Part 20, Ahh, Paris & the Eiffel Tower

5/4/2017.   Sun and showers in Paris, 63F

When we left off on Part 19, we had just finished seing the sights of Nimes, France. On the morning of May 4th we caught the TGV (Tres Grande Vitesse, or Very High Speed) bullet train from Nimes to Paris. Man, that TGV flies! Of course it’s not as fast as a jet, but you can’t see the speed when you’re in a plane at 30,000 feet! On the bullet train, however, you can most definitely see the speed. The scenery close to the train is hard to see because it is flashing by so fast, although you can catch more distant views. I would guess that our speed was in the 150-170 mph range … dramatically faster than anything you ever experienced in a car. Train travel so far has proved much more enjoyable than flying. There is more room, you depart and arrive at the center of town, and best of all: no security checks!

Photo 5795 – TGV scenery speeding by

We had a nice taxi ride into Paris from the Gare de Lyon for half the taxi fare than the taxi driver in New Delhi charged us. That Delhi guy could have gotten an Oscar for his acting job … I’d like to go back and strangle him, then kick my own butt around the block for being such a sucker! But that was then … today our Paris taxi driver was jovial and chatty and honest – he asked where we were from in the states (he had been to New York & New Jersey and had family in Houston), and we chatted, he with his limited English and me with my limited French.

It had been SO long since we had been to Paris, and we loved just riding through the streets, past all the ornate apartments and hotels, driving along the Seine, getting a glimpse of Notre Dame Cathedral, past the National Assembly … sigh! Paris is just so … Parisian!

Photo 5846, taxi queue at the Gare de Lyon

The fellow at the front desk of the Hotel Relais Bosquet spoke good English … our reservations were all in order, so we headed up another tiny elevator to the 3rd floor to our tight but very nice room. It had the typical big French-style window with a grille across making it like a balcony looking out over an interior alley with several buildings opening to it. Our inside view was warmed up a bit with a tree below giving us a splash of green just outside our window.

Once we were unpacked and settled in, Cheryl wanted to finish her Facebook post on Athens, so I went out for a stroll to see if I could find the Eiffel Tower which was supposed to be nearby. Good grief, the streets head off in so many different directions that its hard to tell what direction you are going! But armed with a glance at the city map on Google Maps I went out to take my chances. Wandered down several small side streets soon emerging at the long green lawns of the park of Champ de Mars et voilá … there it was, the Eiffel Tower with all its tall cast iron lacy glory! We had come so far … are we really in Paris? Is this really the Eiffel Tower? My god, Paris is so cool!

After a quick review of nearby restaurants on Tripadvisor, we settled on a little Italian pizza hole-in-the-wall place, which also happened to have “Rick Steves Paris” posters plastered all over the walls. Our hometown PBS travel guru does get around. The food was good, if not great: salad and pizza, topped off by an upside down apple tart with ice cream which was excellent. For our post-dinner evening-in-Paris pleasure, we took a nice long walk down to the Seine to check out our route to the subway station where we planned to catch the train to Versailles the next day.

We took our time strolling on the Quai Branly along the Seine until we got to the Eiffel Tower just as it was getting dark – my second trip of the day. The moon was just slipping behind the tower, and I have to confess that it was rather romantic being in Paris walking around the Eiffel Tower at dusk in the moonlight. And to top it off, we both came armed with our cameras to help preserve the memory.   Every new view of the Tower with the trees of the park seductively opened up new angles and gave us continually changing vistas of its partially hidden lights … pure joy.

As time passed, the lights of the Tower became more and more prominent. We walked all the way around enjoying the various views, then departed toward the south along the Champ de Mars headed back for the hotel. Then, just as we were leaving the Champ de Mars, the Eiffel Tower came alive with bursting sparkling lights that made the whole tower a bursting light show … wow, what a spectacle!

Photo 5909, Eiffel Tower Behind Trees in the Champ de Mars park

We got a little more of a walk coming back to the hotel than I expected. The problem was that I cut to the side of the Champ de Mars too soon and with all the streets at odd angles picked the wrong one, which took us back down to the river. I’m not accustomed to being messed up on finding my directions, but I sure was then. Ended up pulling up a street map on my phone, got it figured out – turning a 20-minute walk into a 40-minute walk. We conked out promptly for the night after getting back to hotel.

Next: Versailles.