A DAY IN PARIS
It is 5:30 in the morning when we left for Paris.
After a few jams, we finally parked the car Avenue Reclus in the seventh, not far from the Eiffel Tower we see dominate us.
But first, we stop at a bakery Saint Dominique Street: stomachs gurgle, it's breakfast time!
We cut through the Champs de Mars. the excitation increases, the Eiffel Tower grew and grew and we feel become much smaller!
Bottom view
This year, the Eiffel Tower is undergoing some renovations, and scaffolding is the blot on the view.
The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, which celebrated the first centenary of the French Revolution. Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days was a real technical and architectural performance
Intended to last only 20 years, she was saved by scientific experiments that Eiffel favored in particular the first radiographic transmission and telecommunications: radio signals from the Tower to the Pantheon in 1898, military radio station in 1903, the first radio public in 1925.
The Eiffel Tower in figures
Metal parts 18 038
Engineers and designers 50
workers in the factory in Levallois-Perret 150
workers on site between 150 and 300
rivets 2.5 millions
7300 tons of iron
60 tons of paint
5 lifts.
we expect the opening of the checkouts at the South Pillar
After the formalities of security (France's plan "Vigipirate" is enforcing, following his intervention and its military presence in Mali), we finally are accessing the stairs.
704 steps are waiting us!
We stop off at the 1st floor
Les Invalides
Esplanade Invalids and in the background the Montparnasse Tower
The dome of the Pantheon
Opposite, on the hill of Montmartre, there are the Basilica of the Sacred Heart
In the background, we can see the top of the Triomphal Arch
Maintenance . . .
Iena Bridge and the Trocadero
Trocadero and in background, the CBD of La Defense
2d Floor - 112 meters
It's hot, VERY hot. We have thighs and calves tetanized.
The frozen water in the bottles melt gently, refreshing the adventurers of the Eiffel Tower
The braves adventurers of the Eiffel Tower !!
meditation or tiredness?
The two maybe
It's more easy at the going down !
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| Samantha and Johann |
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| Bohemond and Cyprille |
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| Johann and Samantha |
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| Bohemond and Cyprille |
South Pillar that we climb
On the Iena Bridge
A barge
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| Bohemond |
The Eiffel Tower again . . . oups : Samantha and Johann!!
Left Bank
Avenue de New York !
And yet the Eiffel Tower and the Iena Bridge
the footbridge Debilly
Alma Bridge
It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army on September 20th, 1854.
It was inaugurated by Napoleon III on April 1856.
Bateau-mouche
The Flame of Liberty
The Zouave of the Alma Bridge
For Parisians, the bridge serves as a measuring instrument for water levels ans a dam in times of flooting on the Seine, due to its statue of a Zouave soldier.
When the water hits the statue"s thighs, the river becomes unavigable. During the great flood of the Seine in 1910, the level reached to the shoulders of the Zouave.
The Zouave was originally part of a group of four statues which decorated the the protruding stacks on the bridge's feet. They represented the Army Corps that participated in the Crimean War : a Hunter, a Grenadier, a Gunner and a Zouave. During the 20th Century, the bridge became too narrow for traffic.
It was rebuilt between 1970 and 1974. The Zouave was only retained, but changed sides
A wink to the Americans
Lafayette's monument along the Cours La Reine, almost exactly half way between Pont des Invalides and Pont Alexandre III, in Paris. This monument serves as the focus of many ceremonies.
on 8 August 1775. In 1775, Lafayette, as the young captain in the Régiment des Dragons de Noailles who took place at the garrison in Metz, decided that he would depart France and join the cause of American independance. On 26 April 1777, Lafayette and a few companion volunteers sailed for American from the Spanish harbor of Pasajes aboard the ship La Victoire, which Lafayette had paid for with his personal funds. He landed in South-Inlet, near Georgetown, South Carolina (3 June 1777). He traveled to Philaldeplhia and presented himself to Congress. He was invited to join Washington's staff, and courageously participated in military operations. Eventually he was given some small commands. In January 1779, he returend to France to argue for more military and naval aid to the American cause. His message was received seriously at the Court of Versailles and contributed to the French sending both Rochambeau's military expedition in 1780, and de Grasse's large fleet to north American in 1781. Lafayette, himself returned to American, assumed his rank as an American major general, and led an independent command in a very critical Virginia campaign against Cornwallis in the summer of 1781. All of this led to the decisive victory at Yorktown in October 1781.
Alexander III Bridge and in the background, the dome of the French Academy
Alexander III Bridge
The National Assembly
On the terrace of the brasserie of the Amiral Coligny Street, in front of the Louvre and the Pont Neuf Bridge!
The walk was long and the stomachs were starving !
Children
children quench their thirst with a large Coke pending their "croque-monsieur".
On the Pont Neuf, it is the King Henri IV who overloock us.
In the "bateau-mouche", just before an phenomenal thunderstorm.
After the ride, always in the pouring rain, I decided to not visited Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral although it's only 15h, and we wanted to take the metro at Saint-Michel station. But the subway is closed for renovations this summer! We had to take the bus always under the rain. Fortunately, when it dropped us at the Esplanade des Invalides, the rain had stopped! It still took us 20 minutes to walk back to the car!
We were not out of the avenue that children were already asleep! They saw nothing of Parisian traffic jams that made us 1:20 to go to Porte de Bercy while we took 15 minutes to go for the same trip the morning!
We arrived to Chalons at 19.45 !!
