Trekking the Third Day in Paris

Yesterday we set out with our most ambitious walking plan yet. We headed west from the hotel, toward the Eiffel Tower about three miles away. Our first stop was a bit past the half-way point, by the Hotel des Invalides (formerly a hospital and retirement home for war veterans). There was a little playground, and then we went to a nearby cafe for snack.

The cafe was situated on a corner, across the street from Les Invalides grounds, and across a different street for the Rodin Museum. We went to the museum to visit the grounds but not the interior exhibits, because we thought that would play better with the girls. I had made my peace with paying full price just to see the grounds, but it turns out the grounds were free! JoJo went around the grounds with Naomi while I hung out with Amelia in an area with a few sculptures and gravel on the ground. The gravel was apparently fascinating, and trumped anything Rodin did. Nevertheless, I still toured the grounds after Naomi and JoJo returned. I was feeling grateful for the free entrance to the grounds, so I had purchased the audio tour, and it was pretty interesting. Then we lunched at a cafe on the grounds, and—still feeling grateful—I even got drinks (but no 5.50€ demi-liter of Evian). The Rodin Museum was an unqualified success for us, very enjoyable for everyone.

We continued on to the Parc du Champs de Mars, the big park with the Eiffel Tower at one end. We stopped for a while at a playground, and then continued on to the main event. The Eiffel Tower is awesome and beautiful, I think, and the closer you get to it the more awesome and beautiful it is. The strut system is so airy and graceful. It was an exceptionally beautiful day, too, with the sun so bright that at times it was hard to keep your eyes open without sunglasses, and temperatures were warm enough that jackets were optional. And since it was Saturday to boot, it was a perfect recipe for crowds at the Tower. We went all the way to the top, with a wait of around 30 minutes for the lower elevator, and about 45 minutes for the upper elevator. The paths the elevators take through the guts of the structure give you an up-close appreciation of its design and execution. At the top, the 360° view of Paris is pretty tough to beat, needless to say, with many, many well-known sites easily identified. At 324 m/1,063 feet, the Tower is by far the tallest thing in the Paris region, so as you look down you have this sense that the whole city is laid out before you for your personal perusal.

JoJo liked the visit to the Tower, and her favorite part was probably purchasing a snow globe of the Tower on the second level. Amelia slept for most of our visit. At one point, I carried her sleeping in her stroller over a turnstile, and I had to turn the stroller sideways until she was literally horizontal on her side (and not strapped in). Naomi called my maneuver "heroic," but "assinine" could have probably been just as apt, given that we later were able to get Amelia—still asleep in her stroller—to pass under a turnstile, and with a lot less drama.

There was almost no wait for the elevators down the Tower. At the base, we watched an all-girl brass marching band (with a guy passing a blue cowboy hat), and a group of breakdancers. We next proceeded to the Trocadero, for final excellent views of the Tower, and marched toward the Arc de Triomphe. Before we got there, we stopped at a brasserie for dinner, and then resumed our walk to the A de T.

A straight line connects La Defense (in the west), the A de T, the Place de la Concorde, and the Louvre (in the east). You can see from one end to other from under the A de T, but from the regular sidewalk on Champs-Elysees we could not. We were sufficiently beat at this point that we did not worry about consummating this virtuosic touristic feat, and instead we got a cab back to the hotel. It had been a long day, but any day that includes a visit to the Eiffel Tower is a good one.