Sunday, 26 April 2015

An EifFULL of Paris



View from top of Eiffel Tower with
Arc de Triomphe
 Our first day exploring Paris and after the huge day yesterday it was a good thing it was not a big one. We headed off and wandered down the Champs-Elysees at the very unseemly hour by Paris standards of 8:45am and almost had the place to ourselves. Could have almost had a bike race up the street there was so little traffic!
Looking up the Eiffel Tower
Our goal was the Eiffel Tower for today and the area around it. We arrived, managed to line up and get our tickets without too much fuss and it didn’t take too long. Amused ourselves by watching the game of cat and mouse between the hawkers flogging off the cheap Eiffel Tower mementos and the Police who were chasing them away. The 2 Police officers would push through and the hawkers would leave while their mates would move in from the other side. The army officers with the automatic weapons were obviously not concerned with the hawkers as they just ignored them. One of the soldiers looked like he was barely old enough to shave – I’m sure his mother would have had to take up his uniform as his gun was almost bigger than him. Takes a bit of getting used to for us from Australia of rounding a corner and almost running into a soldier with a gun – we really would prefer if the gun wasn’t pointing in our direction!
Parc du Champ de Mars
Unfortunately the weather was not great but as we said we are in Paris, at the top of the Eiffel Tower – what is there to complain about. I managed to overcome the fear of heights as we walked around the top – in actual fact it really wasn’t a factor apart from a degree of discomfort standing on the glass floor panels on the first floor. The Tower is certainly an engineering feat particularly for the time and an example of grand thinking. While Mr Eiffel’s design is amazing, whoever thought in the first place to build a tower was a great visionary. It was certainly an amazing morning and the steps were not too much of a problem (say those who only came down them!).
The Seine from Level 1
We then had some time walking around the Parc du Champ de Mars and Trocadero Gardens before the rain came in heavier and chased us home.
Tomorrow the weather promises to be better and we have a full day planned after a fairly restful one today.

Love to all
S&E



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