Day 16 August 31, 2008
When you think of Paris (which is like, every hour, right?), what famous landmarks enter your mind? The Champs Elysee, one of the most famous streets in the world? The Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous arches in the world? The Eiffel Tower, one of the most famous Eiffels in the world? Well, baby, we packaged it up nicely and did all three for you on one day.
We started at Place de Concorde, which is at one end of the Champs, the Arc being at the other end. We walked the whole way up, with a good one-third of the street being a park-like area. It was surprising. The businesses and stores part, that was expected and kinda boring. It was just chain stores and expensive restaurants and McDonald's. I guess we did it to check it off our list, but I would never ever ever never ever put it in my top 50 things to do in Paris. Not even top 51.
The Arc de Triomphe was nice, though. It's large and all sorts of grand things. There's a large traffic round that encircles it so to access it, there's an underground tunnel. This is so 500 people aren't killed everyday trying to cross this street/round.
From the base of the Arc, we could see north to La Defense and its own Arche.
Afterward, we headed to Eiffel Tower for a second time to get an up-close and personal look at the base.
We relaxed at the Champs du Mars, which is the huge green space in front of the tower. Paris is very, very good at providing lots of space around monuments. In these spaces, there are always lots of benches to sit and have a picnic. The Frenchies love their picnics.