Paris - Day 1 - Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower - 7/12/05

Today was a day of lots of walking. We decided to walk instead of taking the metro so we would see more of Paris that way. We also decided to take mostly side streets since they are just as interesting and have lots less people congesting the sidewalks.

We headed for the Arc de Triumphe. Steve navigated our way there w/his trusty Paris map and his compass. We were there w/all the other tourists checking out the site and traffic. Steve and the girls went to the top for the view and I stayed and did a little tourist watching around the tomb of the unknown soldier at the base. The girls are free at most of the sites in Paris since they are under 18 so that has been nice. A very good year for them to be in Paris. It's an impressive arch, probably more so, if you got to see it w/o so much other company.

We then proceeded to walk down the Champs de Elysse, which was not much different than walking through any other congested retail area in a big city. We decided we had had enough of the crowds and walked to the south of the river to check out the Eiffel Tower. Where we encountered even more crowds, huge lines to go up the tower, which we opted not to do. Instead we walked around the base where we saw a pair of military personnel in camoflage uniforms holding 2 machine guns at the ready. It was a little creepy, but then, this was probably a showing, since the bomb had recently exploded in London.


To finish the day, we walked back to the apartment, I think we did about 7-8 miles of walking today, and collapsed to watch the Tour de France. We watched the Grenoble to Courcevel stage which we had driven last week, so that was fun.