38 hours in Paris
the Arc de Triomphe
Thursday morning was cold and very misty in Paris-not a good time to visit the Eiffel tower. Trafalgar tours can’t be held responsible for the weather at least. We picked up a local guide and headed out early before the traffic got too bad taking in a drive around the Arc de Triomphe and a quick city tour. After that we got to the Eiffel tower and queued for 30 minutes before taking a lift to the second level. It was sad not to be able to see anything.
Most of the group left at 11 am for a “tour” of the Louvre (I think it meant a quick run past the Mona Lisa) , followed by a “tour” of Versailles (another quick run round). They were to be home by 4.30, so allowing for queuing and slow travel times their 90 Euro tour was pretty pricey I think.
We jumped on a double decker bus, took a city tour and had a wonderful lunch in a fantastic little sidewalk café. I had French onion soup and duck confit with fried potatoes (that had mushrooms capsicum onions and little bits of duck through them. I think they may have been cooked in the duck fat and were so delicious.
The weather cleared so we eventually got great views of the Eiffel tower, the Arc, the Louvre, the opera house the Avenue des Champs Elyses, the Place de Concorde, The Seine with all it’s beautiful bridges, the Latin Quarter with all its cafes and restaurants, the Flower market and book sellers along the river. Paris is a really beautiful city-it has heaps of gardens so there were lots of flowers and lots of trees with beautiful autumn colours.
We caught the Metro back to the hotel and got showered and changed for our farewell dinner. It was held in a restaurant back in the city. We were told it would be there because the staff and owners were used to groups moving around and taking photos etc. It was so cramped you couldn’t fit a credit card between tables let alone move around to take photos. Going to the toilet involved a few people from a couple of tables having to move! On the way back to the hotel, we took a tour of Paris by night visiting all the places we had seen that day. It was all very beautiful, but the most beautiful was the Eiffel Tower. In 2000, the covered it with sparkling lights and it was so successful, they decided to let them stay. At 10pm every night, it sparkles for 10 minutes and is really amazing. We viewed it from the same place we had lunch.
Thursday morning was cold and very misty in Paris-not a good time to visit the Eiffel tower. Trafalgar tours can’t be held responsible for the weather at least. We picked up a local guide and headed out early before the traffic got too bad taking in a drive around the Arc de Triomphe and a quick city tour. After that we got to the Eiffel tower and queued for 30 minutes before taking a lift to the second level. It was sad not to be able to see anything.
Most of the group left at 11 am for a “tour” of the Louvre (I think it meant a quick run past the Mona Lisa) , followed by a “tour” of Versailles (another quick run round). They were to be home by 4.30, so allowing for queuing and slow travel times their 90 Euro tour was pretty pricey I think.
We jumped on a double decker bus, took a city tour and had a wonderful lunch in a fantastic little sidewalk café. I had French onion soup and duck confit with fried potatoes (that had mushrooms capsicum onions and little bits of duck through them. I think they may have been cooked in the duck fat and were so delicious.
The weather cleared so we eventually got great views of the Eiffel tower, the Arc, the Louvre, the opera house the Avenue des Champs Elyses, the Place de Concorde, The Seine with all it’s beautiful bridges, the Latin Quarter with all its cafes and restaurants, the Flower market and book sellers along the river. Paris is a really beautiful city-it has heaps of gardens so there were lots of flowers and lots of trees with beautiful autumn colours.
We caught the Metro back to the hotel and got showered and changed for our farewell dinner. It was held in a restaurant back in the city. We were told it would be there because the staff and owners were used to groups moving around and taking photos etc. It was so cramped you couldn’t fit a credit card between tables let alone move around to take photos. Going to the toilet involved a few people from a couple of tables having to move! On the way back to the hotel, we took a tour of Paris by night visiting all the places we had seen that day. It was all very beautiful, but the most beautiful was the Eiffel Tower. In 2000, the covered it with sparkling lights and it was so successful, they decided to let them stay. At 10pm every night, it sparkles for 10 minutes and is really amazing. We viewed it from the same place we had lunch.
posted by janandruss at
5:10 a.m.
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