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Published: April 2nd 2014
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We had a rude awakening this morning. Our taxi was arriving at 5:25am, I had set her alarm for 4:55am, so we could wake up, get ready and go. Easy!
Unfortunately, I had set her alarm for 5:55am mistakenly. Thankfully, I woke up at 5:10am, and we had 15 minutes to get ready and down at reception for our taxi. We were prepared, had our bags packed the night before, so it wasnt such a major, but wasnt a great start to the day. Then we had to go through Eurostar security, which is similar to airport security, which I hate anyway, then the line for the cafe was huge, so I was unable to get my morning coffee. The train journey was smooth and quiet and with the gentle rocking of the carriage, Zac promptly fell asleep and awoke when we reached Gare Du Nord, the northern train station in Paris. We took the subway to Varenne, which is the area our hotel is located in.
Zac's first impression of Paris was seeing Les Invalides, an old military hospital. It is one of the most grand buildings he said he had ever seen, the dome towers above any
mosque, and its intricate gilded designs are just amazing. The road is lined with trees, there are smiling people on bikes and Smartcars everywhere. It is beautiful.
Our hotel is down a side street, the concierge is called Francois, and is a very nice man, he loves his rugby, and Mark & Zac had a good chat about the World cup. We left our hotel for the walk to the Eiffel Tower, it takes about half an hour, and goes through some very nice places. The Eiffel Tower looms large in the distance, there is a huge park that leads up to it, with hundreds of people enjoying the sunshine. Lovers lounge around on the grass, children run around and play, families picnic, tourists take photos, everyone is having a great time. It is a long walk to the Tower, and it just grows bigger and bigger, until you are finally there, at the base of it. It is massive, there is no other word for it. People in 1889 must have been overwhelmed when they saw it. The wait for tickets to go up is 3 hours long, and once you have tickets, the wait to actually go
up the Tower is 2 hours long.
Being clever, we pre-booked lunch at Restaurant 58 up the Eiffel Tower, and got up in 10 minutes. The view is very impressive. We have a 3 course lunch, which is superb, then Zac took the stairs up to the second floor of the tower. It takes roughly 10 minutes of solid climbing, it is not easy, but the view is well worth it. You can go higher, but it costs another 5 euro, and the line for the lift is huge. Mark & I have already been up there so we left Zac to explore.
We walked across the Seine river over to the Trocadero, which has a huge water fountain out front. Very pretty. Got lots of photos there, then went back on the Metro to the Arc De Triomphe. Another structure that is way bigger than you think, and the roundabout is just chaos. There are no lanes, and about 8 different roads that feed onto it. Some people were game enough to run across. There is an underground tunnel, so we took that instead. The Arc De Triomphe is a World War I and II memorial, it
has a flame that is kept burning continually, and it is a very beautiful place. We took a walk down the Champs-Élysées. There is a restaurant that is frequented by the rich and famous, its entrees start at 35 Euro, the mains start at 85 Euro, and the cheapest bottle of wine I saw was 100 Euro. How the other half lives eh.
We retired to the hotel for a while, then took the metro back to the Eiffel Tower for our sightseeing cruise down the Seine. Very worthwhile, got the see the city from a very different angle. This took about an hour and a half, and while Mark and I went to take night photos of the Tower, Zac went back to the hotel.
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