Paris 2014 - Day 6, Eiffel Tower, Batobus and Champs Elysees

Today was Greg's day. His primary site was the Eiffel Tower and he wanted to cruise on the river. We checked the bus routes but there was no easy way to take the bus so we went on the Metro. Coincidently we had picked the 125th Anniversary to go visit the Tower but saw nothing there to commemorate this date. Aimee and I wanted to walk up to the first stage but Greg wanted to take the elevator to the top. We had no line up and Greg had a huge one. We left him in it with an agreement of where we would meet up later.
Aimee's not too keen on heights so the 1st stage was plenty high enough and I had done the 2nd level before and my legs were not eager to do that again, so I didn't either. 5 Euro and we had some great views and a nice breeze.

There is a major construction project going on which involves new restaurant space, glass walls, event space and a glass floor at the first level. This restricted part of our walk around but we still had great views and were able to stand on one of the finished glass floors.

Bride, groom, minister, photographer and violin player - a minimalist wedding in the gardens by the
Eiffel Tower.

The girders of the Tower create some amazing patterns aside from the stars, curves and circles that are built in intentionally.

Aimee and I walked down in time to see Greg still in line for the elevators.

Managed to get a shot where you can't see all the construction equipment and
scaffolding under the tower

Aimee and I walked into the residential area next to the Tower and bought a baguette, camembert cheese, olives and 2 small bottles of wine (the only ones with screw tops) and returned to wait for Greg.

I love this neighbourhood as it is peaceful after the crowds around the tower, obviously
affluent and you get these different partial views at each street corner.

It took him 2.5hrs, start to finish, to wait in line and then go to the top and back. Next we went to the Quai by the Tower and for 15 Euro bought a day pass on the Batobus. On the boat we ate our lunch and travelled the river, giving us a very different perspective than from the streets and bridges above.

Lunch on the boat

The boat was a great idea as we really needed to rest our legs after the climb (and we had been rough on them over the last 4 days). There was constantly changing scenery with no effort from us, aaah.

These are permanent barges with hammocks and lounge chairs and shrubbery. There were
lots of young people utilizing them

There is constant traffic of tour boats and commercial barges.

Some of the quais are lined with houseboats and live aboard barges, rafted 2
or 3 deep.

We got a really good look at all the different bridges.

After taking the boat all the way round (8  stops) we got off at the Musee  D'Orsey stop because Aimee wanted to see the Champs Elysees.

Across the bridge, past Le Grande Palais and the gardens and on to this affluent retail area where we had to go onto a side street for a decently (? sort of) priced beer. Aimee was less than impressed because every picture she had seen had been taken from the centre of the street looking up the hill at the Arche de Triomphe. So we crossed the, very busy, street and she snapped a shot, from the centre , while walking rapidly. Greg had wanted to see the car show rooms but all we were able to find was an Art Car exhibit of painted BMWs on George V Ave.

Back down to the river, back on the Batobus and this time we got off at Notre Dame to go for dinner on a street in the Latin Quarter that we had walked through yesterday.

The street had lots of restaurants, very competitive, with set menus (3 courses) at different
price points 10E, 12E, !5E etc up to 34E

I don't think Greg realized when he ordered a "large beer" that he was going
to get a litre, but he was pretty happy when it came.

Aimee had muscles in white wine and Greg and I had onion soup. Aimee and Greg had different pastas and I had turkey escalope in cream and Aimee and I had crepe chocolat for dessert. It was the 10 euro menu. Home on the bus and did half this blog before I had to go to bed because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.