Thursday in Paris! All the Great sites! The bridges, the river Seine, and the Eiffel Tower!

(In 5 days, I took over 150 pictures. So the next few pages have a lot of pictures. Just to warn ya!)

Germany has some really nice rest stops! This is where we stopped for lunch, about 10 miles from the border of Belgium/Germany.

This is Belgium. I would like to visit here some day and find out more about it. It's the home of the new European Union's headquarters.

This is the gate telling you where you should go at the border for the French customs check. However, we were not stopped, and it didn't look as though anyone else was being stopped either. Perhaps something to do with the opening of borders with the EU now coming into effect.

But we knew we were in France, even though we weren't stopped, because they greeted us!

This is about 60 miles into France, where we stopped for an afternoon snack. The ants wanted to have a snack too, but I said no.

The next couple of pages are going to talk a little about my advice for Paris, and here's

Tip #1-If you are in Paris driving a car, be aware that people in Paris drive however they want to. Also,

Anne had come prepared with a good tourist book and it helped a lot! Mind you, you don't need every book available about Paris, just one (or maybe two) good one(s).

We parked relatively near to a Metro station, and got on the Metro to go to where I remembered Laurent and Audrey lived. I had called Laurent from Germany earlier in the week and the plan we had was that we would call Laurent around 5:00 or so and he would come meet us.

My French is very, very limited. In fact, I only know a few things... like "Desolee. Je suis American. Je ne comprends pas. Parlez vous Anglais?" (Sorry. I'm American. I don't understand. Do you speak English?)

We got on the Metro and went to Place De La Concorde, where the feeling is simply overwhelming. I was suddenly surrounded by historical and beautiful buildings, as well as suddenly thrown into throngs of people and automobiles. It was quite an incredible contrast.

From there, we walked along the Seine river to the Alexandre 3 bridge, the Eiffel Tower, and then we met Laurent at a metro station, where he came and picked us up with his car. It was awesome how everything worked out!

The pictures and captions are mine, and most of the information below comes from www.paris-france.org.

Left: Place De La Concorde with cars and Nationale in the Background.
Right: The obelisk with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Anne in front of the fountain at Place de la Concorde

Place de La Concorde

Place de La Concorde Built by Gabriel, architect to Louis XV, between 1755 and 1775, it is octagonal in shape. It was the scene of a number of key historical events, including the execution of Louis XVI.With its Egyptian obelisk - presented to Charles X by the Viceroy of Egypt - in the centre, its statues and its majestic dimensions, Place de la Concorde is one of the most beautiful squares in Paris. The rostrum columns in the square were renovated in 1995. Don't miss the magnificent views it affords of the triumphal route towards the Arc de Triomphe and the Défense, and towards the Louvre.

There is also a fine view of the Madeleine and the Palais-Bourbon.

Top: The Concorde Bridge
Left Below: The view from Concorde looking at Alexandre 3 Bridge and the Eiffel Tower
Right Below: The Musee D'Orsay (my favorite museum in my life so far) on the right of the Seine river.

The Pont de la Concorde (Concorde Bridge) is the work of the engineer Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, Director of the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (National Public Works School), founded by Colbert. He built it from sections of dressed stone recovered from the demolition of the Bastille during the Revolution - a very rare commodity. Like the square of which it is an extension, its name changed with events - Pont Louis XVI (Louis XVI Bridge), Revolution, Concorde, then Louis XVI again at the Restoration, and finally Concorde as from 1830.Successive rulers enjoyed decorating it with statues. In 1810, Napoleon had the effigies of eight generals who died in action during the Empire campaigns placed on it. The Restoration replaced them with twelve white marble monumental statues of four great Ministers (Colbert, Richelieu, Suger, Sully), four soldiers (Bayard, Condé, Du Guesclin, Turenne), four sailors (Dugay-Trouin, Duquesne, Suffren, Tourville).

These colossal statues made the bridge so heavy that they eventually had to be removed and taken to Versailles. The bridge was widened between 1930 and 1932 by the addition of two spans upstream and downstream, while cleverly retaining the original shape of the bridge.

Although very busy with traffic, it has fine views of the Concorde Square and of the Palais-Bourbon.

Built in 1791.

14 metres wide.

Five masonry arches built in the form of an arc, of 25, 28, 31, 28 and 25 m.

Foundations on stilts and a framework roadway.

It was widened to 35 m in 1931 by building, upstream and downstream, two bridge sections which reproduced the lay-out of the old structure, supported on separate piles sunk using compressed air.

Assemblée Nationale Also called the Palais Bourbon, the building was constructed between 1722 and 1728 under the Duchess of Bourbon, the daughter of Louis XIV, and then extended by the Prince de Condé between 1764 and the Revolution.Allocated to the Conseil des Cinq-Cents in 1795, a chamber was built and opened in 1798. It became the seat of the Corps Législatif and then of the Chambre des Députés and finally the Assemblée Nationale.
The cupolas in the library were designed by Delacroix.

The Pont Alexandre III (Alexander III Bridge) is Paris's most elegant bridge, ornamented with fine sculpture work, adding its own charm to an already beautiful site.It also owes its fame to the technical prowess that went into its construction. It is made of a single leaf arch that spans the Seine in a great curve, although it is lowered so as not to obstruct the view of the Champs-Elysées or les Invalides. Built in only two years by the engineers Résal and Alby, the first stone was placed by Tsar Nicholas II, although the structure was opened at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. Critics of the time explained the heterogeneous character of the "Exhibition Bridge" by the fact that there were as many artists as there were ornaments. Amongst the decoration are four 17 metre high corner pillars, bearing the four gilded bronze equestrian groups which represent Pegasus held by Fame.

On the right bank, the Renommée des Sciences (Fame of the Sciences) and the Renommée des Arts (Fame of the Arts) by E. Frémiet with, at their base, La France Contemporaine (Contemporary France) by G. Michel and the France de Charlemagne (Charlemagne's France) by A. Lenoir. On the Left Bank, the Renommée du Commerce (Fame of Business) by P. Granet and the Renommée de l'Industrie (Fame of Industry) by C. Steiner with, at their base, the France Rennaissante (Rebirth of France) by J. Coutan and La France de Louis XIV (Louis XIV's France) by L. Marqueste. The lions are by J. Dalou and de Gardet. The decoration is similar to A. Poulin's marine fauna.

The keystones are decorated with two compositions in beaten copper representing, upstream, the Nymphes de la Seine (the Seine Nymphs) bearing the arms of Paris, and, downstream, the Nymphes de la Néva (Nymphs of the Neva) bearing the arms of Russia by G. Récipon. On the bridge parapet, at the foot of the pillars, are four superb groups of water spirits with fish and seashells sculpted in beaten copper by L. Morice and A. Massoule, while the four monumental candelabra surrounded by cupids and sea monsters are by the sculptor, H. Gauquic. This bridge is as grand as it is elegant and is listed as a historical monument.

Inaugurated in 1900. 40 m wide. Slightly askew, it has a 107 m long metal arch with three joints, four girders in cast steel and two masonry viaducts on the banks.

Very large abutment foundations were needed because the arches had to be very low (1/17); they were built using compressed air caissons, the sides of which are parallel to the bridge's axis and 33.50 m long - with the other sides measuring 44 m.

The base of the caissons has sunk to a depth of 18.75 m on the right bank, and 19.40 m on the left bank.

Two pictures of Invalides. (With the picture on the left, I've made it clickable. You can decide for yourself if that man in the foreground is naked or not.)

Situated along an immense esplanade, the Hôtel des Invalides was founded by Louis XIV for wounded servicemen. It houses several museums, including the Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) , and the tomb of Napoléon.

We then tried to get in touch with Laurent while sitting in a park and watching these guys playing a game called Boulle, which Anne was able to explain the rules to me. I have not found any online resources for this yet ... Basically, you throw one little ball, and then the object is to get the rest of the big balls as close as possible to the little ball without actually touching it. Sounds easier than it is, I'm sure.

Because we didn't get in touch with Laurent, we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, which was about 5 minutes away.

This military building sits opposite of the Eiffel Tower, and I couldn't find any information about it on the tourist web sites. (Perhaps it's still in use for the French military?)

I love this building! Therefore, more pictures of it will come up on following pages.

Built by the engineer Gustav Eiffel in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower with its 3 floors, is 317 meters high and carries the capital's radio and television transmitters. A visit to the machine room housing the 1899 elevators, located under the east and west pillars, is an amazing spectacle reminiscent of the world of Jules Verne.

3rd FLOOR - 276 METRES
Outstanding panoramic view, both day and night, of Paris and its surroundings.
Reconstruction of Gustave Eiffel's office during a visit by Thomas Edison.
Panoramic and viewpoint indicators.
Dioramas of the history of this floor.

Tip #5 The lines and crowds at the Eiffel Tower can get very long. Go on a week night (not Friday), or make reservations.

Tél. : 01.44.11.23.23 (From the U.S., first dial 1016868 (This makes your call only 9 cents/mintue), then 011, then 33, then 1.44.11.23.23)

We met up with Laurent at a Metro station nearby the Eiffel Tower, and Laurent picked us up and took us to get Anne's car. Then Anne followed him through Paris and we went back to the Schecroun's home where we stayed the next four days. They have a beautiful apartment which is about a 1 minute walk away from the Arc D' Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. It was so wonderful to be welcomed into their home! (More pictures of the apartment on the following pages.)

Then we went for dinner at this really nice place which is owned by the parents of a friend of Laurent and Audrey.

Above: The same picture in the day and night time
Below: too hard to see to name everyone. This is everyone who went to dinner. It was a wonderful welcoming back to Paris!

Audrey and Francois look really good together! They met eachother on Audrey's birthday 3 years ago (when the Jacques Brel cast was in Paris, and 3 years later are happily together!

Then we said by to everyone for the evening and drove back to Laurent and Audrey's home. Laurent took a bit of a detour however, and took us on a night tour of Paris by car!

TIP #6 The Louvre. I've been to Paris twice now and still not been in the Louvre. From what I understand, if you are an art lover and really appreciate art museums, you could spend weeks here, but for most people, half a day is enough time. You see the famous pictures (Mona Lisa), and spend some time looking at the amazing art. I can't really give a good suggestion on how much time to spend there. I've heard rumors, however, that if you go on Sunday morning and get there as they're opening, it's free admission. Could just be a rumor, you're best off giving them a call. Tél. : (1016868 011 33) 1.40.20.53.17

This is one of the opera houses. This was also taken from a moving vehicle, in case you couldn't tell. There are three opera houses in Paris. I can't remember which one this is however. Perhaps Laurent or Audrey could tell me.

TIP #7 Taking pictures in moving vehicles often results in interesting pictures.