Eiffel Tower, and the Luxembourg Garden

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On our first trip to Paris four years ago, I had probably posted close to 100 photos of the Eiffel Tower within the first few days here. The sight of it fascinated me! On this trip, although we had the occasional glimpse of the tower as we travelled around the city, we did not actually go down to see it for over two weeks!

There was a lot more security around the tower this year, as there is at all major monuments and museums in the city. because of that, there were huge lineups to get through a gate just to stand directly below the tower. And although I had considered buying a ticket to go up this year, it appeared to be a wait of 2 to 3 hours so we decided to pass on that attraction.

The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. If you like, you can click above on the Eiffel Tower link for the history, facts, and tourist info such as the prices to go up the Tower, or you can just enjoy the few photos I've posted here.

After wandering around the tower for a while, we decided to jump on the metro and make our way over to Le Jardiniere du Luxembourg. Located in the 6th arrondissement, it was created in 1612 by Marie de'Medici, the widow of King Henry lV of France, for a new residence she constructed, the Luxembourg Palace. You can click the link above for more details.

The gardens cover 25 hectares and are filled with lawns, flowers, trees, ponds and fountains and dozens of sculptures throughout. The Parisians and tourists love the tranquility here and visit for walks, jogs, picnics and to play with the remote control sailboats in the pond. It's a great spot to buy an ice cream cone and relax on one of the hundreds of chairs set out by the water or in the shade.

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