Paris - The Arc de Triomphe

Alright, this is another famous landmark of Paris and is called the Arc de Triomphe (will be referred as ADT hence in this blog), a war memorial commemorating soldiers who fought for the French. It is not too unlike our own India Gate. Here too the names of the generals who fought for France are inscribed under the arch but mysteriously, there lies the grave of the unknown soldier and thats literally what it's called in French as well. Here's a picture of it...

Well, yeah.. its decent you think. But really whats so great about it? Nothing much about the arc itself... but arguably its location marks the most famous street in Paris. It stands on the western end of Avenue d' Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous roads in the world. And it marks the centre of surely the busiest and most famous rond pont (round tana) in Paris. Here's what it looks like (courtesy http://www.answers.com/)

And one surely cannot appreciate the beauty till they have mounted the Arc. Yes, there is an underpass through which people can reach the ADT and watch as traffic goes by in 5 big streets and 3 small ones all located wonderfully central from this point. And as you get there, you can see the tomb of the unknown soldier...

A ticket of 9€ buys you the way upstairs which is a spiral of 195 steps... And seemingly neverending. What makes it a tad worse is that its a single track route. So if you paused to catch your breath, etc. you might be holding up a lot of unhappy people ina claustrophobic setting. A poor kid who turned out to be asthmatic held us up for almost 5 minutes. But once you climb those 195 steps, you are in the museum. You have to hand it over to the Parisians. They've made everything accessible with / without the object of making the money. The Eiffel Tower... the ADT... everything can be reached into just by shelling out a li'l dough. And in here, you can see an exact replica of the arc itself, lit in white..

And there's a cast of the head of a figure from François Rude's sculpture "La Marseillaise" at the museum upstairs. Check that out -

Another short flight of steps later, you are out in the open and with a view worth every cent spent... Here are some shots from up there - The La Defense -

The Champs-Élysées with the Louvre at the far end-

The Eiffel Tower -

The Sacre Coeur in the far distance-

And here's one of the Arc by twilight-

Come Christmas time... the entire street is lit beautifully and the road lives upto its repuatation of one of th emost beautiful roads in the world... With cafés and stores lining both sides, bright lights strung on trees and the festive atmosphere, no many other streets stand in competetion at all.

Why should you climb the ADT?
Though you wouldn't expect the Arc at a height of a mere 50 meters to give you a great view, you are mistaken! Paris is surprisingly flat for being one of the most famous capitals in the world and at this height it is much easier to make out the landscape of the city. Amongst the many famous landmarks that can be clearly marked out by the naked eye, your camera's zoom or one of the many viewing kiosks are - The Eiffel Tower, The Sacre-Coeur, Hotel Les-Invalides, Musee du Louvre, the entire Champs-Élysées, La Defense and many many more... And anyone in their sane mind would agree that the view of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc is far superior to that of the Arc from the Eiffel Tower (and far more significant if you ask me). Next stop.. The Musee du Louvre.

Paris - The Eiffel Tower

Welcome to Citystalkers! I started this blog a while ago but didn't get down to writing anything. As is, we got a wedding gift of a Canon EOS Rebel. Read all about that here. And there was never a better excuse than having great pictures. Ok, so lets jump right in.

Wikitravel is probably going to give you the best offhand page that there is for most travel places. Check out their Paris page here. But I wanted this to be a more personalised memoir. And living in a place like Paris warrants more than just one blog for the entire place. So, I thought I would cover it landmark by landmark. So I made one of my umpteen trips to the Eiffel Tower while the husband was out cricketing.

The weather started great yesterday morning... But by the time I got to the Eiffel Tower, it was cloudy and a tad dull. I got off at Trocadero (Metro 6 from Charles de Gaulle Etoile) and walked to the quad that exposed the Tower. Just what I like to see -

It had the usual calming effect on me. The clouds had gathered by the time I walked down the entire plaza to the other side and here's a glorious picture from there -

And I fiddled with the ISO settings on it and everything but I am yet to figure out whats better.. After sitting there and taking in the breathtaking view, I walked down to the foot of the tower towards Rue Gustave Eiffel (naturally the Tower stands on a street that shares its name). The tower is 1039 feet tall which is a third of a kilometre... And it does get to your neck once you try to look up at it. Here's what it looks like from the foot of the tower -

Once past the crowds that snaked all along the entire quad that were trying to get on top of the tower.. Ooh.. this is one of the views from the top - the skyline of Paris -

There are tonnes more of the beautiful buildings and the River Seine... But then I think the view is spectacular on the other side of the Tower from Champ-de-Mars. The sun usually falls very well on this side of the Tower illuminating the iron rails and sort of making the Tower glow. Because it was sooo cloudy I had to wait well over 15 minutes for me to get the exact second of sunshine. Judge for yourself...

As I decided to leave, I caught sight of some shrubbery on the other side of the park. And so here's a slightly different look of the Iron lady (as the Eiffel Tower is popularly called) -

Though I think she is far prettier by day, she is certainly worth a watch by night... See why?

But anyone who knows me knows that lights sheerly excite me. And why not? After dark, the Eiffel Tower has a million bulbs going off every hour at the hour for nearly 10 minutes. Its a spectacle worth a watch and looks utterly fabulous..

10 minutes of breathtaking beauty....

After going through this blog, I realize that its more a photo blog rather than a travel blog.. But I justify that by saying that I live in Paris. :) So this collection of blogs are the home blog and are going to cover each landmark in pretty good detail. More of Paris in future blogs... Hope you enjoyed this one. To read all about the Eiffel Tower, visit this wiki page.