Casual Stroll

Well Erica and I survived our first day in Paris without anything going amiss, although my feet were aching by the end of it. We took a little time to get ready in the morning, and it wasn't until mid-morning that we set out to explore this new city. We started by mastering the Metro (not difficult) and getting to the Louvre. We only have a few days here and neither of us are interested enough in crowds or art to go there this time (shame on us, I know), but I will be back and I will be cultured. We then wandered from there along the river to Notre Dame for a free walking tour of that area. It was pretty good - our guide was enthusiastic and comes from Paris, so could tell us about it from a personal perspective. We had a wander through the Cathedral, battling all the crowds and admiring the architecture. I thought it was beautiful, and perhaps next time I'll be able to go up the tower or into the crypts. I'm not very good at walking so slowly though, so kind of wobbled through the building ('not good at walking slowly??' you say. It's true, I just don't have the balance for a spectators amble), but enjoyed it nonetheless. The windows were particularly beautiful.

We ate some icecream, found Erica some cold and flu drugs (we're now both a little sniffly, but nothing that stops us having fun), and went on a nice peaceful boat cruise with the half price voucher we got from the tour guide. It was cool to see the city from the river level, and it gave me some ideas of places to visit and how they all connected. I was too busy leaning over the side of the bost to hear everything the guide said, but the bits I caught were interesting.

After flaffing around for dinner we ended up back near our apartment looking on TripAdvisor for something affordable and reasonable. We ended up in a semi-trendy cocktail bar. The food was good, the waitress very helpful (translating the menu for us), and it was conveniently close to where we needed to be. After snuffling her way through the day Erica decided to call it quits and head back for a quiet evening of recuperation while I headed up the Arc de Triomphe.

I have a thing for climbing towers, love to get up high above the world and will always look for every opportunity in every city I visit. The more obscure the better in some ways - quieter places are always better for spending hours with a camera taking creative shots. But sometimes the best views are the big popular places, and they can be fun as well. So I went for just a small after dinner stroll up 284 steps and around the top. I chose to go as the sun was setting to get the best of the evening and night lights, although the actual sunset was a bit of a non-event. I ended up with several hundred photos after two hours up there. I've just culled all the blurry ones - I don't have a tripod and there wasn't anything stable to balance a camera on so it was matter of experimentation and stabilising breaths for a lot of night shots. I'm pretty happy with some of them, but everyone's seen nighttime Eiffel Tower shots, so this one represents the theme a little better, and all the rest will be on facebook at some point.

Eventually I climbed back down, got a few more photos of the VE Day flag hanging in the centre of the monument, and then hobbled back to the apartment. I can't even begin to work out how much walking we did in total, but my feet and legs thought it was definitely a little over the top, despite my super sensible shoes and practised gait.