Paris Day One

 

I finally arrived in Paris early on Wednesday morning and was not prepared for the nearly 2 hour ride from the airport to my hotel. It is a BIG city and has a lot of traffic.

My hotel was a quaint boutique lodging which was apparently the favorite Paris stop for Jean Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir. It was in short, very comfortable and welcoming.

I had a number of things that I wanted to see and do in Paris but after having lost a day to cancelled flights and another half to the unanticipated traffic, I jumped right in to my plans.

My first visit was to a museum near the hotel that I had found online. It is The Museum of The Liberation of Paris. It actually chronicles the history of the city post WWI, to the German takeover in 1940, through the occupation and to liberation in 1944. It covers in detail the lives of Parisians during the occupation as well as the political split that took place between the government that capitulated to the Nazis and the resistance led by Charles de Gaulle. I did take some pictures there but because the artifacts were behind glass, They were not very good. 

After the museum, I headed to one of my targeted attractions, The Eiffel Tower. Knowing that visiting a structure like this is usually very different in the day and then the night. I planned for a late afternoon reservation order to experience both. The tower first came into view when I was about a mile away (I walked the 2 miles between the museum and there.) At that distance it really didn't look all that big so when I actually got there, I was AMAZED! The distance between the legs is over 400 feet. It's 1083 feet tall, (compare that to The Empire State Building at 1250 feet). I was quite taken with the size of the feet and the intricacy of the metal structures.

The feet are impressive.

To get to the top you have to take 2 elevators, the first of which goes diagonally up one of the legs. Trust me that feels just a bit sketchy. The second elevator is in the center of the structure and travels relatively slowly to the floor beneath the top deck. That is the "safe" level as it is enclosed. A short stairway takes you to the top deck which is open and was very windy but offered spectacular views of the city and the Seine River. The sunset was not bad either!

One of the more interesting things is that Eiffel maintained an office at the top of the tower. It is on dispaly and depicts Eiffel visiting with and receiving a gift of a phonograph from Edison.

One of the nicer things about most of what is displayed in that it is published in English as well as French and other languages.

The tower at night is spectacular and on this occasion was lit in red, white and blue in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2015.

After My visit I walked the 2 miles back to my hotel, tired but satisfied with the day.