London/Paris 2011 trip report–part 13

We headed for the Effiel Tower first thing this morning.  A month before our trip I checked out advance booking times and found that Wednesday and Thursday were full.  I took the first open slot for Friday, which as 9:30.  We got on the Metro and traveled on full trains (standing room only) across the city to the stop close to the tower and got there just before our scheduled time, which happens to be when the tower opens for visitors.  When we arrived we found that there were 30 or so people waiting in the “we-have-advanced-tickets” line.  There was probably 200 people in the “we-just-showed-up” line.  When we concluded our visit in just over an hour there were no people in the first line, they just showed up on time and walked through security.  There were probably 500 people in the second line.  The moral of the story: buy advance tickets!

So up we went.  Jackie and heights don’t get along but she agreed to travel with me to the second level and I agreed to not try to drag her any closer to heaven than that.  Really, the views from level 2 are terrific and many people claim that it’s the best level for picking out landmarks.  I can’t enter that debate because we opted to enjoy our time on the tower together.  The views of the city are wonderful and I took lots of pictures as well as just enjoyed trying to recognize some of the places we had already seen.

It was rather cool though.  The summer-like temps we enjoyed in London were concluding as we headed for Paris and this morning, fall was here in earnest.  We finally had good reason to wear the jackets we’ve been hauling around the world.

When we finished at the Effiel Tower we boarded a local bus for a 30 minute ride through the streets of Paris for the Louvre.  Our Paris Museum passes let us ignore all the poor folks in the “we-just-decided-to-come” line and breeze through the “we’ve-got-a-museum-pass” line.  Knowing we could never see it all, we opted for Rick Steves’ Paris book.  He has a tour in it and we followed it the best we were able.

I appreciated their policy of allowing photography, but no flash and was able to take several interesting pictures.  Yes, we saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa and umpteen other works of art.  After nearly three hours my appreciation level was near saturation so we decided to call it good.

Because we had a museum pass, we decided to stick our heads in the door of the d’Orsey museum.  Again, we found the museum pass entrance and walked right in.  They have a no pictures policy, so we looked around a bit and decided our tired legs were winning out over our appreciation for fine things.  We headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours downtime.

Our evening was spent with friends Alex and Karla.  They picked us up in his 1974 Citroen.  Off we went for a drive around Paris.  Alex handled the traffic and we enjoyed the ride.  It was a terrific way to see the city.  Our destination was the Sacré-Coeur cathedral and then dinner at a nice restaurant.  The views from the church steps are fantastic and our meal was very good.  Alex and Karla could start a sightseeing business!  What a nice way to conclude a big day in Paris!