Paris, France! Part 3
Please note this is a picture heavy post! I’ve made several slideshows so hopefully it will load easier for you.
We awoke early and thankfully the meds were keeping Hubby comfortable enough that he wanted to continue with our plans. (See previous post.) We headed out to meet up with our Eiffel Tower tour group. We met some nice people! Two ladies who were visiting several countries at once had just arrived from London. There was also a cute couple from the United States who were also touring a few countries.
There were 674 steps to climb! You do NOT use the elevator! I’m pretty sure I was one of the last people to make it to each floor. Note to self: strengthen legs when you get home! We only got to go to the second floor on this particular tour. I hope to return and get to see the view from the top someday (you do get to ride the elevator the rest of the way up). It was a fun tour! Great views! Our tour guide pointed out lots of points of interest. It was chilly and so windy up there that one person lost their hat to the wind! I was hungry so we bought chocolate Éclairs up there after the tour ended.
I think that was the most amazing Éclair of my life! So GOOD! There are gift shops up there so we bought a few souvenirs before heading back down. Near the base of the tower, we found a guy selling paintings and bought two depicting the tower during autumn, because our visit was in October. You do have to watch out for the scammers and the people selling cheap junk in that area too! If someone approaches you asking if you speak English and wanting to “survey” you, just keep walking!
We needed to find a pharmacy to get Hubby’s meds. Thankfully we were able to find one with a woman who spoke English that helped us. We wandered a few stores and shopped for a few more souvenirs and then decided to take a River Seine Cruise.
The cruise was really neat! I’m so glad Hubby suggested we do it! We were too late arriving to get a spot up top outside so the first half of the cruise we sat inside. Not to worry though, by the second half people were cold and came in so we traded and went up top for the return trip. The cruise had a nice audio tour to tell you about what you were seeing. It was so fun seeing all the points of interest along the way! Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, several museums, famous bridges and of course the Louvre!
Do you know about the romantic tradition of love locks? People used to put locks on bridges and throw away the keys in the river - until that started being an issue! Now people place them in many other safer places around the city. The locks get removed occasionally and in our case we did not toss the keys.
I wanted to catch sunset at the Arc De Triomphe and looking at weather, this was the perfect evening to do so! Sunset was around 6:30-7-ish.
I went to France knowing they can be passionate people. That Paris is considered the City of Amour. I was in line to get into the Arc De Triomphe when suddenly I felt wack wack wack on my derriere! Really?!? How fresh can you get?!? I whipped around ready to defend myself only to look down and see a little boy of only 3 years old or so and his highly mortified mother apologizing for him! Having raised little boys myself, I understood. I laughingly told Hubby that he should be jealous as another guy was going after his territory! LOL!
The Arc had another 284 steps to climb! The view was gorgeous! It was fun watching the crazy traffic driving in the circle below.
Video by Hubby.
I wanted to get night pictures of the Eiffel Tower and with the threat of rain during much of our trip we knew we should try to get them this night! We went to Pont De Bir-hakeim Bridge (recommended by the tour guide that morning). It was a lovely view with the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower and the reflection on the river. Afterwards I still wanted the traditional view from Trocadero but being so popular it was packed with people and they were doing construction down below which didn’t make for a very pretty picture. I’m glad Hubby listened to the tour guide and took me to the bridge first! It was WAY better!
