We decided to make a bit of a walking tour of Paris today, so from our apartment headed south to the river Seine and walked east for a while, then headed back north into the Bastille region. The famous fortress-cum-prison is long gone, but its role in the kick-off to the French revolution makes this patch of Paris one of the most historic pieces of soil in the whole country. The spot is now a large roundabout and right next door we came across a Sunday street market in full swing., where they were selling everything from clothes and tools to fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, dried meats, a large variety of cheeses, and colourful flowers by the armload:
At 22.5 hectares, the Luxembourg Gardens is the second-largest public gardens in Paris - and remembering that, like most gardens in Paris, this was originally a royal's back yard (and at one point much bigger at around 70 hectares until parts were sold off)!
Today, the palace building houses the French Senate; it's lovely to have such an important institution housed in a building surrounded by gardens open to the public - and the public use the space.
Just near the senate palace is a large octagonal pond, filled with toy sailing boats, and surrounded by chairs with Parisiennes sunning themselves in the glorious sunshine.
Getting to the meeting point at the Trocadero Plaza meant heading under the Eiffel Tower itself, back over the river, and up the hill on the other side; on the way through, we took the opportunity for some shots of the tower from the ground - it's a very impressive structure!
The southern approach, which we took, heads from the military academy through a lovely tree-lined park, which on a day like today (particularly a Sunday) was filled with tourists and locals alike, enjoying picnics and soaking up the sun.
The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930.
Eiffel's company funded 80% of the construction costs, with the agreement that he would take 80% of the entrance takings. People thought that he was mad, and would never make his money back; in fact, he recouped his costs in just 5 months! Initially, the tower was meant to be removed after 20 years, but he successfully argued that it should remain standing - partly as he had a house on the third level, and the city would have had to recompense him the loss of his house! So the Eiffel family are still making a good living from Gustave's initiative!
Today, the Eiffel Tower is the third most-recognisable symbol in the world, behind Coca Cola at number 1, and the McDonald's golden arches at number 2.
The views from the top are breath-taking, and it was definitely worth visiting - and I think we're both glad that we didn't have to climb the stairs, which some hardy souls actually do (probably because the elevator tickets are often sold out well in advance - which is why we took a group tour).
The tour took us up to the second level where we went around the structure and were given a whirl-wind bird-eye view tour of the city. After the tour finished at about 4:30pm, we were free to head up to the third and top level, as our tickets included that access; including the line-up for the elevator, the trip to the top, time there, and the line-up and elevator trip back down to the ground took around an hour (much of it in lines, but it would be impossible to come here and not make the trip):
The French hate high-rises (although they currently are in the process of building the world's tallest), and after building an ugly blight in the city, the law was passed that no building in the city area could be taller than 7 stories, which gives the city a wonderful atmosphere.
After the tour, we had arranged to meet a contact from one of Kim's team; we met Varinia at a café not far from the tower and spent a couple of hours chatting, including time as we strolled through the area to a Metro station to take us directly back to the apartment.
Overall, a fine and fitting way to spend our last full day in Paris - tomorrow we head to London.