Paris - Day 3

April 4

I had prebooked Eiffel Tower reservations for 10:30am on Wednesday. If you're planning on going up in the Eiffel, you definitely want to prebook tickets, I'd say. Our parents had no issues when they visited just walking up, but for us, in April and for my SIL/BIL in July, the line was hours long. It also didn't help that currently (Spring 2012), one of the elevator lifts is down; so there's only one in service (as of this post, 5/25, they’re still only operating one lift). We used Paris' transportation website to figure out how to take the bus there instead of Metro to have the extra view of the city.

We arrived at 10:00am and found the reservation entrance easily. However, they told us we couldn't go in until 10:25; so we grabbed a coffee and croissant and hung out. At 10:25, we showed our passes and within 10 minutes we were on the second floor of the tower (You can visit first and second floor under on admission; and for a few euros more, you get to go up to the summit as well). The view was amazing.

The skyscraper is Tour Montparnesse, where we were up on the roof our first night

Sacre Couer in the distance

The 3+ hr long wait below at 10:30am on a Wednesday

Looking up to the summit from 2nd floor

After getting a panoramic view on second floor, we headed up to the Summit.

I was a bit nervous when I looked out the elevator on the way up; but once I was on "solid" ground, I was fine. The view was even more spectacular!



Ant-like people

About an hour or so later, we got back down to real solid ground and made way over to the Rodin Museum.

Wall of Peace



Ecole Militaire



This was the first use of our Paris Museum Pass, and as promised, we just walked up to the entrance and walked in without any waits in a line. Rodin did sculptures, so the majority of art to see if outside in gardens. Lucky for us it was a gorgeous day.

The Thinker
(If only Ben would have said I was opposite!)





Gates of Hell

After Rodin, we hopped on the Metro and got off at Haussmen to go to Printemps for lunch.





Their rooftop cafe is recommended in Rick Steves' book as well as several internet sites for an alternative rooftop view of the city. It was cafeteria style food, but we had some great burgers.



Printemps with the gold and Opera Garnier in the background





Dome of St. Augustine Church

Sacre Couer afar and St. Trinite Church near

From Printemps, we took the metro over to Arc de Triomphe.  The entrance to climb the stairs to the top was included with our Paris Museum Passes, but the line was so long, and we’d been getting so many great city views, we decided to stay on the ground.

Tomb of Unknown Soldier



From there we strolled the Michigan Avenue of Paris, aka, Champs Elysees.  We stopped in flagshop Louis Vuitton, where my parents picked up my Speedy 30 a year ago (I paid for it though) and I contemplated on getting another bag since with the exchange rate and VAT return they end up being much cheaper than US, especially with Chicago’s 10% sales tax.  I decided on the GM Neverfull but decided it’d be smarter to buy in Barcelona so it was one less thing to carry around in Paris (as long/fate would have it, the Barcelona LV store was closed the 3 times we passed it. Boo!)

We sites saw along the Champs and then used our Paris Museum Passes to go to Musee de l’Orangerie  (Monet’s Water Lilies, 5 minute line with the pass on a Wednesday afternoon) and the Louvre.


Petite Palais

Grand Palais

L'Orangerie



The Louvre is open late on Wednesday nights and we were recommended to visit at night, with the hopes that it would be less busy. We followed the advice of our bike tour guide and went in a side entrance. 

Within 15 minutes we reached the Mona Lisa.  It took some pushing to get to the front for a picture, and none of them really turned out that great, but it was a lot bigger than I’d anticipated! 

 

The crowd to get up front

 

 The Lourve itself is such a beautiful building as is the artwork it holds.

Venus de Milo

Code of Hammurabi

We then walked through more of the museum before exiting out of the famous glass pyramid.

Tourist shots :O)

 After leaving, we decided we didn’t want to have another fiasco of deciding where to have dinner and be starving and grumpy by the time we ate, so we took the metro to St. Louis Island to go to a place that my parents had recommended and that was also in Rick Steve’s Paris book.

How charming is this?

Auberge de laReine Blanch (30, rue de St-Louis-en-l'Ile) is right across the street from the famous Berthillion Ice Cream shop. 

We got there around 6:45 and by 7:15pm, they were turning people away.  We had perfect timing (although they do take reservations, so I would recommend this if you want to try them out for dinner).

The food and wine was amazing. We opted for the set menu. One of us got a starter and entree and the other an entree and dessert. I had the French classic beef bourguignon and my first crème brulee in Paris. For 1 starter, 2 entrees, 1 dessert, one bottle of wine and the dessert drink (see below), we spent 77 euros (~$100 USD), which was well worth it and also our most expensive meal of the entire trip.


My goat cheese tarte starter
(To DIE for!)

Yummy beef



Per Ben’s request, we also had our first Absinthe experience too.

Having done the Eiffel, 3 museums as well as a few more tourist sites, Wednesday was our longest and most exhausting day.  After dinner we slowly walked our way home along the Seine River and through the Latin Quarter.

Notre Dame at night



One more stop at Shakespear and Co

 

Paris - Day 1
Paris - Day 2
Paris - Day 4