Post by LHR02 on Sept 7, 2003 14:14:41 GMT -5
The Iron Lady - not Margaret Thatcher - the other one!
Sunday, 7 September 2003
So here we were on the morning of our first full day of Paris. Sure there was the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe BUT all those could wait - first we wanted to take a look at the symbol of Paris - the Eiffel Tower!
We left the foyer that morning after our very first Parisian Café au Lait and pulled out my trusty Michelin Paris Atlas. And just as an aside I totally recommend getting one; it's spirally bound and organized really well BUT most importantly it's more discreet than an accordion style map of the city.
Toronto is a city with a grid system for the streets - Paris is not. As such we had some trouble navigating on that first day and inadvertedly took the longest possible route to get to the tower. Our goal was to get to the foot of the tower by 11 am to meet up with the Mike's Bike Tours of Paris people.
We ended up taking the safest route: following a street up to the Seine and then along the banks of the river until we got to the Tower. Of course it seemed to take forever and I kept wondering why I couldn't see it - kind of a worrying thing!
Eventually though I saw it peek out from behind the buildings. This was another giddy moment much like at the point of the glimpse of Notre Dame the night before. It was sort of like confirmation that after all this time I was finally here!
We ended up making it to the south foot of the Eiffel Tower with about 2 min. to spare. There we found a group of Americans, Swedish people, and fellow Canadians. The Mike's Bike Tour people take you on four hour bike tours of the city. They do both a night tour and a day tour. We opted for the morning one which cost 20 Euros per person.
This is something else I would recommend although with a caveat - it really is only for the young or the young at heart. It might not be for everyone as they tell funny stories and you move around from site to site using your bike. Having said that it's not physically strenuous - I don't think we broke a sweat.
Oh and I know riding a bike through Paris sounds like madness but it's actually quite safe. You mainly follow bike trails through parks and sidewalks only a couple of times do you actually go on the street.
Highlights of the tour included riding out the Ecole Militaire which is now a higher school of military studies (so strategy and stuff). Once upon a time though the poor sons of the nation were schooled there in the military arts - Napoleon graduated from there!
Then we rode our bikes to see Invalides - where Napoleon was burried. It's this absolutely magnificent structure - HUGE - and with a gold roof. Clearly Napoleon must have done something to deserve all of this . . . I just thought he fought a lot of wars. By the way, I can see the Invalides from the 7th floor terrace and it does manage to sparkle spectacularly in both the daytime sun and at night when they illuminate the entire structure.
During our four hours we also rode by the Rodin museum (he's the one who sculpted the Kiss and the Thinker). To be honest there's a whole multitude of sights you see from a very different perspective. And since it was our first full day in Paris we were busy taking it all in.
At about almost 2 in the afternoon we made it to the Tuileries Gardens - which are right by the Louvre. There we stopped for lunch in a café and I had the nastiest salad ever! You would think salads are safe right? Apparently not so. It didn't sit well in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon but at least we had an enjoyable time chatting it up with a couple from Scandinavia and another one from California.
After a long bike ride we stopped on the Champs de Mars (literally translated Fields of War) for a photo op. I got them developed and they turned out really well!
Mohammad and I decided, after the tour, that it was time to climb the tower. But before doing so we sat down for a while on the Champs de Mars. It was an enjoyable and relaxing time. So much so that Mohammad even fell asleep for a little while!
By this point we were hungry and rather than climbing (that's right climbing) the tower on an empty stomach we headed out to find some food. We found this stand that sold crepes for 4 euros each. Unfortunately they got REALLY cheap on the fillings. It probably had to do with being near the Eiffel Tower 'cause all the other crepe places I've seen give out these MASSIVE things!
Satisfied with our light snack we began our climb. We chose to take the stairs 'cause it's a LOT cheaper and the line was a LOT shorter!
What I hadn't mentioned until now is that I twisted my ankle really really badly while hiking in the mountains. The cobble stoned streets of Florence only made matters worse. So by this point I was waking up with incredibly painful calf cramps in the middle of the night! Needless to say the climb for me was a painfull one.
Every couple of flights on the way up they have info boards about important events on the tower. Of course you really know they are put there as opportunities to rest - and that's exactly what me and my poor calves used them for! ;op
The view from the first level was good but not as good as I had hoped. You have to remember though that we're used to the CN Tower which is obviously a lot taller!
After sometime on the first level we made the further climb to the second one. There the view was more like what I had hoped! I took some pictures and enjoyed the sights. The only dissappointing thing is that on the tower you can't actually see the tower itself.
Then it seemed like a comotion happen. They closed off the stairway to get back down and when I asked the guy about it he told me to go down the elevator. It kind of gave the appearance as though they were evacuating the place even though no official announcement had been made yet.
Instead of potentially waiting to be stuck up there we decided to decend. By this point the line for the elevators was huge! When we finally made it to the bottom we found that the entire section below the tower had been roped off with police tape. That and there were lots of ambulances and police cruisers on the grounds. Nobody seemed to know what had happened. I can only assume it was nothing as the police and ambulance left shortly there after.
While we were sitting there I noticed something odd though. At the bottom of the tower you saw a lot of what looked like immigrants selling tacky reproductions of the towers and really cheap postcards. I don't know who they saw but all of a sudden all of them RAN off the grounds below the tower onto the grass. Then they started desperately trying to hide their wares. Eventually they all took off in a mad-dash. My only guess is that it was immigration or something!!
Just as an observation: everyone expects the tower to be black. It's not! It's actually this kind of funny brown colour. Why you would do it brown I don't know. It's also more ornate up close than you expect it to be.
Our tour and the trip to the Tour Eiffel had been interesting, full of great views, and unexpected surprises. If our first day in Paris had been this good we couldn't wait for what was to come next!
Sunday, 7 September 2003
So here we were on the morning of our first full day of Paris. Sure there was the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe BUT all those could wait - first we wanted to take a look at the symbol of Paris - the Eiffel Tower!
We left the foyer that morning after our very first Parisian Café au Lait and pulled out my trusty Michelin Paris Atlas. And just as an aside I totally recommend getting one; it's spirally bound and organized really well BUT most importantly it's more discreet than an accordion style map of the city.
Toronto is a city with a grid system for the streets - Paris is not. As such we had some trouble navigating on that first day and inadvertedly took the longest possible route to get to the tower. Our goal was to get to the foot of the tower by 11 am to meet up with the Mike's Bike Tours of Paris people.
We ended up taking the safest route: following a street up to the Seine and then along the banks of the river until we got to the Tower. Of course it seemed to take forever and I kept wondering why I couldn't see it - kind of a worrying thing!
Eventually though I saw it peek out from behind the buildings. This was another giddy moment much like at the point of the glimpse of Notre Dame the night before. It was sort of like confirmation that after all this time I was finally here!
We ended up making it to the south foot of the Eiffel Tower with about 2 min. to spare. There we found a group of Americans, Swedish people, and fellow Canadians. The Mike's Bike Tour people take you on four hour bike tours of the city. They do both a night tour and a day tour. We opted for the morning one which cost 20 Euros per person.
This is something else I would recommend although with a caveat - it really is only for the young or the young at heart. It might not be for everyone as they tell funny stories and you move around from site to site using your bike. Having said that it's not physically strenuous - I don't think we broke a sweat.
Oh and I know riding a bike through Paris sounds like madness but it's actually quite safe. You mainly follow bike trails through parks and sidewalks only a couple of times do you actually go on the street.
Highlights of the tour included riding out the Ecole Militaire which is now a higher school of military studies (so strategy and stuff). Once upon a time though the poor sons of the nation were schooled there in the military arts - Napoleon graduated from there!
Then we rode our bikes to see Invalides - where Napoleon was burried. It's this absolutely magnificent structure - HUGE - and with a gold roof. Clearly Napoleon must have done something to deserve all of this . . . I just thought he fought a lot of wars. By the way, I can see the Invalides from the 7th floor terrace and it does manage to sparkle spectacularly in both the daytime sun and at night when they illuminate the entire structure.
During our four hours we also rode by the Rodin museum (he's the one who sculpted the Kiss and the Thinker). To be honest there's a whole multitude of sights you see from a very different perspective. And since it was our first full day in Paris we were busy taking it all in.
At about almost 2 in the afternoon we made it to the Tuileries Gardens - which are right by the Louvre. There we stopped for lunch in a café and I had the nastiest salad ever! You would think salads are safe right? Apparently not so. It didn't sit well in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon but at least we had an enjoyable time chatting it up with a couple from Scandinavia and another one from California.
After a long bike ride we stopped on the Champs de Mars (literally translated Fields of War) for a photo op. I got them developed and they turned out really well!
Mohammad and I decided, after the tour, that it was time to climb the tower. But before doing so we sat down for a while on the Champs de Mars. It was an enjoyable and relaxing time. So much so that Mohammad even fell asleep for a little while!
By this point we were hungry and rather than climbing (that's right climbing) the tower on an empty stomach we headed out to find some food. We found this stand that sold crepes for 4 euros each. Unfortunately they got REALLY cheap on the fillings. It probably had to do with being near the Eiffel Tower 'cause all the other crepe places I've seen give out these MASSIVE things!
Satisfied with our light snack we began our climb. We chose to take the stairs 'cause it's a LOT cheaper and the line was a LOT shorter!
What I hadn't mentioned until now is that I twisted my ankle really really badly while hiking in the mountains. The cobble stoned streets of Florence only made matters worse. So by this point I was waking up with incredibly painful calf cramps in the middle of the night! Needless to say the climb for me was a painfull one.
Every couple of flights on the way up they have info boards about important events on the tower. Of course you really know they are put there as opportunities to rest - and that's exactly what me and my poor calves used them for! ;op
The view from the first level was good but not as good as I had hoped. You have to remember though that we're used to the CN Tower which is obviously a lot taller!
After sometime on the first level we made the further climb to the second one. There the view was more like what I had hoped! I took some pictures and enjoyed the sights. The only dissappointing thing is that on the tower you can't actually see the tower itself.
Then it seemed like a comotion happen. They closed off the stairway to get back down and when I asked the guy about it he told me to go down the elevator. It kind of gave the appearance as though they were evacuating the place even though no official announcement had been made yet.
Instead of potentially waiting to be stuck up there we decided to decend. By this point the line for the elevators was huge! When we finally made it to the bottom we found that the entire section below the tower had been roped off with police tape. That and there were lots of ambulances and police cruisers on the grounds. Nobody seemed to know what had happened. I can only assume it was nothing as the police and ambulance left shortly there after.
While we were sitting there I noticed something odd though. At the bottom of the tower you saw a lot of what looked like immigrants selling tacky reproductions of the towers and really cheap postcards. I don't know who they saw but all of a sudden all of them RAN off the grounds below the tower onto the grass. Then they started desperately trying to hide their wares. Eventually they all took off in a mad-dash. My only guess is that it was immigration or something!!
Just as an observation: everyone expects the tower to be black. It's not! It's actually this kind of funny brown colour. Why you would do it brown I don't know. It's also more ornate up close than you expect it to be.
Our tour and the trip to the Tour Eiffel had been interesting, full of great views, and unexpected surprises. If our first day in Paris had been this good we couldn't wait for what was to come next!