We started our second day in Paris with Champ de Mars, a large park next to the Eiffel Tower. It is where most people enjoy taking loads of funny photos with the Eiffel Tower. Candy and I were one of those.
After spending hours taking as many photo as we could in front of the Eiffel Tower, we walked past and under the Tower. Although there wasn't too crowded as we expected, we didn't attempt to climb the Tower because we thought the view from the Arc de Triomphe would be more interesting. We didn't want too many views from the top. I don't believe it would be a loss as we could only do as much as we could with limited time. One can't always cover everything in a city in just one or two visits. That gave us exactly the reason to visit Paris again in the future.
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| Next time we will be taking this elevator to get to the top of Eiffel Tower... |
Then we walked across the river towards the Palais de Chaillot for another great view of the Tower after appreciating the monster-like structure of the Eiffel Tower at the bottom of the Tower. Great view. Was a bit of long walk though. The number of tourists there was not surprising to us, but the number of street hawkers was quite astonishing and, somewhat, annoying.
Walking along River Seine, we then crossed the Pont Alexander III, from where we could see our next stop, Les Invalides. The bridge itself was a great piece of work with a large number of nicely crafted sultures. According to wikipedia, it was built between 1896 to 1900 and was named after Czar Alexander III of Russia. I was wrong that I thought the bridge was more than 110 years old. From there, we were also able to appreciate the view of the Eiffel Tower one last time.
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| The statue kicking the Eiffer Tower |
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| Statue staring at the Eiffel Tower with love |
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| A kiss of love |
The Invalides is a gianormous architectural complex built in the 17th Century. It now houses a few museums, including the Army's Museum and the Tomb of Napoleon.
We didn't spend much time there as we were extremely hungry at the time and were desperately looking for food... Later, we found what we were looking for: a Napoleon cake for Candy and an Opera cake for myself.
As we moved on, interestingly, we were approached by a Lebanese old man on the street. Well, he was a nice old man waiting for the birth of her daughter's son. Guess he was a bit bored wandering around Paris. So, we walked together for the next hour or so. Thinking back now, I believe it wasn't a very easy walk for him as it was quite a distance we walked.
Finally, we departed at the Arc de Triomphe. It was a good encounter and I really appreciate his kindness to walk with us.
On Day 1, I wasn't able to climb to the top of Arc de Triomphe. I did on Day 2.
Not a difficult climb, but Candy preferred to stay on the ground level for 2 reasons: a) she has done it before and b) she's really tired (poor girl :( ). Therefore, my ascend to the top of Arc de Trimphe was very efficient as I didn't want Candy to wait too long. I just wanted to get a feeling of the city orientation of Paris and experience the view from such a great architecture.
The view was good but not great, mainly because of the weather condition. Seeing with my own eyes that the few wide and long avenues radiating from the Arc de Triomphe was stunning. From there. I also found two places which I should have covered in my trip - the Montmartre and La Defence. The Montmartre district, sitting on a hill, is a natural high point in the city to give tourists a gorgeous view of Paris from the north. La Defence is not a must-go, in my opinion. But the ultramodern design of buildings is such a great contrast to what we could find in central Paris. It was just like 10 minutes Metro ride from the Arc. I think it is still worthwhile to pay there a visit. Next time then!
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| The Montmartre District |
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| La Defence |
The rest of the day, we spent in the Louvre Museum as you can tell from the pictures...
