Yes, we got up bright and early and yes we made it to the Eiffel Tower nice and early… but we still had to line up for TWO hours in the sweltering heat. This weekend has been stiffeling with heat, I’m melting from the moment I open my eyes until I close them and all the hours in between that! We took it in turns standing in line, allowing one another a chance to sit in the shade and try to reenergize (it worked marginally) and after two hours of line ups, heat, annoying other tourists we were finally allowed up and I have to say, it was worth it. The views from up here are amazing, you can see forever! We stayed up there for a long time, walking around, going to the different levels to get other views, taking lots of photos. We waited for so long we were going to make the most of this!

After this (melting the whole time) we had NO energy left for the Louvre, it had been a nice idea, but there was no way that it was going to be achieved, not today anyway. After this we instead made our way to the Arch De Tremont, the busiest round about in the world, and it has to be said, this is a crazy, hellish round about. There is NO way I’d ever contemplate driving anywhere near this round about. There is no procedure or signs or anything, just a free for all. I watched in horror as a motor bike and a car came VERY close to a large collision, but it was narrowly avoided with a lot of loud horns and rude gesturing, no one was very impressed with that! We used the underground pass to the middle where we sat under the arch for a while, breathing in a sigh of satisfaction when our backs were pressed up against the cool marble seats. For some where so busy there was not so much noise here, it was actually quite peaceful.

We were completely buggered now, so hot, so sweaty, just ready to lie down or have a cool shower so we slowly made our way back to the hotel, along the way taking in the sights of the streets and stores around us (i.e.: Chanel, Louis Vutton etc, big name brands) but my fave thing we saw along this road was a busker called “Dancing Papy” This old man wore his hat side ways, had up beat more modern music blaring and was giving it all he had for the dance world. It was so funny and sweet. I gave him some money quickly and moved on, others followed suit and as they did so, they had to dance into the middle with him, it was so nice. At one stage I looked over my shoulder and saw another 4 people just dancing these crazy moves on the pavement with him, clapping and laughing. It was a lot of fun.

We made our way back to the hotel, had a small rest before heading to the market that was on at the end of our street. Here we brought some sheep cheese, bread and hummus and, a new dress for me. I am in love with this dress and it only cost 10 Euro, a real bargain I feel for the middle of Paris! We took our edible goodies to the shade of a lovely big old tree where we sat on the grass and tore off pieces of bread, dipping them in the hummus and ripping off bits of cheese, it was the best French meal we’ve had yet, very relaxed, very nice and a lovely way to finish off our quick Parisian stop over.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 14, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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tell me....is the arch de tremont close to the arc de triomphe perchance????

written by  michael on December 17, 2010

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Ahh, thank you for drawing attention to this Michael. Clearly spell check failed us on this occasion.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 20, 2013

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