July 54h Monday Paris Orientation

Orientation was our first project for today so we’d decided that we’d take a tour on the Hop on Hop Off Bus. Fred had done quite a bit of research about routes etc before we left so armed with his printouts we headed across to Notre Dame where we tracked down a bus stop.
All in all we took three of the four routes which gave us a fabulous over view of the city. What an easy way to take a ride down the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomph, over the bridges on the Seine, past the Obelique de la Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Sorbonne and the Pantheon plus a narrow squeeze for the bus through the arch in the wall surrounding the Louvre and through the grounds there; all with a really good commentary. It was a really pleasant sunny day with enough breeze so that we weren’t stifled with heat and by the end of the day we felt quite well orientated and we’d confirmed various places we knew we wanted to go back to explore more thoroughly.
Our final trip was timed to end at the Eiffel Tower about 8.00 o’clock so that hopefully we could go up the tower and have both daylight views of the City and then views of the City lights. What an awesome structure! Fred would have liked to have gone right to the top but unfortunately for him that floor was closed. However, the view even from the second level where we went is pretty jolly spectacular and we spent ages identifying places we’d driven past in the day and watching the sun set in the West and the lights on the Tower brighten in the twilight until finally at 10.30 darkness fell and slowly but surely the buildings all over the City lit up; spectacular! The Eiffel Tower is lit from twilight and then, for 10 minutes on the hour, it has extra white lights which flash so that it sparkles as well. We were up the Tower for the 10.00 sparkles and on the footbridge crossing the Seine for the 11.00 sparkles; both views equally thrilling!
While we’ve been away, Fred has tackled the conquest of transport routes with determination and enthusiasm – everything from road routes to confirm or complement the GPS, to the vaporetto system in Venice, the trains in Spain and the Metros in Rome and Paris. (I did mention to him that perhaps he was thinking of a job as a tour operator here, but he said he’d be a bit worried about learning French.) He’s done really well and it’s really helped us group visits and activities together for efficiency. Of course when we’re with Bruce and Diana they have a lot of knowledge to add to the planning mix too which is great.