It has been very cold and damp today,
so being the lazy retirees that we are, we did not get out until after
lunch. We decided to walk down to the
Seine and all the way to the Eiffel Tower and back again. It is quite a hike from here to there, and it
was 37 degrees outside, so we put on our ear muffs, scarves, and gloves and
away we went. We walked to the Champs
Elysees and across it and down rue de George V all the way to the Pont l’Alma. Then we walked on the north side of the river
to the bridge right at the Tower, crossed there, and walked along the river
back to Pont l’Alma and back to our neighborhood.
It was fun to spot the top of the
Eiffel tower above some buildings on George V.
We can’t see it from our neighborhood, so it is sort of a thrill to see
the top of it long before we could see the whole thing.
When we got to the bridge, there was
a clear view of the Tower across the river and down several blocks.
The sun came out just a tad and was
glistening on the river, but the camera was not able to pick up how sparkling
the water was.
We were surprised at how rough the
river was and how high it was. I know
that there has been tons of rain this year, but it seemed that if the water was
up 6 more inches, it would flood the walkways at the water’s edge where all the
tour boats are docked.
This is The Palais de Tokyo, a
building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and it is right across from the
river.
As we crossed the bridge we saw a
bride and groom getting wedding photos taken.
The groom was trying to hoist the bride up on the railing and lots of
tourists were stopping to take photos.
We watched sea gulls flying and
soaring in the wind at the edge of the river by the Tower, and somehow I
thought I could get a good photo of them, but they disappeared into the clouds
when I tried to catch them in flight. I
finally managed to get one sitting on the statue at the end of the bridge.
There was a crepe shop at the foot
of the Tower, so Leon suggested we get a banana Nutella crepe, and he did not
have to twist my arm to get me to agree.
We stood in a long line to get it, and it was wonderful. I have a crepe maker much like the ones these
little shops have, and somehow mine never turn out as perfectly as theirs
do. Maybe if I made thousands a day, I
would get better at it!
Along the way we passed Patrick Blanc’s vertical garden
system, known as Le Mur Vegetal in French.
He is probably best known for his living wall on the Quai Branly Museum that
is right across from the Seine on the south side of the river..
There was also a big photographic
exhibit that was open, and you could just walk through to see all the
photos. They were huge and varied from
cars to children to natives of many countries.
We managed to stay gone long enough
for the lights to come on at the Eiffel Tower.
Of course, it gets dark early here in the winter. The twinkle lights do
not come on until about 11:00 p.m., though, and we decided we were not going to
stay gone that long!
The Arc de Triomphe
was lighted when we came back. We
thought we could tell by the traffic that it was Saturday night in Paris. You can also see the Louis Vuitton store on the corner.
Our little boulangerie was closed
when we came back to our neighborhood, so we will go out early tomorrow morning
for breakfast bread. We stopped by a little
Lebanese sandwich shop and picked up hot sandwiches for supper. I decided I was too tired to cook. We finished off the wine, so we will have to
go to the wine shop tomorrow, too.
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