Day 9 - Precipitating Paris

Europe » France » Île-de-France
May 21st 2014

Published: June 2nd 2014

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Tour Eiffel

The Eiffel Tower is poking out from above one of the classic Parisian buildings on our walk. The rain wasn't too bad at this point.

We decided to sleep in a little later today, since the weather was looking crummy. After an interesting French showers, we made our way to breakfast. Right away we were greeted in French and then in English when the staff saw our confusion. We had a great breakfast at the hotel with croissants, yogurt, bacon, fruit, juices, etc. The staff spoke English well so we hoped that today would be better than last night. I wanted to wait for the rain to stop but as the morning went by, we realized it wasn't going to. We headed up to our room to grab our stuff and head out when Kristi read aloud a news story about England. Apparently, a swarm of bees took over a guys car! Nobody was hurt, but apparently the UK is having a bit of a bee problem. I wonder if it's like this every spring/summer.

We never needed our raincoats or umbrella the entire time in England, which is why we brought them. It's a good thing, though, because we were going to need them today. As we first stepped out of the lobby, the rain wasn't bad. It was more of a

Market

There are lots of these little markets on the streets in Paris. Some of them are grouped together, like on Rue Cler, but others are set between cafes and souvenir shops, like this one.

mist. However, I think that's just because our street is so tight that we couldn't get the full effect, because once we turned up the next street, the rain started coming sideways. I hate being in wet clothes, so I was hoping to keep some of it off of me...somehow.

Heading toward the Eiffel Tower, we hit Rue Cler again. This time we looked for some souvenirs, but realized it would be ill-advised to carry bags around with us while we were getting rained on. We made our way over to Champ de Mars, which is the park in which the tower sits. The fist thing I noticed is the monument, of course. However, the second thing was all of the construction that was going on. Underneath almost the entire structure was equipment, crates, and fencing. It really took away from the excitement, but I assumed that from further back, you probably wouldn't even see it. The Eiffel Tower is 81 stores high and was built for the 1889 World's Fair. There are even restaurants and an elevator to the top which we decided not to do today. You can buy tickets online and skip the lines

Eiffel Tower

As you can see, there's quite a bit of construction going on under the tower. They had dedicated elevators, at least, so the ones for tourists were still open. There was also some type of tennis tournament going on (or just getting over), hence the ball in the middle.

but they were sold out for our dates and would have to buy them in person. If we do it, maybe tomorrow will be nicer and actually allow us to see something other than fog and mist. We were approached by a gypsie woman, which Kristi warned me about. She spoke impeccable English, so I allowed myself to be engaged. Luckily, Kristi reminded me and we brushed her off. Their game is to engage you while other cohorts steal from you. I read that many of them are Roma, or from Romania, where there is no work. Clearly, there's not a ton of work for them here, either, but I think they get lured by a dream of a better life. We marvel at the tower for a few minutes, take some selfies, and head across the river Seine toward the Trocadero. These buildings house museums and concert halls, but were also a World's Fair relic. The view from there is much better, so again some more pictures. Unfortunately, the fog is still hanging on so everything is dreary, but you don't really notice the construction underneath the tower. We headed northeast from there to see the Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero

This picture is from the opposite side of the tower, up on the steps of the Trocadero. There are fountains flanking the attractions here, but either due to the events or construction, they were empty. Even through the gloom, it's still a pretty romantic scene.

on foot, rather than in the taxi.

It was a long walk, but we got to see the real Paris, I feel. These streets contain apartments, offices, drugstores, cafes, and a surprisingly large number of florists. It just kept raining and raining. Everytime it stopped I crossed my fingers that it was over, but it just started back up even harder than the last. Finally, we reached the roundabout which contains the beautiful Arc. At this point I'm thinking to myself, "there's no way I'm trying to get out there." Good thing Kristi read up on it and knew that there was an underground passage to go out. All I heard was that it was underground and it doesn't rain under there so I was game. We headed down some slippery steps and actually collapsed the umbrella. I could sit in this tunnel for a while to dry off and let my poor umbrella-wielding hand uncramp, but we pushed on. You come up right in the middle of the traffic circle and underneath the Arc. It looks a lot bigger than from the road. It has intricate carvings and decorations are all very impressive. It was built

Paris Bakery

There are lots of these little bakeries around the city, too. They have tarts, cakes, bagels, and even sandwiches. There are always seats outside to enjoy in the true Parisian manner.

back in the early 1800's to commemorate the soldiers of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is also located here and contains an eternal flame that burns for those who were never able to be identified. It seems to be a theme in a lot of cultures, as we saw one in Westminster Abbey and there's also one stateside in Arlington. At this point, the rain is coming in sideways and getting us wet even under this huge arch. Back to the tunnel, we go. I feel like a troll retreating under his bridge.

We headed for Avenue Des Champs-Elysées once we got back on the the other side of the circle. This is where all of the fancy shopping is. Probably the perfect place to go purse shopping so I'll try my best to keep Kristi moving at all times. Right, I was. Prada, Cartier, Swarovski, Armani, and the like lined both sides of the street. I was hoping to find some food, but there really wasn't much in the way of eats here. There was a McDonald's, but it just wasn't speaking to me. One odd thing we saw

Gas Station?

I never saw any gas stations until we came to this oddity. It's probably quite convenient; while you wait in traffic maybe they could just gas you up!?

on this street is that car dealerships just have stores here. They have models on display and you buy them from agents sitting at computers, very nicely dressed. Well, at least in the Mercedes showroom, which I had to go see. They even had a store to buy Mercedes merchandise such as wallets, watches, luggage, and pens. Kind of weird, but also kind of cool. We luckily escaped without even stepping into one of those stores. On the way to the Louvre, we passed some big attractions. The Grand Palais was first. We did't go inside, but from some research I know that it has enormous ceilings made of glass which were originally meant to house vast art collections. They now hold large events there and it also houses a museum. Next was the Place de la Concorde which is yet another traffic circle that contains two intricate fountains and an Egyptian obelisque. On the other side of the square was the Tuileries Gardens. This is a huge park in the middle of the city, bordering the river. The rain really put a damper on this one as we couldn't really sit and enjoy the surroundings. There were tons of

Paris Buidling

A lot of the buildings here are just like you see in movies or cartoons. They actually reminded us of New Orleans, quite a bit, since they are French in many ways.

flowers, ponds, and walking paths that we will hopefully get to enjoy tomorrow. After we walked and walked through the gardens, we finally saw them in the distance. The famous, iconic pyramids of the Louvre.

We aren't much into art, so we didn't end up going in. That and the line being super long...and being wet and gross feeling. We took some more pictures, watched the ducks for a bit and decided to head to the last destination for the day: Notre Dame. More walking ensued and I'm starving at this point, not to mention our feet are aching. Then we saw something I forgot about completely, the Pont des Arts. Better known as the 'love lock bridge,' couples purchase padlocks, write their names on them, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key into the River Seine as a symbol of their everlasting love. It sounds and looks really sweet, but I had just read an article about the toll this is taking on bridges, putting so much weight onto them, their structure is being compromised. There are lots of street vendors selling locks but we passed up on it, knowing the issues. On the

Flowers

One of the many flower shops along the streets of Paris.

other hand, I would think that the city would post signs or something, so can it really be that bad? I don't know, but we carried on. After crossing over to the island that Notre Dame is on, we turned down a couple side streets. There were, of course, more flower shops, but these were just stands set up in a little square. The cathedral sits on an island in the middle of the River Seine. There are just a handful of streets that run more or less north to south, but other than that there are just a lot of public spaces. Notre Dame is an enormous gothic cathedral that isn't just a home for the hunchback, but also the alleged Crown of Thorns and even a holy nail. Thinking back, we should've gone in to get out of the rain, but we had already seen quite of few churches and were starving. The little baguette place across the street won out so we grabbed some to go and headed toward the hotel.

We tried to make the most direct route, but did see a few more random sites (buildings and parks) on the way walking

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile

This is how you don't get hit by the thousands of cars in the giant traffic circle that surrounds the arc. I didn't even know to look for it, but Kristi did. It's also a nice underground break from the rain.

back along the river. We scoped out a few places to eat and decided on one closer to the hotel that I had read about on Tripadvisor. We stopped in at about 6:40, but they didn't seat tables until 7. What?! Jeez, I feel old complaining about this, but ugh. So we stopped back at the hotel, dropped off some unnecessary gear and headed back. The restaurant is called Casa Milano and is obviously Italian. Aside from the cafes with seating on the sidewalk, we really didn't see many French restaurants, even though they are so proud of their food. This restaurant is owned by a father and son, with the son being on duty tonight. He was a very nice young guy that really likes what he does; you can tell. He sat us at the bar that overlooks the open kitchen, which is pretty cool. We watched them wrapping, chopping, dicing, and grilling while munching on some oil-cured olives. Strong but good. We were offered belini's and we figured "why not?" Wow...they were good. Pureed peach with some prosecco poured on top to fill the flute. I could've had a few more of these, but I thought better

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile

The real deal, here, folks. Unfortunately, we didn't get back here to take any night shots. I was ok with that in the end because of the construction going on at the arc.

of it. Not to mention that we decided to get hamburgers and that might be a weird pairing. Everything I read about this place praised the burgers so I was excited to see them hit our plates. They aren't a traditional Italian dish, but they were delicious, too. We saved room for some tiramisu served in a large martini glass, too.

A quick five-minute walk back to the hotel was just what we needed to digest before crawling into bed for the night. I couldn't really get into anything on tv, as the only thing in English was the news. The weather report says it's going to be nice tomorrow. Actually, my phone says it's going to be nasty, but Kristi's says otherwise. I'm going to believe hers.

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