We woke up bright and early, to a gray and dismal sky. The plan was to visit the Notre Dame in the morning and after lunch walk along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.
I don’t know how, however, we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. We had a lovely breakfast of pain au chocolat, chocolate croissant, the freshest I have ever had, with a cafe creme. We sat outside the cafe, and even though it was cold and wet, it was very enjoyable. Just sitting under the awning, watching the early morning rhythms of the Parisians on their bikes or walking on their heels at a fast clip, relaxed us.
We walked through the narrow streets, lined by the tall Parisian apartments, off-white with black fenced balconies with red geraniums in the window boxes. The sixth arrondissement where we were staying is mainly for students of the Sorbonne University. We crossed a school of medicine, and a school of pharmacy, countless book stores-called librairies-whereas the libraries are called bibliotheques. The French seem to be voracious readers, there was at least one book store on every street, along with a couple of art galleries and cafes.
I hadn’t pre-bought any tickets for the Eiffel Tower, but thankfully due to the inclement weather, there was no line to get the tickets and we walked in to take the lift to the second level. The views from level 2 are considered to be the best because one can get a birds eye view of all the important monuments in Paris. Even though it was cloudy, we still could appreciate the various buildings dotting the landscape.
We walked down the stairs in one of the four ‘legs’ of the tower. Up close one can marvel at the fact that this intricate structure which was built more than a 100 years ago, is still so sturdy. And even a 100 years ago they had the know-how to build this engineering marvel. You can stand for a minute to watch how when the elevator goes up, these huge pistons which work with hydraulic pressure go down, and vice versa.
We took a lot of pictures, coming down the stairs and standing right under the tower looking up. It’s enormous.
Then we walked across the bridge towards the Trocadero.
The best view of the Eiffel Tower is from the Trocadero. This is a museum surrounded by beautiful gardens and a long pool with fountains. We sat here under a pink flowering tree and enjoyed the magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower.
The best times we had were sitting on the park benches, people watching. No harm in doing it because that is what most people do, just look around at others. We saw parents with toddlers and others with teenagers, we saw groups of girls taking instagram worthy pictures, people just sitting and taking in the atmosphere of Paris.
Later we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, started by Napoleon Bonaparte after his victory at Austerlitz, it honors the soldiers of the French Revolutionary wars. I enjoyed the short informational video describing such arches all over the world, including the India Gate in New Delhi.
We climbed almost 300 steps to go to the top of the arch-yes, I counted, and I had to take a break every 100 or so stairs to catch my breath. The coolest thing about the arch is that from the top you can see the 12 roads that radiate outward like spokes of a wheel, one of them being the famous Champs Elysees, lined by designer stores and cafes, considered to be the most beautiful avenue n the world.
It is wide, it is beautiful, it is run over by tourists, and walking down it one is transported to a different world altogether. I almost felt like entering the Louis Vuitton and Dior stores and trying out some of their most expensive, luxe merchandise.
We kept walking and ended up on one of the streets leading to our hotel. We had some well-deserved, very delicious gelato, followed by a Nutella crepe. and later we had dinner at one of the roadside cafes.
So, the roadside cafes/bistros, the tables are actually so tightly placed. We sat in the window of this bistro, and right next to us was a young couple who talked non-stop the whole time they were there. My husband and I could barely speak to each other because it seemed if we talked, we would be interrupting these two.
The waiters were nice throughout our stay, almost all of them spoke good English. But it’s true, food takes its time reaching the table, everything is done in a calm, laidback manner. I joke with my family that we eat so fast that our dining time is never more then 45 minutes. Well, here we went upwards of 90 minutes every evening, which must be a record for us.
That was the end of our second day in Paris. I loved the walking in the local streets, followed by sitting at a roadside cafe with a cup of coffee and watching the world go by.