Paris by Day, and back to Londres.
We checked out and left our bags at the hotel for the day, and hit the pavement early, stopping for breakfast just down the boulevard from Le Lapin Blanc. We had intended taking the hop on bus to the Eiffel Tower, where we had an entry booked for 10:30, but realized we could never make it on time, and took the metro instead. We did use the hop on bus throughout the day, but it was largely a repeat of last night’s wonderful Paris by night tour (and we’d had enough of the corny recorded dialogue that accompanied the tour), and so really just used the bus today as transportation, largely wasting the money we’d spent on the tour tickets. Ah well, c’est la vie (there, I saId it while actually in France).
I was happy to go by Metro, actually. There’s a sense of accomplishment in being able to figure out and actually use local subways systems.
I was first in Paris at age 19, and remember how incredible it was first seeing the Eiffel Tower. Even though it can be seen from many points throughout the city, thanks to city planning that keeps most buildings well below the height of the Tower, as you near it and see its vastness, and especially given its enormous base, it is breathtaking. The same was true today. C’est magnifique!
There’s a little oddity that I’ll mention here, which is the Tokyo Radio Tower, which I visited just a couple of months ago. Built in 1958, it’s a replica of the Eiffel Tower, although not an exact replica, and actually stands about 9 feet taller. Just thought I’d mention that.
We weren’t able to pre-book tickets to the very top of the Tower, although I think we may actually have been able to buy tickets at the Tower ticket office that day, but we went with the tickets we had, which were for the second floor – by stairs, not elevator. Phew, but we were ready for the task: 327 steps to the first floor, followed by an additional 347 steps to the the second, or 674 steps in all, about 40 percent of the way to the top.
Last time I was here, with Kaye and Amy way back when in 1997, there was a 90-minute line to get tickets,but that was then. Today there was no line at all, and although very busy on the first and second floor observation decks, it surprisingly and happily not especially crowded as I had expected. Anyway, up we went, to great views of the city below and around the Tower.
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We spent quite some time on the Tower, and then hopped on the tour bus to revisit some of the sights and locales we’d visited last night, and traveled around the city, the bus weaving over bridges and in and out of streets, covering much of the city, and decided that we wanted to visit Notre Dame. We sat for a while and pondered in Square Jean XXIII, a lovely small garden to the side of the Cathedral, before moving to Notre Dame inself.
Notre Dame is, of course, a beautiful building, but I must admit I still feel somewhat “cathedraled-out” after seeing so many cathedral and churches in Mexico just a few months ago (and many more over the years before that), and there was a long line to get into Notre Dame, which has largely been rebuilt since the fire in 2019. So we looked and looked some more, walked around the cathedral and then moved on. Time was also running short, as we had to be back at Gare du Nord at 6:15 for our 8:11 pm return Eurostar, allowing time to first pass through immigration and customs control.
Tom decided it was time to stop meandering around the city, and Instead headed back to Boulevard St. Michel to relax and just enjoy the vibe, and maybe grab a drink and something to eat. I, on the other hand, hopped back on the tour bus to revisit the Champs-Elysée and the Arc de Triomphe, and so traveled some more around the city on the bus as it made it circuitous way to the avenue.
I made my way back to the Latin Quarter and Saint Michel by subway, and found my way to Tom, who was eating and relaxing in the Place de la Sorbonne at the same spot we ate last night, and I joined him for a while, and a cool drink, before we headed to Le Lapin Blanc to pick up our bags and take the subway to Gare du Nord, where we arrived just a little early for the Eurostar check-in, and eventually boarded. The journey was smooth and uneventful (no animals getting hit on the track like the day before), arriving back in London around 8:30 (9:30 Paris time), and from St. Pancras hopping onto the northern line to High Barnet, and walking back to the Barrington, arriving around 10:15 pm. We said our goodnights, and I walked back to Hilary and Claudio’s, where we debriefed and went over our trip, before heading to sleep.
Tomorrow, we pick up a rental car, and head to the west country – Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset, stopping ailing the way to visit Stonehenge, and then will be on the road for about ten days,before returning to London on August 13. But now, to sleep! . .