After the Eiffel Tower we hung out at the nearby Parc du Champ de Mars while the kids played in the playground near the southern corner. A lady from New York who was there with her small kids approached us. She hadn’t spoken English to an adult in a week or more it seemed and decided to take it out on us. After 15 minutes or so of non-stop chatter on her part we were wondering if we’d ever get away. Luckily, another lady from the states showed up with her children who were much closer in age to the New York lady’s kids. The New York lady immediately ditched us to burn this other lady’s ears off and arrange play dates with their kids much to our relief.

We walked over to Rick Steves’ favorite Rue Cler to check it out. The place was dead and nothing special on a Monday. We ate lunch at Cafe du Marche which was OK.

Also based on Rick Steves’ recommendation (and those of someone else as well), we decided to head back to Luxembourg Park to check out the puppet show.

We saw a couple of puppet shows in Denmark that were really good and didn’t require any knowledge of Danish to thoroughly enjoy. Admission to see the Danish shows was free. As it turned out, the puppet show (guignols or Marionnettes du Luxembourg) in Jardin du Luxembourg was a huge disappointment. Not only did it cost almost US$10 for each of us to get in, but the puppet show is not the least bit enjoyable unless you are fluent in French. I take that back, even the French adults there didn’t seem to be having a good time. In fact, many people, in addition to ourselves, left at the intermission.

Anyway, back to our walk there from the Rue Cler…

We walked past the above Army Museum (Musee de l’Armee). In the background you can see the dome over Napoleon’s Tomb (Eglise du Dome).

We also walked past the outside of the Rodin Museum (Musee Rodin). Without even going in you can see The Thinker from the backside (pictured above). We saw a much smaller version back in Copenhagen.

The walk was pretty tiring after walking up the Eiffel Tower earlier in the day, but there were some cool sights along the way. For instance, we saw a window washer without any scaffolding; he was just on a rope.

I like the above photograph not only for the window washer but for the French architecture and clouds.

Posted on August 21st, 2008 under Paris. Tags: clouds, museums, Paris, pictures. Comments: 2

I once sat alone in a room full of Rembrandts while in the same building the Mona Lisa sat alone in a room full of tourists.

Posted on August 20th, 2008 under Paris. Tags: louvre, museums, Paris, pictures. Comments Off on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

There are three levels on the Eiffel Tower. There is really nothing more to see from the top level, and based on how crowded the much larger, middle level was, I didn’t see any reason to become a sardine higher up.

In the above photograph you can see Sacre-Coeur in the distance in the middle. Closer, and to the right, are the Grand and Petit Palaises.

Jardins du Trocadero can be seen from the Eiffel Tower in the above picture. In the distance is Paris’s business center.

With some magnification you can get a good view of the Arch of Triumph from the Eiffel Tower.

The top level of the Eiffel Tower is still a long way up from the middle level.

From the park (Parc du Champ de Mars) next to the Eiffel Tower you can get the most common, postcard-type views of the Eiffel Tower.

One last note on the tower… If you take the stairs up, like we did, you can still take the elevator down for no additional fee.

Posted on August 19th, 2008 under Paris. Tags: arch of triumph, clouds, eiffel tower, Paris, pictures, Sacre-Coeur. Comments Off on Eiffel Tower (part 2 of 2)

Sunday night there was much rain while we slept and the forecast was for more on Monday morning. However, when we looked out the window it looked pretty good so we decided to head for the Eiffel Tower before it got too crowded.

When we arrived there we could hardly believe the line. For once, there wasn’t one! Without wondering too much about why we were only queued behind about 5 other people we purchased tickets. We soon found out that we had purchased passes to walk up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. That’s OK though as the tickets were about half the price others were paying to ride up, and the line to take the elevator was quite long.

If you are visiting the Eiffel Tower note that there are 4 ticket booths–one at each of the tower’s corners. The south and east corners sell tickets to walk up the stairs. The north and west corners sell tickets to take the elevator.

669 steps later we made it to the second level.

Looking southeast from the tower we could see the Parc du Champ de Mars. The air was particularly clear because of all the rain. We picked the perfect time to climb the Eiffel Tower it turned out. Normally the view would have been much smoggier. We got that view later from other vantage points like Sacre-Coeur and Arc de Triomphe.

The large dome in the middle of the above photograph is Les Invalides over the tomb of Napoleon.

The clouds were almost as good as Copenhagen. Well, maybe not.

The first Statue of Liberty we saw in Luxembourg Park. It was built in 1870. The one viewed from the Eiffel Tower, above, is in the Seine River and has been since 1889. I believe it goes by the name of French Statue of Liberty. It was done at about the same time as the one in New York’s harbor.

Our line, below, of five quickly turned into a line of hundreds. By the time we left the Eiffel Tower the queues went on forever. We got there just in time.

Posted on August 18th, 2008 under Paris. Tags: clouds, eiffel tower, Paris, pictures, statue of liberty. Comments Off on Eiffel Tower (part 1 of 2)

After the Orsay Museum we planned to ride the 69 bus to get a better feel for Paris. We soon realized that Bus 69 doesn’t run on Sunday and opted for a bite to eat instead. Then we headed down Rue Bonaparte.

After checking out the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres we got caught in a bit of a downpour forcing us into Saint-Sulpice, made famous, in part, by The Da Vinci Code. Saint-Sulpice was remarkable on the inside and a service was taking place. A huge organ in the rear played some most haunting melodies. Nothing is creepier in Paris, it seems, than the churches and what goes on inside.

An impressive fountain awaited us once the rain stopped and we departed St. Sulpice.

We then headed south to Luxembourg Park which was nearly empty thanks to the rain. The French and tourists don’t seem to be able to brave the rain like the Danish.

The above photograph is one of my favorites from the trip, featuring some impressive clouds and the Eiffel Tower in the distance on the right.

Paris’s Pantheon was closed by the time we got there, but the walk was fun and the streets were deserted.

As we walked back to our apartment on the bridges crossing the Seine we caught some nice glimpses of Notre Dame Cathedral. We had thoughts of climbing the tower, but we were more than a bit tired, and 760 steps up and down didn’t sound like too much fun at that point. Plus, it was going to be closing in half an hour.

Posted on August 17th, 2008 under Paris. Tags: clouds, d'Orsay, eiffel tower, night photography, notre dame, Paris, pictures. Comments Off on Long walk home from the Orsay