everywhere. Scallop shells feature on so many things in France. That and the Sun on the glass...for Louis, the Sun King.
Even the pigeon on the bridge looked waterlogged
We caught the tube home! Very wet!
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