We had to be up early to catch the bus to Paris, which meant I had to be up even earlier, so as to let the drugs work so I could be relatively comfortably on the trip in.
The weather didn't look very promising and to save me walking the half mile, we took the car down to reception, where the bus left from.
As with our trip Pierrefonds a couple of days previous, Dot and I had been to Paris twice in in 2010 and had loads of photos but I still think I found plenty to take, I was looking for something different, only the weather got in the way a bit. All my photos of the our trips to Paris.
Off the bus we went into the Palais des Congrès de Paris to find some toilets, we also found free WiFi in there, and checked out the family shop.
From the Palais des Congrès de Paris, we set off towards the Arc de Triomphe, which a further than it looks and the weather was getting progressive worse. Dot and I had been on the 13th of September in 2010 and the contrast in weather was unbelievable, all you have to do is check out the photos from then to see the difference.
From the Arc de Triomphe it is a long walk down to the river whichever way you go, I think the others thought I didn't know where I was but it was only one long straight road. It was nearly a mile to the Place du Trocadéro, where we were heading for the great views of the Eiffel Tower. I suppose if we had any brains between us, we could have taken the Metro and stayed dry.
Well we went there for the view of the Eiffel Tower but the clouds were so low, you couldn't see the top most of the time. Next disappointment was, the fountains in the Jardins du Trocadéro, were off and workmen were erecting a stage over the gardens for some special occasion. Apparently this happens quite often but I could not find out why it was this time. We were supposed to be showing Mick and Bren the sights but up to now it was all going pear shaped. See below for the difference in the weather, same day different year.
We crossed over the river towards the Eiffel Tower but as it was still raining, we though it would be a good idea to take a ride on the shuttle boat (the Batoboat) on the river Seine and see if the weather improved.
We took the steps down to the lower level by the river and found the place where the Batoboat left every 10 mins. At €15 for a one-day pass (up €2 from 2010), it was a good way to see some of the sights and it made eight stops were we could get on and off at any time, it travelled in an anticlockwise route along the river.
It was still raining but I kept popping out the back of the boat to take photos as we went along, I had plenty already photos but you never know.
We travelled along the river sticking to the south bank, until the Batoboat turned and started the retune journey back along the north bank.
As we did last time we got off at Hôtel de Ville, crossed the river via Pont d'Arcole, to Île de la Cité, to have a look at the famous Nôtre-Dame Cathedral. it had stopped raining but the queue to look inside the cathedral was very long. Probably something to do with the weather and not wanting to be outside, so we didn't go in.
Our next disappointment was here at the Cathedral, a large structure has been built outside the front, Notre Dame is marking its 850th anniversary and the 13 metre high structure will stand in front of the building for a year. Great, now you can not even get a good photo, you probably couldn't in this weather anyway to be fair.
From the cathedral we headed towards the Louvre but stopped off to look around the flower market, while we were still on the Île de la Cité. From there we crossed back to the right bank via Pont au Change and made the short walk along the river to the Louvre. The rain was holding off but it was still overcast.
On the way we came across a pedestrian bridge over the river, the Pont des Arts. In September 2010, Pont des Arts, had thousands of padlocks locked to the railings, they are known as "love padlocks". Lovers attach a padlock to the bridge with their names on and then, throw the key into the Seine, In May 2010, the town hall had decided to remove them. Well they are still there and it is September 2013 and there are more of them, a lot more.
It also looked to me like there are at least another two bridges over the river Seine, that had padlocks on and it is now becoming popular in other major cities in Europe. Vendors around these bridges even sell padlocks especially for this purpose.
My worry is that some of these bridges will not have been designed to take this extra weight and that somewhere one will collapse, I hope I am wrong. Look at the photos below for a comparison from 2010 to 2013, click on them for a larger view.
I really like the Metro signs, I am sure they are all the same but the backgrounds and situations make them all seem unique to me.
It was time for refreshments, so we popped into what looked like a nice small bar (Bar A la Tour), just back from the river front. You know how people rave about French cuisine, well it was not in here, luckily we only went in for beers and very good beers they were. However we could not believe how the food was being prepared and served. The lady running the place, was opening tins of food, throwing the contents on to plates and popping them in one of two microwaves. Then randomly decided when she was going to bring the food to the table. It could only have looked worse if she had had a cigarette in her mouth and I really can not explain why I do not have a photo, maybe I was in shock.
As last time we didn't have time to actually go into the Louvre but walked around the grounds and then went back down to the river to catch the next Batoboat back to the Eiffel Tower.
Back at the Eiffel Tower the queues to go up the tower are as big and long as ever so again, that was also out. There is a lot of work going on altering the tower, yes you read right, altering the tower. The first floor of the tower in being brought up to date, again you have read right. The French, not content to have the world famous Eiffel Tower, they have decided to alter it, to modernise it. Why not pull the whole thing down and build a modern new one, sometimes the French infuriate me, just leave things alone. They have already messed with Mont Saint-Michel, making it less accessible to visitors, now they are messing with the Eiffel Tower. I better end here, or this rant could go on for a very long time.
Time for a drink, we set off back in the direction of the bus station and stopped off at the bar Dot and I have used every trip. The weather was improving and we sat outside with our beers. I am sure we paid less for them than we did three years ago but then we moved on to another bar and paid too much for crap beers. There is always one on every holiday I think you can see from Mick's face that he isn't happy with the price of the beers.
We had to wait for one person before we could set off back to the site but it wasn't for long and my back wasn't too bad on the way back, although the Friday evening traffic was bad. I was pleased to discover that there was a toilet on the bus, I think we were all tired when we got back.
Day Five or Day Seven
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