France Sep 2010, Day Three

Day Three 6th Sep

We had to be up early to catch the coach to Paris and even though we were relatively early we were lucky to get a seat together on the bus. The traffic in Paris is that bad and some road works on the N2 meant it took us about two hours to do the 60 mile to the drop off point, the Palais des Congrès de Paris.

Off the bus with instruction to be back for 18:45 (but what sounded like best to get back for 18:00), armed with a map of Paris and with no plans (although we did have sandwiches), we set off towards the Arc de Triomphe.

The Palais des Congrès de Paris, is at the end of Avenue de la Grande Armée and if you walk towards and through the Arc de Triomphe, it becomes the Champs-Élysées. So that is exactly what we did, access to the Arc de Triomphe is via a subway, where you can pay to go up to the top but we didn't have time to queue, so we just walked around the outside. From the Arc de Triomphe, looking back the way we came the Paris skyline is very different than you would expect, it is very modern and high rise.

We continued along the Champs-Élysées, thinking we may walk all the way to the Louvre, on to Notre Dame, then over the river and back to the Eiffel Tower, before heading back to the bus. We didn't know it but that would have been about 8 miles, anyway towards the bottom end of the Champs-Élysées, we changed the plan and headed to the river.

We arrived at the river, at Pont Alexandre III, a very nice ornate bridge, it was funny there watching a group of tourists on segways waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and then even funnier as the all crossed over and moved off in a line, looking like ducks following each other. 

 We took the steps down to the lower level by the river and found a place where shuttle boats (the batoboat) left every 10 mins and made several stops in an anticlockwise route along the river. At €13 for a one-day pass, it looked like a good option for getting to the various tourist attraction along the river and photo opportunities of the many, many, bridges for me.

So we bought a a one-day pass, and hopped on the next boat, there was an open platform on the back, perfect for taking photos of the bridges, unfortunately the light and weather were not good for photos and it even rained for a while.

From where we got on at the Champs-Élysées stop, the boat headed along the right bank to the the Eiffel Tower where the boat turned and made its first stop at the tower on the left bank.

We decided to stop on he boat and go back along the river's left bank to Notre Dame, where we would get off and have our sandwiches before looking around the cathedral. So from the Tour Eiffel, the boat continued along the left bank stopping at Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Nôtre-Dame (we didn't get off on this side of the river) and Jardin des Plantes. It then turned round and headed back along the right bank where we got off at Hôtel de Ville.

It was raining quite heavily as we got off the boat, I got the umbrellas and waterproofs out of the bag and Dot carried the bags, unfortunately Dot slipped and could not stop herself as her hand were full. I wondered why Dot had asked if white trousers were ok for the day, I understood now that they were mucky. We sat on a bench and cleaned them as best we could with wet wipes, then had our sandwiches watching the river traffic going past. When we got up to leave, Dot had also got something on the back of her trousers from the bench, it had stopped raining so Dot tied her waterproof round her waist to hide her bum.

Instead of crossing to the island and heading straight to the cathedral, we had a look in some of the shops to see if the was anything for Dot to change into, we didn't find anything suitable. We did however have a look at the Centre Pompidou, or as it was called last time we where thereBeaubourg Centre. We only looked round the outside we had been in before but there seemed to be quite a few beggars about so we moved on.

We headed back to the river and crossed over via Pont d'Arcole, to Île de la Cité, to have a look at Nôtre-Dame Cathedral. I wasn't sure about having a look inside but we did anyway and it is quite impressive, not good for photos though, as you are not allowed to use the camera's flash, although it didn't seen to stop most people in there from using theirs. This is a very crowded part of Paris, very popular with sightseers. After a relatively short visit to Nôtre-Dame we headed back to the right bank and the Louvre, this was also where the next river stop for the Batobus is.

I am glad we didn't walk the whole way as originally planned, as my feet were already hurting (I really need to get the doctor to sort this out when we get back), we crossed back to the right bank via Pont Notre-Dame.

Even the short walk along the river to the Louvre was further than I thought it was, especially with these feet. We came across a pedestrian bridge over the river, the Pont des Arts, that has thousands of padlocks locked to the railings. They are known as "love padlocks", lovers attach a padlock to the bridge with the names on and then, throw the key into the Seine, In May 2010, the town hall decided to remove them, as of September they are still there.

At the Louvre we only had time to look around the outside, there were queues to get in and we didn't have that much time in Paris to visit somewhere that big, you would need to be in Paris for a week or so to do all of the attractions properly. There is another Arc there, the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel and if you look through the centre of the arch you can see the Arc de Triomphe, with Cleopatra's needle in between (the Luxor Obelisk), a very nice view. 

From there we headed back to the river to get the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower.  The boat left from close to the Pont du Carrousel, we didn't have to wait long before the next one arrived and we were on our way to the Eiffel Tower.

We got off the boat at the Eiffel Tower, I never though of it as being on the river but it is. It is also a lot bigger than you would imagine if you haven't been up close, it's massive. Again we didn't have time to queue to go up the tower and to tell the truth, I didn't want to, I am a bit dodgy with heights lately, must be my age. There was quite a lot of security around the base, army with machineguns (later in the month the tower was closed after a terrorist threat). There were also many Africans selling souvenirs, illegally from blankets on the ground, there are that many of them they get in the way and in my opinion, spoil the experience.

With plenty of time to spare we set off from the Eiffel Tower to find our way back to the the bus station. From the tower the route across the river on the Pont d'Iéna and through the Jardins du Trocadéro, up the steps to the Place du Trocadéro, is all littered with these aforementioned souvenirs sellers.

As we had plenty of time we had to stop for a drink and surprisingly, it didn't seem to be any more expensive than the campsite or anywhere else in France for that mater. We also had another drink (or two) closer to the pick up point.

The journey back to the campsite was a lot quicker, it took about half the time as going. On arrival at the site, we were quick off the bus and straight to the takeaway for pizza, beating others that had the same idea and so not having to queue.