Paris, Île-de-France, France
After dinner Saturday night Doug and Aviva went out to a
Jazz club. Maybe I’m getting to be an old man, but I’m just not into going out
late at night. I decided instead on a long stroll back to my hostel past the Louvre
and along the Seine for some nice nighttime pictures. I’m excited that most
actually came out quite well; it just takes the subject being reasonably well
lit. On this trip I’ve gotten very few night pictures in the cities I’ve visited
mostly because it stayed light so late through the summer. Even in early
September, it’s not completely dark in Paris until somewhat after 9:00 at
night. If it’s dark at 8:00 or 9:00 in
the evening it’s pleasant to walk around for night photographs, but I don’t
usually feel like doing so after 10:00 or 11:00 at night.
After a bit of museuming at the Petit Palais on Sunday
morning, we decided to walk west. The sites of interest in Paris are actually
spread quite widely around the city within the Peripherique. Of course, the
tend to be concentrated within a short distance of the Seine, but some like the
Eifel Tower and Arch de Triomphe are a few miles outside the center.
Of course,
the oval of the city of Paris is only about 40 square miles, so it’s a very
dense and navigable place compared to many of the world’s larger cities. The
vast majority of the metropolitan area’s ten million plus inhabitants live
outside the city limits or the “peripherique” expressway that encloses it.
The west side of Paris holds of some of the city’s swankier
neighborhoods from the Champs Elysees to the Rue Cler to the 16th
Arondissment, as well as its famous sights. One of those famous sights is Les
Invalides, the Napoleonic era military hospital which now houses the national
museum of the army as well as the gold-domed church where Napoleon’s tomb is
located. So many things to see and do in Paris that we only stopped to take a
picture and didn’t go in, although I did go in 2003.
Then, of course, there’s the Eifel Tower, tallest structure
in the world from when it was built for a world exposition in the early 1880s
until the Chrysler Building in New York was completed in the 1920s. I don’t
recall if I’ve ever been to the top.
I recall going up in 1985 but believe we
likely only went to the middle level of the tower. Back in 2003 I believe I
went up to the lower level because you can get there by walking up the steps
rather than waiting in line to take the elevator. It might not have been as
mobbed in late October then as it was now. Again we passed, even though the
view would have been spectacular on such a bright clear day. The Trocadero, the
Art Deco plaza with fountains on the hill across the Seine from the Eifel Tower
brings back memories. That’s where we stopped on the last day of our 2005 tour for
a group photo with the tower behind, followed by our farewell dinner. I’m always
impressed by the beautiful symmetry in the design of so many of the buildings
in Paris but especially in the city’s overall layout.
We decided on a Seine boat trip for the afternoon, a Bateau
Mouche as they are called. I guess they’re great if you only have a very short
time in Paris and want to get good views of the sights along the river. Having
walked most of the distance of the boat ride between the Eifel Tower and Isle
Saint Louis over the last several days, though, I feel the views of everything
are much better from street level and from the bridges than from the boats
where you are quite low on the river.
The trip isn’t particularly informative
either. And they don’t even have a bar on the boat for the hour trip. My brother calls that “leaving money on the
table” since they could make a killing serving beers instead of just having a
few vending machines.
The Arch de Triomph is another of Paris’s great landmarks, situated
at the center of L’Etoile, the intersection where eight significant streets
come together in a giant chaotic traffic circle. It’s actually nowhere near as
chaotic as what I used to hear described as a kid. Maybe the French have become
more Anglicized in their driving habits. But still, how on earth do you get to
the center? Well, that’s easy; There are
tunnels. You can climb to the top of the
arch for fantastic views of the city, and there’s also a museum in it too. We
were beat, though, after a long day of walking so ready to wander down the
Champs Elysees in search of an outdoor café and a beer. Maybe it’s not as
elegant as it once was (there are American fast food joints on it), but it’s
still a grand boulevard fitting of the Bastille Day military parades held each
year. I can see how President Trump
would be mesmerized enough by it to want one for Washington too.
Well, that was six days for me in Paris and again I feel
like I hardly scratched the surface. I don’t expect it will be another fifteen
years until I’m back again, though. I’d like to travel more extensively in
France and will definitely be passing through the capital again at least for
excursions in the northern part of the country in the years ahead. As Ah-nold declared
in the Terminator movies, “I’ll be back!”
2025-05-22