Our second day out in Paris was destined from the start to be very busy! Given we missed out on the tower climb of Notre Dame the day before, we were up early to get ready for a full day out.
We had breakfast at Le Petit Pont near Petit Pont, the bridge crossing over to Ile de la Cite, the island where Notre Dame is situated. Breakfast was sweet and filling with huge hot chocolate drinks, croissants and lovely service. The boys found that chocolate croissants and hot chocolate was a little too much but it was delicious nonetheless.
climbing notre dame
After breakfast we made out way to Notre Dame, duly stamped our tickets and stood in the queue. The queue was very orderly and it wasn’t long before we were inside where we discovered that tickets on that day were actually free so we didn’t need to use the ones we had already purchased. More wasted tickets!
We took the lift part way up the tower and then walked 387 steps up the north tower. The views at the top are stunning and we particularly loved the ugly gargoyles which were positioned on the tower to ward off evil spirits. At the top, there is the belfry with a huge bell – you can just imagine Quasimodo up there!
I love Notre Dame. It is probably one of my favourite cathedrals due to the eerie nature of the gothic style. The view was sensational and it felt like a great achievement climbing yet another tower (we did a fair few when we were in Italy the year before!). Take your time at the top – let others take their selfies but don’t be rushed. You can see the modern Paris rising in the distance and the wonderful roofs of old Paris in the foreground. It’s quite lovely, especially when framed by the wonderful gothic figures and emblems decorating the roofline of the cathedral.
musee d’orsay
After Notre Dame, we headed for Musee d’Orsay. I had paid for joint tickets for both Musee d’Orsay and Musee de L’Orangerie but we never made it to the second one – yet another prepaid ticket that we didn’t get to use. I made a mistake thinking that the Musee d’Orsay was only a short walk away but in fact it was more like a 45 minute walk from Notre Dame. I had a business task to attend to on the way so thought a walk would be convenient but it would have been quicker to take the metro. It was lovely and warm but by the time we got there, we were a little frustrated and tired.
As mentioned before, the boys are not great art fans so Karl and I split up and did a fast tour around each of the areas of the art gallery that we wanted to see. It was spectacular and whilst, we could have spent another hour there at least, we got to see some of our very favourite works of art. Degas (including his wonderful ballerina statues), Manet, Monet, Turner, Gauguin, Renoir – on every wall were amazing masterpieces. I loved every minute and the boys semi-patiently followed us, only occasionally asking whether we had finished yet.
The Musée d’Orsay is located in a very impressive building – the former Beaux-Arts railway station Gare d’Orsay. It is worth seeing simply for its architecture.
We spent around 1.5 hours at the art gallery and were then told emphatically by the boys that they did not want to go the Musee de l’Orangerie. Karl and I relented although we were keen to see Monet’s Water Lillies. Eight of his murals are housed there as well as the works of other masters such as Picasso, Modigliani, Cezanne and Renoir. One day we’ll go back to see them all without the boys in tow.
champs-elysees
Instead we took the walk through Jardin des Tuileries to Place de la Concorde and onto the Champs-Elysees.
The Jardin des Tuileries was created by Catherine de Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564. As we walked through, there was a music festival going on and the park was full of life. Security was very tight – we were checked both at the entry and at the exit to the park as we walked towards Place de la Concorde. Another of those Egyptian Obelisks is situated in the Place de la Concorde which is infamous for being the place where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (among others) were guillotined.
We continued our walk towards the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which is one of the most famous avenues in the world. I have to admit to being a little cautious about this street given the number of terrorist attacks on police and the military that have recently taken place here. Given the festival that was on at the end of the avenue however, a good portion of the street was closed off to traffic and it was loaded with police with guns. We actually felt quite safe there and were able to relax and enjoy our walk along the tree-lined street.
The street is actually 2 kilometres long and we soon realised it was quite a walk down to the Arc de Triomphe. After wandering past some very expensive boutiques and lots of pretty mainstream stores, we decided to catch the metro the rest of the way to the Arc de Triomphe where we changed trains for Trocadero to make our way to the Eiffel Tower in time for our 3pm booking.
By this stage, we were in a mad rush but we needn’t have been. We got off the metro and literally ran through the gardens of the Palais de Chaillot down to the Eiffel Tower, stopping occasionally along the way as we were too tempted to take photos of the iconic structure looming up into the skyline.
eiffel tower
Until you see the Eiffel Tower, you simply do not realise how big it is. It is huge! And because of its size, it always seems closer than it is. The distance down to it from the metro never seemed to end.
Which is pretty much the same as the queues to get inside. We had tickets that let us join a special, theoretically shorter queue but it still took well over an hour to get in. Those few minutes we saved by running through the park seemed pointless as it was more like 4.30 when we finally got up to the top.
Firstly we had to get through security which, quite rightly, was very tight. But then you have to take the elevator up to the first level and it doesn’t hold many people. The Eiffel Tower is apparently the most visited attraction in the world with 6.2 million visitors a year so on average it has to cope with around 17,000 visitors a day. No wonder those few lifts were so packed and slow to take everyone up.
Once we got through the first lift we thought we were nearly there – but no. We had a long wait in a queue for another lift to take us further up. It was a tiresome wait, especially as people from certain cultures who may not have understood (?) continually just walked past us to the front. Not being shy and retiring types, we soon cottoned on to what they were doing as they moved their large, extended family to the front and we told them to get to the back and wait as the rest of us had to do. Cheeky.
Anyway we FINALLY got to the top and WOW what a view! It was in fact worth the wait as the view is sensational and you really did get a sense of being on top of the world. The wrought iron structure is so impressive and at 324 metres tall, it was once the tallest building in the world. Today it has been well and truly surpassed by other much larger buildings with the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai now officially the tallest at 828 metres. There is an exhibition inside the Eiffel Tower that shows the heights of the tallest buildings in the world – Australia’s tallest building, Q1 at Surfers Paradise is quite small but similar to the Eiffel Tower at 322.5 metres.
The Eiffel Tower was constructed from 1887- 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World Fair. It was a controversial design not liked by France’s artists and intellectuals and was meant to be torn down after the fair. Amazing to think that this criticised building has now become the number one paid monument to visit in the world!
At the top of the Eiffel Tower is the office of Gustave Eiffel who designed the building. He apparently kept his office in the Tower until his death. You can also buy a glass of champagne at the top to romantically celebrate the view. If you want to drink champagne from a plastic flute, it will set you back from 13 euros to 22 euros for 10cl. We didn’t worry about it but if you were celebrating your honeymoon, it may seem worth it.
If you feel hungry after your long wait, you can enjoy an expensive meal, buffet or simply macaroons at a variety of restaurants and bars at the top. There are plenty of eating options at the top and lower down.
We didn’t stay though as we were intending on eating in the Latin Quarter that night and still had more to do before then. We attempted to take the batobus riverboat back up the river to Notre Dame but found it was a round trip and we couldn’t get off half way. Needless to say, we were too much in a hurry to take a cruise that brought us back to where we started so we called it a day and took the metro back to our hotel.
That evening we were tired so we needed pizza. After making Nick eat at a French restaurant the night before (strangely because we were in France!), we weren’t going to put him through that again for the second night in a row. We found an Italian restaurant Rim Café with a real Italian waiter near the hotel on Rue saint-Severin and had very satisfying pizzas and red wine. It may not have been authentic pizza as in Rome but it was definitely tasty and we went back to the hotel quite happy and full.