Paris: Day-2 in France

On today’s itinerary was the Eiffel Tower and Church of Notre Dame. We had plans of seeing as many of the sights as possible, but time was short, and sights worth seeing many, in Paris. We took a L’Open Tour bus, which is a hop-on-hop-off double decker tourist bus. These buses have different circuit routes which take you to pretty much every tourist attraction in the city, but with a catch (that we later realized)... the last bus is at 6:30PM, and this does not give enough time to see everything. While we wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Napoleon’s Tomb, Luxemburg gardens and Sacre Cour, we could manage just the first two. After day-2 in Paris, I realize that it’s a place that you cannot do justice to if you have only two days.

Church of Notre Dame

The first stop was at Notre Dame, the 12th century church.

Carvings on the facade, Notre Dame

The church is both a tourist attraction and a religious place, so tourists are asked to maintain silence while inside. Mass is still held in this church, as we went in, the mass started.

Interiors of the church.

You may enter the church for free, but if you want to ascend the towers, it costs 8 euros per head. It is a bit funny to have to pay 8 euros to climb up what seemed like a thousand steps, but when you reach the top, this is the view you get!

A Gargoyle looks at the Eiffel Tower.

View from the top of Notre Dame

Ascending to the top of the Notre Dame towers is a good way to find out if you have a fear of heights and/or closed spaces. Walking up the steps, and sometimes narrow spiral staircase, I learnt that I had neither.
Once we descended the Notre Dame towers, it was already past mid-day. I realized that we would have to ignore all other tourist attractions, no matter how attractive they look, and head to the Eiffel Tower. It would be a shame to visit Paris and not see the tower that defines the city! So, turning a blind eye to Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, we headed straight to the tower. While the bus was standing at Champs Elysees, I took a picture of the Arc de Triomphe.

Arch de Triomphe

The bus dropped us off right at the foot of the North pillar of the tower, where the ticket stand is.

Eiffel Tower

We bought a ticket for the elevator to the top floor, which cost us 13.40 euros each. Price of the ticket is a bit steep, but it is an experience to ascend up the tower in the lifts. The lift has large glass windows, and as it ascends slowly up the levels, you get a panoramic view of the city.

View from the top.

The top of the tower has a room where it notes down the direction and distance of different cities in the world. So here I can see exactly how far I am from my home.

Distance to Bangalore, from the Eiffel Tower.

A few parting shots after coming down from the tower.

Now it was well past our lunchtime, so we headed to the Cafe Castel, which is just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower. Here I tried one of the infamous delicacies of French cuisine.

Escargots, aka snails!

The waiter here was quite helpful, and even explained how to use the implements to eat the snails. The one on the left is used as a pincer to grab the shell of the snail, and the one of the right is a miniature fork, which is used to pull the meat out. It was good that he explained the use for me, as I wouldn’t have been able to figure these out otherwise (they looked like instruments of torture from an old James Bond movie to me).
After lunch we took the next bus and got off at the Invalides, only to find that the place had closed for the day (it was around 4:45PM). This place is a hospital that was built for soldiers injured in war, and also houses the Tomb of Napoleon I. We just took some pictures from outside, as the place had closed down.

Invalides.

The next bus was the last bus, which left us back near the Church of Notre Dame. We then walked to Place de Concorde, which is square with a obelisk, and fountains. It offers a great view of the Eiffel Tower lined up against the obelisk.

Place de Concorde

Finally, back to Champs Elysees for a glass of the good old "Vin Chaud" (hot wine). I think I’m getting addicted to this now!

Champs Elysees

Tomorrow, we plan to visit Sacre Cour, and then head off to Rennes by TGV. From Rennes, we plan to take the bus to Mont St. Michel, which is an ancient (9th to 13th century A.D.) church located on a finger of land jutting out to the Atlantic. More on that in the next post.