Paris - Part 3

Location: Paris

Ok I know we've been on Paris for awhile now, but clearly it was a very busy weekend. I promise this is the last segment!

Picking up where we left off (leaving the Louvre), my next destination is also Paris' most famous...the Eiffel Tower. There are several parks in near vicinity, and here is one of them right next to the base.
My friend and I had picked up a bottle of wine while walking there, and we decided it made more sense to drink it before ascending than trying to carry it. Plus we weren't sure what the liquids policy was.

As we sat in the park drinking our wine and eating our baguette with local cheese, this was our view. Not bad, eh?
A half an hour later we were out of wine and feeling adventurous, so we decided to take the stairs rather than wait in the much longer line for an elevator. Directly in front of us standing in line was a little French girl who was not only cute but hilarious. She particularly enjoyed making faces at everyone in line and running her tongue across the entire length of the hand rails. Charming I know, but it provided some humor for the long wait (maybe an hour in total).
As we were walking in, I had the great idea that we should run up the stairs since we were so close to sunset. After all, we could always stop if we got tired. Seems logical, right?!?

I should take a step back and explain how the Eiffel Tower is set up. There are 3 floors, and people are only allowed to walk up the first two. Everyone has to take the elevator up to the 3rd. And the floors aren't evenly spaced either; I'd guess the first two floors only make up about the first half of the tower.

My official time? I can proudly say that I made it to the first floor in 3 minutes and 15 seconds. I was a bit winded, but the effort was well worth it because I just barely caught the tail-end of sunset.
And another one of the Paris skyline.
One amazing thing about this next picture is that it was taken 30 seconds after the previous one, and the sun is completely below the horizon. I'm happy I didn't walk :)
And the view across the Seine river.
I also thought the Arc de Triumph really stood out well at nighttime.We then ran up to the 2nd floor. This took considerably longer and was something like 5 1/2 minutes for me. I also decided upon reaching my destination that perhaps drinking large amounts of wine and running up stairs wasn't the wisest thing to do. A learning experience, one might say.

The elevator line from 2nd to 3rd floor was quite long. It actually looped around the entire floor, and I managed to take this picture looking up towards the top while standing in one of the four corners. I had no idea it was illuminated by blue lights at night, but it certainly looked neat.
And at the start of every hour, there are also white lights which flicker for a couple of minutes. Again, a very cool picture.
This is up on the top floor looking out over the city. It was breathtakingly beautiful, even if a little chilly. But there's a champagne bar at the top where one can purchase a small glass for the "small" price of 15 euros. I passed.

And in case you're wondering, yes that is a spotlight coming from the Tower.
We realized while standing at the peak that the wine stores closed in 15 minutes, and here we were with nothing to drink for the rest of the evening. So we ran back down, which we both agreed was considerably easier than up. Yay gravity. At the bottom we took some more pics, the next one being likely my favorite from the whole trip.
Armed with our next bottle of wine, we continued walking along the river to check out the many beautiful bridges, and in a half-desperate attempt to find a bathroom. Of course we stopped and took some great photos along the way as well.
Here's a great one taken with the blinking lights.
As neat as that picture is, the video below captures the entire scene even better.

Next on our stop was the Moulin Rouge, and it was far enough away that we actually made use of our metro passes (one of the few times). The Moulin is very easy to find; one simply walks off the metro and it's literally right around the corner.
And of course I wanted to walk around and see the nightlife of the red-light district. Many funny & awkward pictures ensued, many of them not appropriate for the general public. But the names of the clubs were quite humorous, including this one.
We actually hadn't managed to eat dinner yet, but luckily we walked past a street vendor selling crepes. Great way to finish an evening.

Our early alarm pulled both of us out of deep sleep the following morning. It was difficult to muster the will to get out of bed, especially since it was so warm under our covers and our room was freezing cold. A warm shower definitely helped, and after stopping for some more breakfast croissants, off we went on the daily adventures.

Our first stop was La Basilique du Sacré-Coeur ("Church of the Sacred Heart"), which despite its striking appearance is actually a "very young" church. I should clarify what the French mean by young...it opened in 1891.
It also conveniently sits on the highest point in the city, so the view can be quite spectacular. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy that morning (as are most in Paris), but the view was impressive nonetheless.
But this incredible picture is actually stolen from the net, but I figured it was too good to pass up. It looks tiny, but I recommend you enlarge it for full appreciation.
We then went by the Arc de Triumph. Even though we had been across the street from it two days before, it was as close as we could get at the time because it was closed.

It was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806, but actually wasn't completed until 25 years later after his exile and the next king had taken over. Here's a fun trivia fact - it's actually the world's 2nd largest triumphal arch behind the slightly taller one in Pyongyang, North Korea.

This was taken right across the street.
I realized one cannot fully appreciate it from across the street; I was much more impressed when standing under it.
And the level of detail on the carvings is amazing as well. Here is one of them, but there are 3 other equally impressive ones as well.
And similar to other triumphal arcs, there are names of fallen generals and high-ranking officers inscribed on walls. This particular one faces North, hence the names are for soldiers who passed on wars in the North (as demonstrated by the "Nord" at the bottom).
We checked our watched and realized we were down to a couple of hours. We thought it best to enjoy a baguette with cheese and a bottle of wine on a bench along the Seine river. (And yes, I too have noticed a preference to enjoy the local drink on these trips. But look at this view? I regret nothing).

In this case the wine turned out to be particularly useful because we stopped by the Musee d'Orsay, Paris' second largest museum and conveniently located right across the river from where we were sitting. I am now of the opinion one should have a slight buzz whenever touring museums.

Musee d'Orsay is actually pretty cool because it is an old converted train station which houses many French pieces (paintings, sculptures, photography, and even furniture) from 1850 to 1915. Unlike other museums which segregates pieces in separate wings, d'Orsay has them all jumbled together. This provided a lot of contrast which made the experience more fun. Of course the wine helped too...

But the inside does kind of look like a train station, doesn't it?

And as promised, there are lots of famous pieces, including this one by Van Gogh.

But my favorites were the sculptures. Most were located in the hallway between the rooms, and I found many to be really cool. Here are a few:

And this pillar reminded me as something from the old computer game "Doom". Really dark and twisted, but very graphic.

And this one was supposed to depict the ancient gladiators fighting in the Coliseum.

And although I don't know the story behind this piece called "Les Nubiens" by Ernest Barrias, I found the detail in it to be incredible.

A lot of people had told me they enjoyed d'Orsay more than the Louvre, and I can see their point. It's much more manageable to do in a few hours (the Louvre's size made it almost seem overwhelming), and there is such a variety of pieces that it really kept my attention.

And then it was time to leave!

As if the weekend wasn't long enough, I wound up getting to the airport about an hour before my flight and was surprised to find check-in had already closed. Mind you, I'm armed with nothing but a small backpack (no luggage to check) and am already in the correct terminal. There wound up being five of us standing there talking to a customer service representative who refused to have someone come down and print out our boarding passes. It was the worst customer service experience of my life (I now have my frustrating experience with the French); she actually lied to us, we called her out on it, and she just left the desk and refused to come back. I'm not normally a violent man, but I will find some measure of solace should some terrible thing happen to AirComet.

I wound up missing my flight and had to go to another terminal and shop for a new ticket. Nothing leaving that night of course, but many hours later I had a ticket for 7am the next morning. Wound up sleeping in a small hotel near the airport, waking up at 5am, caught the flight, and went straight to work for the day. It sucked big time. Still, the weekend was more than amazing enough to dwarf even this hellish experience. And I enjoy joking the city liked me so much that it prevented me from leaving :)

A lot more photos can be found here. I actually ran my camera dead for the first time on this trip, so enjoy!