Have you ever had one of those nights where you just can’t fall asleep, no matter what you do? You lay in bed completely exhausted, but can’t drift off to sleep. Then you get annoyed at yourself because you know you will be even more tired tomorrow from lack of sleep, and that frustration keeps you awake even longer. Well that’s the kind of night I had last night, in addition to already being exhausted from not sleeping well on the redeye flight. It took me until 4am before I finally fell asleep, so when my alarm went off at 7:45am to get ready for the day, I wasn’t such a happy camper. Then I realized where I was, and that the sooner I woke up, the sooner I could eat a croissant for breakfast! That was plenty of motivation for me!!
Today was our first full day in Paris, so I wanted to get a good overview of the city. I decided it would be better to save the museums and other attractions included with the museum pass for another day so we could use today to get a lay of the land. We only had the museum pass for 4 of our 5 full days in Paris anyway, so I knew we couldn’t use it on either the first or last day of our stay as it must be used over 4 consecutive calendar days. I already mentioned that I found a walking tour in lieu of riding the Hop On/Hop Off bus this morning. The company is Sandeman’s Tours and they offer a free 3-hour walking tour of most of the main sites in Paris. You don’t get to go inside any of the sites, but that was fine because we would revisit most of them over the next 4 days and use our museum pass for free entry. I was just using this tour as a way to learn a bit of history and fun facts about the city, and to get better oriented on where everything is located. Booking the tour was easy using their website, and I received an email confirmation with directions on where and when to meet our guide.
Before going to meet our tour guide, we needed to find something to eat for breakfast. There was a Marks & Spencer mini-supermarket inside Passage Jouffroy right outside of our hotel. They are actually a British supermarket chain, but it was very convenient to stop in there on the way to or from our hotel and get something cold to drink, a snack, or in this moment, something for breakfast! There was a huge display on the back wall of the market with lots of freshly baked pastries, so we each picked up a plain croissant, and we also couldn’t resist getting one chocolate croissant to share.
I’m not sure where exactly these pastries were made, but they were wonderful, and definitely a huge step up from any pastry we can get at our local supermarket in California!! We ate our breakfast as we walked towards the metro station on our corner. Each morning while I was still in the hotel and able to access the free WiFi, I used the Citymapper app to plot out step by step directions for how to take the metro to each location we needed to go to that day. The app claims that it can work offline, but I found it a bit glitchy and that I got the best results when I had a WiFi connection. The best part about the app is that it gave really specific instructions (ie: take metro line 8 towards Balard, sit in the back section of the train, go 4 stops, transfer at Concorde to line 1 towards La Defense, sit in the middle section of the train, go 3 stops, exit at George station using exit #2). I took screen shots of the directions to get to each attraction that we needed each day and it really helped alleviate any stress when navigating the public transit system. Unfortunately, the app did not work on the fly, so if we needed to go somewhere spur of the moment, we had to read the metro map the old fashioned way!
This morning, we needed to meet our guide near Notre Dame, so we used one of our t+ tickets from our carnets to take the metro to the Cite stop. Huge word of advice if you are ever using the metro system in Paris… if you see a working elevator, USE IT! Especially at the Cite station, since I nearly passed out trying to climb five seemingly-endless flights of stairs to exit the station! I saw a couple in their mid-20’s get on the elevator and I wanted to get on too but DH said we should take the stairs to get some exercise… he probably assumed it was only one or two flights, but we should have known better to do what the locals do and if they get in the elevator, we should too! Another little pointer for using the metro system, or anywhere really… the French word for exit is “sortie” and you will see it on lots of signs when leaving the train stations. Even now, weeks later, DH and I still say “We have to sortie” when it’s time to leave somewhere haha
Up on ground level, we walked a few blocks away to meet our tour guide at 10am in a small plaza in front of the Saint Michel Fountain. Google Maps worked wonderfully for walking directions because the little blue dot could track us using GPS. When I approached the tour guide, she greeted me in Spanish. Hmm, am I in the right place?? I was about to reply in Spanish and ask where the English-speaking tour was, but then she realized her mistake and greeted me again in English. Apparently Sandeman Tours operates two simultaneous tours leaving from the same location, one of which was in Spanish. They divided us into two groups on opposite sides of the plaza, and once the Spanish-speaking tour left with their guide, we never crossed paths again. Our tour guide was Harry, who was born in England but has lived in Paris for 7 years. He was a lot of fun, injecting humor and interesting anecdotes into the history and other information he provided. We had around 25 people in our group, which can be kind of challenging for the guide because he needs to keep track of everyone in crowded areas and speak loud enough for all of us to hear him. Harry was great at both of those things, and he made sure to answer our questions and seek out shade when we stopped at each location on the tour.
The first stop of the tour was to visit Notre Dame and observe some of the construction progress to rebuild after the fire. Harry said that up until one week ago, they had barriers up preventing people from getting this close to the church, but they just decided it was safe enough to let people stand around the perimeter of the plaza in front of the church. Of course it was crushing that we could not enter the church, but I was glad we could at least get this close and see it from the outside.
We continued walking towards the Palace of Justice and the Conciergerie (a Gothic, riverside fortress & French Revolution prison, housing Marie Antoinette’s former cell). The spire you see on the left of this photo is Sainte Chapelle where we will visit tomorrow with our museum pass.
Next, we stopped to look at the intricate clock face on one of the original towers from the first Royal Palace of Paris.
Harry led us around the corner to Place Dauphine where he found a spot in the shade where we could sit down for a while as he explained the history of Marie Antoinette.
Not the greatest photo due to the angle of the sun, but this was Harry…
We continued our walk up onto Pont Neuf, which literally translates to the New Bridge, but that is ironic since this is actually the oldest bridge to cross the Seine. It was such a beautiful day for a walking tour!
Next, Harry led us over to the Right Bank and along the Seine until we entered the courtyard at the back of the Louvre. This courtyard was huge (use the people in the photo for perspective) and free to enter, but hardly anyone was here! Harry pointed us towards a bench in the shade where we could sit as he explained some of the history behind the Louvre.
We then continued through the arches on the left side of the photo, and into the main plaza outside the Louvre with the famous glass pyramids. Harry explained that these pyramids were only built around 30 years ago, and before that, this whole plaza was used as a parking lot! While not everyone is a fan of the modern glass pyramid structure given the beautiful classic French Renaissance style and history of the Louvre, I must say it is a huge improvement over seeing an ugly parking lot!
From here, we continued straight through the plaza to see a miniature Arc de Triomphe. This monument is about half the size of its big brother located at the far end of Champs Elysees, and was built in 1808 to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories of the previous year.
We followed Harry through Tuileries Garden to this pond where he ended the tour around 12:45pm. Overall, the tour was a great introduction to Paris, both for an overview of the history and for seeing some of the major monuments for the first time. As with all of the “free” walking tours we have taken in the past, Harry explained that he is not paid by Sandeman Tours and relies entirely on the tips he earns from giving these tours, so we thanked him for his time and efforts as we said our goodbyes.
I’m not sure if this Ferris Wheel is always located in Tuileries Gardens or if it was just there for a temporary carnival, but it seemed like Paris’s answer to the London Eye.
Our next mission was to find somewhere to eat lunch. We wanted something quick like a sandwich, so we just started walking east along Rue de Rivoli, but all the restaurants were fancy, sit down places and looked very crowded. We moved one block further away from the Louvre and found a small boulongerie with several people standing outside eating sandwiches. Perfect! We went inside and found a bunch of pre-made baguette sandwiches with meats and cheeses. There wasn’t anywhere to sit inside the restaurant (hence all the people standing outside), but they did have a narrow counter along the wall where we could stand and lean while we ate. Sometimes these little hole in the wall restaurants turn out to be the best finds! Bellies full, we continued walking to our next destination: a tourism cruise along the Seine River!
There are several companies that offer 1-hour cruises along the Seine River with a guide to explain the buildings and bridges as you sail passed them. Most of these companies leave from docks closer to the Eiffel Tower, but one company leaves from a dock under Pont Neuf, so we decided to use that company because it was close by where our walking tour ended. Vedettes du Pont Neuf sells tickets on site for €14, but if you go on their website, you can buy discounted tickets for €12 for an anytime pass available for all departures on a specific day, or for €10 if select a specific departure time. Always eager to get a good bargain, I liked the idea of the €10 tickets but I wasn’t sure exactly what tour time to book since I didn’t know exactly what time our walking tour would end, how long it would take to find and eat lunch, and how long it would take us to walk over to Pont Neuf to the dock. I erred on the side of caution and booked our tickets for the 2:30pm boat tour so we would definitely have enough time, and if we were early, we could always relax in the park nearby.
As it turned out, we were finished with lunch and walking across Pont Neuf by 1:30pm.
We walked down to the dock and spoke to the lady in the ticket booth and she said it was no problem to take an earlier tour! The 1:30pm boat had just left, so she gave us tickets for the 2pm tour, which gave us just enough time to use the restrooms before lining up to board the boat. I have a feeling not many people know about this boat company because there were less than 50 people on the 2pm boat, but it could probably hold 250 people or more! Had the 2pm tour been sold out, I don’t know if we would have been allowed to change our tickets, so I’m glad it worked out. The boats have 2 levels, so we went to the upper level and had our choice of seats outside. It was starting to get quite hot in the mid-afternoon sun, so we put on extra sunscreen since there is no shade at all up there.
The boat left the dock promptly at 2:30pm. As we made our way down the river, we had a live guide who explained each monument, museum, or bridge in both English and French. After all the walking we did this morning, it was just nice to sit down, relax, and ogle at all the marvelous sights along the Seine!
We were seated in the front row of the top level of the boat, which seemed like a great idea when we sat down. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that white antenna and the roof of the lower level would be an ugly eye sore in all of my photos! Perhaps the view would have been better at the front of the lower deck on the boat? I’m not sure, but it was definitely more fun to sit up on top, especially when going under the bridges!
It was so exciting to make our way along the Seine, watching as we got closer and closer to the Eiffel Tower. We had been in Paris for just about 24 hours at this point, but this was our first time seeing the famous monument up close and in it’s entirety (we had seen it peeking out above the trees and buildings earlier this morning, but that just felt like a tease until we could finally see the whole thing now from the boat!). Seeing this iconic structure up close, in person, was definitely a bucket list moment for me!
We continued down a little further past the Eiffel Tower, and then they turned the boat around. I could see the Pont de Bir-Hakeim up ahead and I hoped we would get closer to it as it was the famous bridge featured in the movie Inception. We would be near this area again later tonight so I made a mental note that we should try to walk down there.
After turning around, the sun was shining at a better angle to highlight the Eiffel Tower. I just can’t believe I’m finally here!!
The guide stayed pretty quiet as we doubled back towards Ile de la Cite. We just sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed watching the beautiful buildings as we passed by. The benches down on this walking path along the water looked so inviting. We even saw some locals sitting on blankets and having a picnic, with their feet dangling over the edge. This was that charming Parisian scene I was longing to see!
Soon we were approaching Ile de la Cite, the bigger of the two islands in the Seine, so the boat veered towards the right and we continued along towards Notre Dame.
This gave us an interesting perspective to look up at some of the construction on the exterior of Notre Dame. I would have loved to see the inside of the building, but since that won’t be possible for at least the next 5 years, it was cool to sail around the perimeter of the building and see it from the outside.
Looking back towards Notre Dame, we could also see Pont Saint-Louis, the bridge connecting the two islands in the Seine, Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint Louis. This photo also shows how few people were on the boat tour with us. Only about a third of the seats were occupied upstairs (and there were only about 10 people sitting on the entire lower level!), and everyone had lots of room to spread out. Throughout the week, we saw other river cruises that were jam packed with every single seat occupied and it looked very crowded!
The cruise continued down to the end of Ile Saint Louis, then double back up the northern side of the islands to the dock at Pont Neuf. The tour ended at 2:50pm, so it was just under one hour long, but I think that’s how all of the boat tours are. Overall, I would definitely recommend using Vedettes du Pont Neuf if you want to take a cruise along the Seine River. It was the least expensive and least crowded of all the tour boats, so that is already a win if you ask me, but on top of that, they had great customer service in allowing us to board an earlier boat from the tour we originally booked.
After being out in the sun all day, we wanted to go back to our hotel to get changed before our evening plans. The Pont Neuf metro station for line 7 was conveniently located on the Right Bank side of the river, and we could use that line to get within a few blocks of our hotel. The station had a cute decoration with giant coins cascading down the walls…
When we exited at the Le Peletier station, we could hear some commotion coming from the major intersection behind us. We walked up the block to see what was going on, and found ourselves right in the middle of a Yellow Vests march! There has been a lot of coverage about these Yellow Vest protests in Paris since December. In fact, I remember hearing about it back then and worrying it may impact our vacation, but then realizing it was several months away and hopefully the protests would settle down in that time. Sure enough, the protests have whittled down to just one event per week, held on Saturdays, and the location is posted on a website so you can easily avoid it. While lots of people still attend the events, it is no where near as many people who attended it back in December and it presents more like a peaceful march as opposed to a rowdy, potentially dangerous protest. When we realized what was happening, we felt perfectly safe standing on the sidewalk as they marched passed us.
After a quick trip back to the hotel to change clothes, we took the metro to the Trocadero station. I knew there was a park here with a good view of the Eiffel Tower, but coming out of the metro station, I didn’t know exactly where to go. We just walked straight with the flow of the other pedestrians, and less than a minute later, we saw a break between the buildings that opened up to a big plaza, and smack in the middle, we saw this:
There was nothing to worry about… you really can’t miss the Eiffel Tower haha
Note that my purse is swung in front of us again. If you look closely, you can see that I used silver binder rings to clip the zippers of my purse together. I couldn’t find carabineers that were small enough to fit through the holes in my zippers, so these binder clips worked perfectly as a theft deterrent. They weren’t as thorough as using a pad lock, but that’s not very practical. I used the binder clips to attach the zippers in a way that you could not unzip the sections without undoing the clips first. The clips were just tight enough and tedious enough that a pickpocket would fumble with it enough for me to realize someone was trying to get into my purse. It was definitely annoying when I wanted to get into my purse for something quick, but it was nice having a little peace of mind that hopefully I was less of a target.
The plaza was very crowded with hundreds of tourists taking photos of the Eiffel Tower. It was basically impossible to take a photo without someone else in the way, but we tried our best!
Overlooking Trocadero Park
We continued walking down through the park, and then turned right to walk along the Seine for 15 minutes until we reached Pont de Bir Hakeim. This was the bridge featured in the movie Inception in the scene with Ellen Page and Leonardo DiCaprio.
There were at least 5 couples taking their wedding photos on this bridge while we were there!
I can see why… the view of the Eiffel Tower was beautiful and it is much easier to get photos without other people in the way! Unfortunately, they were hogging all the good spots so DH and I couldn’t take our own photo. I snuck in to take this photo and we moved on…
Just below this bridge, in the middle of the Seine, is a tiny sliver of an island called Ile Aux Cygnes (Isle of Swans… how romantic!). It is used as a park, with a narrow trail running straight down the middle, and benches and trees lining either side. The southern end of this island is home to a replica of the Statue of Liberty, so we walked down there to see it. I had thought this walk would be fairly short from looking at pictures of the island on Google Maps, but it was actually close to a mile. Do you know that feeling where you are going somewhere but don’t know exactly where it is so it feels like it takes forever to get there? We felt like this island would never end and it just kept going and going, but in reality, I checked the time stamps on my photos from Bir Hakeim Bridge vs. at the Statue and it was only a 13 minute walk! Funny how time works that way! Anyway, the Statue of Liberty is on a tall pillar at the far end of the island, so you can’t miss her because if you kept walking, you’d be swimming in the Seine.
It was now 6pm and I realized we needed to find somewhere to eat dinner if we were going to arrive at our evening plans on time. I thought it should be fairly easy to find a restaurant given how close we were to the Seine and only a few blocks south of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, it did not play out that way. We walked up onto Pont de Grenelle (the bridge right behind the Statue of Liberty), and crossed over to the Left Bank. It didn’t look like there were any restaurants on the main street running along the Seine, so we walked one block in to find a huge shopping mall. Surely there would be a good restaurant in here, right? Nope! We went into the mall and wandered around all of the levels, but all we could find was a food court. We wanted something a little nicer than that on a Saturday night, so we went back out to the street and walked one more block. Most malls I have visited have lots of other businesses and restaurants nearby, so I was hopeful that we would find a similar busy commercial street.
After passing several fast food chains, we found a cute plaza with 2 small restaurants, both with several parties seated on the patio. This was exactly what I was looking for! We decided to eat at Il Teatro, an Italian restaurant serving pastas and pizzas for €12 to €15 per dish. With all that walking around, we now had less than 45 minutes to order dinner, eat, and get out of the restaurant if we were going to be on time for our next activity. Luckily, while it was quite crowded out on the patio, there was no one seated inside the restaurant. We were seated immediately, glanced quickly at the menu, then flagged down the waitress to let her know our time constraints and that we wanted to order two pizzas. She said that would not be a problem because there were no food orders pending in the kitchen and our food would be ready in about 10 minutes. We were very relieved, both that she spoke fluent English and that they were able to accommodate us. I didn’t take any photos of the restaurant or our food (I know, that is very unlike me!), but everything was delicious. DH and I shared the two pizzas… one with a bunch of veggies, and the other was four cheese with huge lumps of goat cheese on top. We also ordered two glasses of house white wine to help us relax a little. As promised, we finished dinner and were ready to leave the restaurant by 7:30pm, and the waitress even gave me directions towards our next destination so we wouldn’t get lost!
Okay, let’s pause the story and backtrack a bit to when I was planning for this trip… One of the most important things to book in advance is tickets to the Eiffel Tower. If you have any desire at all to go up to the top of the tower, you will save yourself countless hours of waiting on line by purchasing tickets in advance using their website. The one possible downside to this is that weather can be unpredictable and if it happens to be raining on the date/time you pre-selected months in advance, you are out of luck. The tickets are nonrefundable and you cannot make any changes to the date/time of your reservation, so be very confident before you buy your tickets! The official Eiffel Tower website releases a limited batch of tickets at exactly 8:30am Paris local time, 60 days in advance. Since I planned to go on June 22, my tickets were released at 11:30pm California local time on April 22. I went onto their website a few days in advance to set up my account so I wouldn’t need to enter all my information when the tickets were released (I read reviews about people who lost their tickets because by the time they finished entering all their information, the time slot they wanted was sold out!). At exactly 11:30pm on April 22, I went to the official Eiffel Tower website, clicked on June 22 on the calendar, and a bunch of time slots popped up. My plan was to arrive about 2 hours before sunset so we could go through security and get to the top with time to see the views in the daylight, watch the sunset, then see all the city lights turn on as it gets dark. Being the second longest day of the year, sunset was around 10pm so I wanted to book 8pm tickets. Interestingly, they did not have 8:30pm available, so although most of the day had time slots for every 30 minutes, if I did not get 8pm tickets then the next time slot wasn’t until 9pm. Luckily, since I put in the effort to buy my tickets the minute they were released, it was very easy to get my desired time slot for elevator access to the summit, and I had my email confirmation with my print-at-home tickets by 11:35pm (at which point I went straight to sleep because I was up way past my bedtime for a work night!! Haha). Out of curiosity, I checked back on the Eiffel Tower website that Friday, so 4 days later, and the 8pm time slot was sold out. For all I know, it sold out minutes after I bought my tickets, but either way, make sure to buy your tickets as soon as you can or risk being sold out. In fact, I checked again a week or so later and all tickets for that date were completely sold out! If you do not buy tickets online from the Eiffel Tower website, you can pay an inflated price to buy them from a third-party vendor, or you can wait in line at the Tower to buy tickets in person. In peak tourist season, that line is almost always 3+ hours long!
Ok, so now back to our evening in Paris… we walked about 15 minutes north towards the Eiffel Tower, through a neighborhood with mostly apartment buildings and shops for the locals. I am so thankful we found Il Teatro because we didn’t pass any other restaurants that would have been good for our dinner. Eventually, we came to a clearing where we could see the Eiffel Tower peaking through the trees. We walked along a path that led to Champ de Mars, the large park at the base of the Tower. It was now around 7:45pm on a Saturday night and the park was packed with people sitting on blankets having picnics. There were men walking around with buckets filled with bottles of wine and beer for sale (apparently it is legal to drink in public in Paris?!), and the atmosphere was buzzing with energy while maintaining that relaxed and elegant Parisian vibe. I wish I had thought to take a photo of the park, but I was too busy staring at this beauty:
Our tickets instructed us to enter through the East Entrance and included a map so we knew where to go. They had several lines to go through security with metal detectors and people looking inside our bags, but there was only like 2 or 3 people in line ahead of us. My research told me that it is best to arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled ticket time to allow time to pass through security, so we arrived at 7:45pm but there were no lines at all. Perhaps we were lucky, or we just arrived before the rest of the people with 8pm tickets? Either way, no complaints from me but we got through security in less than a minute! Try to bring as little as possible when you enter the Tower. They had a collection box for contraband items and there were probably 50 forks and dull knives in there, likely from after people had a picnic in the park. I’m not sure what they thought people were plotting to do with a fork haha
After passing through security, we were able to walk under the base of the tower. It was so cool to be down there and look straight up at this iconic structure.
They had signs posted for the different kinds of entry: walking up the stairs to the 1st and 2nd floors, timed entry slots for the elevator access for the 2nd floor, and general entry for people who did not have timed tickets. That last line was super long, but luckily we did not have a long wait in the line for people with 8pm tickets. Once we found our line, we had to go through another security check (where could we have picked up a contraband item after passing through the first security check??), and then we waited in a vestibule for the elevator. There is only one elevator that goes up and down one of the legs of the tower, so we had to wait for about 10 minutes. On the bright side, the elevator was quite large so lots of people can squeeze inside, and it was a double-decker elevator so people were loading from above us at the same time. Just like last night at Sacre Coeur, there were lots of signs warning people to protect their belongings from pickpockets. Sadly, it is really hard to relax and enjoy the significance of this huge bucket list moment when you are constantly checking for thieves. We felt that way several times during our week in Paris, and it wasn’t a good feeling.
The elevator stopped briefly on the 1st floor, but only people with restaurant reservations were allowed to exit here. Then the doors closed and the elevator took us up to the 2nd level. There are two observation decks where you can walk around all 4 sides of the tower, one here on the 2nd level and the other all the way up at the top of the tower. Our tickets included access to both levels, but we wanted to get up to the top level first to spend the majority of our time up there. When you get off the elevator, you need to walk around a little bit to find the line for the second elevator to the top. On the way, we stopped to marvel at the view of the sun setting over Trocadero Park.
OMG! We’re in the Eiffel Tower!!
When we found the line to get up to the top level, there were tons of people already lined up. It took us 18 minutes to finally reach the front of the line, so that was quite a bottleneck. Before getting on the elevator, the agents checked our tickets again to make sure we had paid for elevator access to the top level. Some people only paid for access to the 2nd floor, so they needed to make sure no one was sneaking in or standing in line for the wrong elevators. These elevators are different because they are much smaller and only hold about 10 people each, but there were 4 or 5 elevators operating at the same time. The ride only took a few minutes, but it was fun to stand near the windows and check out the view…
When we exited the elevator on the top level, we made our way to the edge of the deck and our jaws dropped! The view was incredible! We were very lucky to have good weather tonight with the cloud cover remaining high in the sky so our view was unobstructed.
Overlooking Champ de Mars and all of the Left Bank (if you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you can see all the people having picnics in the park)
If you look closely, you can see the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Seine River, the Army Museum, the Pantheon, and many other landmarks in this photo…
The Louvre and Tuileries Park
Arc de Triomphe
The signs posted next to us made me laugh… no poking your selfie stick through the fence and no hanging locks from the fence
There was some kind of basketball game going on at a facility directly below the Tower. We never figured out exactly what was happening, but it looked like a lot of people attended the game.
Picture perfect views looking down the Seine. The strip of trees down the middle of the river is Ile aux Cygnes, with the Statue of Liberty at the far end
Testing the limits of the zoom on my camera, we were able to see the Statue of Liberty
As we continued walking around the perimeter, we noticed they have a small bar where you can purchase a glass of champagne. Here are the prices…
It only took us about 15 minutes to make a full loop around the viewing platform, so we got back on line to take the elevators down to the 2nd level and explore the view a little closer to the ground. The line wasn’t as long as it was to get up here, but we still had to wait 12 minutes for our turn. We did another lap around this level. We were closer to the buildings so we could see things a little more clearly, but the safety bars blocked our view so I preferred the view from the top level.
The basketball game was still going strong!
Out in the distance, we could see a hot air balloon. We passed it later in the week and found out that the balloon is tethered to the ground and is a tourist attraction where you can take rides up in it to see the views.
A very crowded tour boat floating down the Seine
Sacre Coeur way out in the distance
It was now 9pm and we had our fill of looking at the views, so we decided to get in line for the elevators down to the ground level. This line was very long and we waited 25 minutes for our turn to board. We were trying to figure out something to do to kill some time because we wanted to stick around near this area to see the lights twinkle on the tower at 11pm. The elevator stopped on the 1st level with the restaurants and when the doors opened, we could see a beautiful view of the sunset. In a snap decision, we jumped off the elevator because we realized we just hadn’t seen enough of the views from up here haha
In addition to the restaurant, there is also a bar and a small store selling to-go snacks and drinks on this level. Surprisingly, the store only charged €6 for a single-serve bottle of wine. That was a much better deal than the €15 to €18 they charged for a glass of champagne at the top level!! We bought a bottle of red for DH and a bottle of white for me, and they gave us two plastic cups to drink it in.
Now THIS is the way to watch the sunset in Paris!
Just as we were getting ready to leave… again, the clock struck 10pm and the lights outside the tower turned on and started to twinkle! The only problem was, it was still so light outside that you could barely see anything! Haha Tonight was the second latest sunset of the year with yesterday being the summer solstice, so even at 10pm, it there was too much light in the sky to see the tower twinkle. I was surprised they bothered with the twinkling at 10pm given the late sunset time, but this was why we planned in advance to stick around until 11pm.
I tried taking photos of the tower twinkling, but you can’t really see much…
We had great timing with the elevator this time around. There were about 10 people already waiting in line, and it arrived within a minute of us waiting, and even better: there was space for us to fit inside! We were back on the ground level under the center of the Tower five minutes later.
We noticed that there was a stand located on the ground level which sold the same snacks and drinks (for the same prices) as the store on the 1st level. We decided to pass on that in hopes of finding a better deal outside of the tower. After we exited, we had a better view of the Tower glowing in the evening sky.
One of my favorite photos from the entire trip:
There is a crepe stand located next to the carousel which would make for a great place to buy dinner for a picnic. They also sold cans of beer for €4.50 and the same mini bottles of wine that we bought inside the Tower for €6.50. We bought two cans of beer and walked over the bridge back to Trocadero Park to find a bench where we could sit and people watch until the 11pm twinkles.
It looked like these people were having fun at their private party on the boat, all wearing white.
We found an open bench in Trocadero Park that was facing the Eiffel Tower, so we made ourselves comfortable and marveled at how it got prettier and prettier as the sky got darker.
There is a second crepe stand and carousel on this side of the river.
While we were sitting on the bench, several of the vendors carrying buckets of drinks approached us to see if we were ready for a refill. Remember, we were drinking our cans of beer, so perhaps that made us a target. They were not pushy and when we said no thank you, they continued on their way. After a while, DH got curious about the pricing so he asked one of the vendors how much it cost. He quoted us €15 for the bottle of champagne and €3 for the can of beer. I guess we should have waited and purchased from him instead of from the crepe stand, especially since we probably could have negotiated a lower price like 2 cans for €5. Oh well, now we knew for next time!
Promptly at 11pm, the tower started twinkling again, and it was just as magical as I hoped it would be! We just stood there, staring in awe at this beautiful monument, glowing in the evening sky. #bucketlist
It is nearly impossible to take a good photo with both us and the Eiffel Tower in focus, but we tried! This was the best we could get…
After the twinkles stopped, we made our way back through Trocadero Park, and up onto the plaza towards the metro station. Before we left, I just had to take one more photo…
We entered the metro station around 11:15pm and OMG! It was soooo crowded! I guess everyone else had the same plan as us to watch the 11pm twinkles and then head home? We were able to squeeze onto the next train, and got back to the hotel at 11:55pm after an unforgettable first full day in Paris.
Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 27,196, Miles: 12.21, Flights of Stairs: 26
Dana's Destination Diary 