FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2008

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Today we’re off on our own to explore the city – or a small part of it. We took the Metro to Trocadero Place, just across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower. It’s supposed to be one of the best places to view the tower.










The Eiffel Tower is the quintessential symbol of Paris. It was designed to be a temporary structure for the 1889 International Exposition of Paris. When the tower was completed, it was the tallest building in the world, at 1,000 feet high. It was much maligned by critics, but the Eiffel Tower has become accepted as part of the Paris skyline – it part because of its graceful symmetry, but mostly because of its usefulness as a communications tower.
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It’s such an impressive structure – hard to decide just which angle gives the best picture …
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We walked along the Champs Mars, a long rectangular garden between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire. The Ecole Militaire was originally founded in 1751 by Louis XV for the training of aristocratic army officers. Its most famous graduate is Napoleon Bonaparte.
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We wandered through some narrow streets over to the Eglise Dome, or the Church of the Dome. This church, which is part of the Hotel des Invalides, is the home of Napoleon’s tomb.






The Hotel des Invalides was established in 1670 by Louis XIV to house and care for veterans of his many wars.






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Serving as hospice, barracks, convent, and factory, it was a huge campus that housed up to 4,000 soldiers. Today the complex is home to a huge military museum.



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We went next to the Musee d’Orsay (the Orsay Museum), on the left bank of the Seine. Here we had a nice lunch at the museum’s café and headed out on the roof for a look at the Louvre Museum across the river and the Basilica Sacre Coeur on the hill in Montmartre.














Inside the main part of the museum, it’s easy to see that the building was once a train station (built for the 1900 World’s Fair). There is cavernous central area, housing mostly sculpture, and a huge clock on the wall – a reminder of its railroad past.


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From the museum, we walked along the left bank, checking out the bouquinistes – little booths selling all sorts of old books, posters and postcards.









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We also got a good look at the Louvre across the river and the Ile de la Cite (Notre Dame) downstream.








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At the Pont Neuf, we headed toward Saint Germain de Pres, which is a lively area of cafes, restaurants, antique shops, art galleries and fashion boutiques. The area’s history dates back to the 6th century with the founding of the Benedictine Abbey of St-Germain-des-Pres.
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After the French Revolution, the Abbey was gone but the Church of St- Germain-des-Pres survived. It is a good example of the Romanesque style and it is the oldest church in Paris.






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Les Deux Magots is a café founded in 1881 and named after the wooden statues of two Chinese dignitaries (magots) who sit atop boxes of money on a pedestal inside the café. It was a favorite of Picasso and Hemingway.








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We strolled along the Boulevard St-Germain and turned down the Rue de Buci, a tiny little street filled with food shops and cafes. We missed the morning market, but there was still plenty of activity, interesting people and great looking food.












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And then we headed back to our hotel to join some of our group for dinner at the Eiffel Tower.










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We were amazed at the crowds still standing in lines to climb or ride to the top of the tower.







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Happily, we had reservations for dinner at Altitude 95, on the first level of the Tower, 95 meters above sea level. The food was good, the view was disappointing, but we all had a good time.





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After dinner, our guide took us on a city tour – in the city of lights.









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We drove all over the city and ended up back at the Eiffel Tower in time for the 10 PM light show – every hour on the hour (starting at 10 PM), the tower is covered with flashing blue and white lights, a spectacle that continues for about 10 minutes.