Day
Nine - Notre Dame, Ile St Louis, and the Eiffel Tower
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Notre Dame Cathedral
(Click to Enlarge)
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The Louvre
(Click to Enlarge)
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Jardin
des Tuileries
(Click to Enlarge)
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Finally it was laundry day. The secret to relatively light travel
for long holidays is to take a laundry break about halfway through.
Unlike Dublin, finding a facility in Paris was quite easy. One was
a couple blocks from the hotel and I was off early to do some sudsing.
While I waited, I walked around the general area, which included a
rather large outdoor market and several shops.
I returned to the hotel to unload and gather Fai, then we set out
into the city. There was a nice little streetside cafe called Cafe
Le Luxemburg, where I had a fantastic seafood salad and a not so tasty Grimbergen,
my first poor beer choice of the trip . . . and last.
Heading north toward the River
Seine, we visited the Notre
Dame. Known for one of the first examples of
French Gothic architecture, Notre Dame is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral
and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. It
was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying
buttress.
From there, we walked about the Ile
St Louis for a time, an island the sits within the River Seine.
It's one of the more picturesque neighborhoods in Paris, and although
only less than a kilometer long and 300 meters wide, it's very much
like a city unto iteself, with churches, grocery stores, pharmacies,
dry cleaners, beauty salons, banks, hotels and even fuel stations
all tightly packed in. Oh, and lots and lots of ice cream shops.
That's its specialty.
Continuing on, we visted the Louvre,
an absolutely immense structure, which is a good thing because it's
the most visited art gallery in the world and requires a lot of room.
Once a
a royal palace, it now holds some of the world's most famous works of art,
such as Leonardo
da Vinci 's Mona
Lisa , The
Virgin and Child with St. Anne , Madonna
of the Rocks , Jacques
Louis David 's Oath
of the Horatii , Delacroix's Liberty
Leading the People and Alexandros
of Antioch 's Venus
de Milo.
Heading west along the Seine, we passed by the Arc
de Triomphe du Carrousel, modeled
after the Arch
of Septimius Severus in Rome, it was built by
Emperor Napoleon
I to
commemorate France's military victories in 1805.
Connecting the Louvre with the
Place
de la Concorde is the
Jardin
des Tuileries, Paris' most central garden. With many sculptures,
fountains, cafes, and seating areas, it's a welcome escape for many visitors
on any given day. We walked around the garden for a time, enjoying the
imagery, before deciding to seek a meal.
Villa Medici de
Napoli was our choice for dinner, a fine Italian restaurant
with a very amusing host. I was impressed with the quality of seafood
I had found in Paris thus far and this was no exception. The server recommended
a bottle of Lugana
Tenuta Maiolo, which was an excellent wine and great choice for our
meal.
It was beginning to get a little dark, so we thought we'd head toward
the Eiffel
Tower and
experience it at night. Gustave Eiffel originally wanted to build his
tower in Canada, as an entrance arch to the Universal
Exposition of 1888, but Canada rejected it. Paris had planned to
tear it down after 20 years, when Eiffel's permit expired, but it became
valuable as a radio tower and was kept standing.
Over 7 million people will have visted the Eiffel Tower in 2007, making
it easily the most visited paid attraction in the world. At the time
of its construction in 1897, it replaced the Washington
Monument as the tallest structure in the world. It remains the
tallest structure in Paris currently.
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The Eiffel Tower
(Click to Enlarge)
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We walked around and under the tower, taking in various views as it
grew darker outside. Many people were in the area, several spread out
on the grass with blankets and chairs, very much like a festival or
concert.
Deciding not to go up into the tower, we instead had drinks at
a nearby cafe, enjoying the view on a warm night as the moon set behind
the landmark. A fine way to conclude the day.
Day
Ten