Paris - La Tour Eiffel

Caelli desperately wanted to see Monet's garden at Giverny, and we'd planned to go with her - until we saw the cost of train tickets and entry! We sent her off alone and did some more Paris icons. First on the list was the Eiffel Tower. However, when we got there it was very foggy/smoggy, and even looking at the tower wasn't clear. We hopped on the boat instead. It left from near the Eiffel Tower, chugged upstream until it was past the island, then came back. It was nice, but I wouldn't do it again.

We'd hoped that the sun would have burnt off the cloud around the Eiffel Tower, but not quite. Oh, well...up we went. 704 steps up to the second level. Wow! It wasn't that hard, because we stopped and looked quite often. The first level is 21 stories high.

The second level is 43 stories high. Notice all the tourist buses around the edge of the roundabout in the second photo.

We decided to pay the extra six euros and take the elevator to the top. It was fantastic!

Some nice shots when we got down again.

From there, we caught a bus to l'Arc de Triomphe. We went 180 degrees around the giant roundabout - the one with 12 radiating streets, no lane markings and no apparent road rules! The bus went straight to the centre of the road (close to the Arc) on a sharp diagonal, cutting off about 6 or 8 cars (all in separate non-lanes), before heading diagonally off again. Chaos! The Arc was commissioned in 1806 and completed in 1836. It was much bigger than Phil was expecting! Can you see us? We're tiny.

On the way home in the metro, we bumped into our little chamber orchestra again. Most of the players were different, but we recognised a couple from yesterday. As we weren't in a hurry, we stopped and listened for almost an hour. It was great! Vivaldi, Mozart, Pachelbel. I could have stayed longer. Much, much longer.  (I haven't played my violin for over six weeks now.)

After tea we headed for Trocadero, the recommended site from which to watch the Eiffel Tower light show. We had seen Trocadero earlier in the day, but we didn't know what it was then. Here it is from the top of the Eiffel Tower...

...and here is the Eiffel Tower lit at night...

...and here it is with the sparkly light show that takes place for five minutes each hour.