Last day in Paris & France

Monday October 8, 2007

How fortunate to have three of the best weather days of our trip in Paris, at a time when it should have been cool and rainy! Today we walked A LOT! Jackie’s pedometer said 20 km, but I’d be more inclined to believe it was closer to 15. In any case, all of us had pretty sore feet by the end of the day.

We started our walk by going the short distance from our hotel to Notre Dame. We had not yet walked through this trip, so without the crowds of yesterday or even Saturday, we found that much more relaxing. We’ve seen many extraordinary cathedrals on this trip, but Notre Dame still ranks right up there, with its elaborately ornate choir and beautifully original stain glass rose windows. From there we walked along the Seine to the Louvre. Although we didn’t go in, we did descend into the glass pyramid and browse the wonderful museum shops. Returning to the surface by the Carousel du Louvre, we walked through the Tullieres garden to discover a huge ferris wheel erected right beside the Place de la Concorde. This was one of the many extras in Paris especially for the World Rugby Championships, which were to continue for another week and a half. The next extra we found was a huge rugby ball inflation in the centre of the Eiffel Tower.

Nobody but me had ever been to the top of the tower, so everybody, especially the girls gathered up their courage for a ride to the top. To our misfortune – maybe – access to top was suspended while we waited in line for tickets due to overcrowding, so we were limited to a trip to the second stage. On this smog hazy day, this was probably not a great disappointment, due to the restricted visibility from even the second level. Also, the girls felt they’d gone quite high enough.