Dizzying Heights In The City Of Lights
So much to do in Paris…so little time! We wanted to make the most of the day so we decided to jump on the “Hop-on-hop-off Bus” (should have hopped instead of jumped really) and try to get our bearings. Checking the weather app this morning we were pleasantly surprised. The top temperature today in Paris was a toasty 7°C (a far cry from the -3°C we’d left back in Grenoble!) We felt confident enough to leave off a layer. In hindsight his was a mistake! The day turned to ice and the wind chill factor must have brought it down into the sub zeros! We also had a bit of drizzle to add to the already grey day but we tried not to let it dampen our spirits.
Driving up the Champs-Élysées, lined with it’s perfect, straight rows of tall, manicured and clipped horse-chestnut trees on either side, in varying shades of bright autumn colours, was spectacular! With the Arc de Triomphe forming an impeccable framed backdrop up one end of the avenue and the Roue de Paris, the giant ferris wheel, the backdrop at the other end, it was a magical sight to take in. The swirling pavement with its little square tiles gives the avenue a sense of history and splendour and as we approached the Arc de Triomphe we were taken back by the sheer size of it!
Something else we were taken aback by was the traffic chaos that existed on the multi-laned roundabout right in front of the arch! With no clear lane markings – actually none at all – it was just a free for all with people queuing to get on and off and cars weaving in and out of the “lanes”! Our big bus was dancing with death as we bravely entered the fray and memories of Clark Griswald in “European Vacation” came flooding back to us. Would we ever get off this thing? There are mopeds everywhere in Paris too and they are crazy drivers, never stopping at red lights and sailing right through the pedestrian crossings. We needed Clouseo to keep some order!
Since we were stopped on the roundabout in front of the arch for some time, we had a good chance to have a closer look at the sculptural adornments that grace this mammoth monument. One of the young soldiers about to venture off to war is completely naked (it must’ve been a cold day) while all his fellow-compatriots are fully clothed – all except one who looks like he’s just popped out of the shower and is clutching at his towel so he doesn’t lose it in the surge toward the enemy. Poor chap! I wonder how this young lad would feel about having been immortalised in stone in all his glory (so to speak)?
Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower (or in typical French Yoda-style: “le Tour Eiffel)! Wow! This was incredible! Talk about bigger than we’d expected! We could hardly contain our excitement at seeing this famous icon and we enthusiastically disembarked the bus, eager to get a closer look. It certainly didn’t disappoint. We took the obligatory 100 photos of us and the Tower, from every available angle. After all, we may never be here again so we needed to make the most of it. We joined the fairly large queue to begin our journey up the Tower but no long queue or chilly wind could distract us from where we were and what we were about to do. We were pumped!
The lift stopped a couple of times on our ascent and we were able to have a walk around and survey the beauty of Paris, from on high, first hand. It’s almost like going back in time, with most of the buildings still so historic and with no high-rises in the immediate vicinity of the Tower. The view must have remained fairly static for a good length of time. All the rooves are grey and the Seine snakes through the city below. I imagine the view would look quite different on a sunny day.
Climbing to the very top was both terrifying and exhilarating. There was an American lady in our lift that was freaked out to say the leas. I must say that I was slightly relieved to see that there was solid mesh fencing around us at 320m up. What a view! What an experience! Toby had always had his heart set on eating at the restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower so we decided to treat ourselves. It wasn’t as expensive as we may have thought and the restaurant served all its food in Tupperware-type containers, with bread delivered to the table in paper bags, all to give it the feeling you’re on a picnic. The waiters were scurrying around with stainless steel picnic baskets, lined with red and white gingham for our “picnic in the sky”. It was pretty cool. We walked down from the last level using the stairs, just so we could get a feel for how high we were. Toby commented on what irony it would’ve been had the designer of the Eiffel Tower fallen during the construction (“I Fell” – just in case…)
The next stop on our agenda was the Cathedral of Notre Dame. As with the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower the Cathedral was way bigger than we could ever have imagined (and they reckon things are big in Texas!) Walking through the church, we were struck by its height, the intricate details of its architecture and the magnificence of the stained glass windows. There were lit candles all throughout the building and we were told to peruse in silence so there was a very solemn atmosphere inside. The original intent behind building this magnificent structure was to bring honour to God but we felt, as we walked through, that it is largely the building itself, its designers and architects that get the majority of the credit now, with God left to sit on the sidelines.
We walked along the Seine (which was insane) towards the Louvre but as the rain started to settle in and I lost feeling in more than one of my toes, we ducked in to one of the many street cafes that line the streets and warmed up with a chocolat chaud or two and did some people watching. Ahhh. It was nice to thaw out.
By the time we got to the Louvre it was starting to get darker and colder and we had a long walk ahead of us so we decided to take a few snaps and come back in the morning. So we walked the long route back to our hotel (it’s not as convenient a location as we’d originally thought but it gives us a chance to walk off all the croissants!) We have to pass through a fairly seedy (let’s just say you wouldn’t want to walk alone in the dark) part of town along the way and we were amazed at the number of wig shops and hairdressing/beauty parlours that lined the Boulevarde! Shop after packed-out shop of people donning wigs and getting themselves dolled up for their Friday night out in the city. So many!
No wigs for us I’m afraid. We were all a bit plum-tuckered out after a big day!
