Journey to the Dark Side.

Tuesday 17^th September.  

Today, we were lured briefly to the ‘dark side’, Rive Droit, or the Right Bank. We haven’t spent much time over there at all, it’s hard to drag ourselves away from the Latin Quarter.

Attempt number 2 at the Musee d’Orsay. The line was quite long by the time we arrived, held up due to transportation stuff-ups, ours, not their’s. Wanted to catch a bus on a one-way street but were looking for the bus stop on the wrong side of the road, we walked and walked and still couldn’t find one, so hit the Metro and then still had to walk a bit more.

The M ‘O is in a very grand open spaced building, originally a train station and saved from demolition in the 70’s, thank goodness, they would have built an awful, ugly, modern hotel. What can I say? There was a line for security check then a line to buy tickets, we used our 2 for 1 Eurostar entitlement. Quite a lot of people can fit inside this building and some areas were lovely and peaceful, but the more popular areas were crowded and would benefit from better traffic flow solutions. The biggest sign when we walked in was ‘no photo’ sign which was totally ignored by many but no-one challenged them either.

After some crunchy baguettes for lunch, we walked across the Pont de la Concorde to the massive Place de la Concorde, starting point for our stroll down the Champs-Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. We’d heard about some of the scams in Paris and on the bridge we saw the ‘gold ring’ scam but we kept walking. Then on the next corner some pretty girls with petitions asked us if we spoke English. We blankly ignored them.

It was crazy how much busier the Champs-Elysee got the closer to the Arc, and then you turn a corner and it’s clear sailing again.

Footsore and weary, we find the nearest Metro stop and train it to the Eiffel Tower, coming in from the Bir-Hakeim station, walking up to and past the Tower, scouting locations for our photo shoot tonight, and getting back on the Metro at Ecole Militaire. Walking towards the Tower, Trevor says, ‘so this is the dark side hey?’ He blinked, and he missed it!!

Walking away from the Tower, through the Champs de Mars, a scammer with the friendship bracelet tried it on and got no joy. I don’t know why they keep it up, surely no-one falls for their ploys? I guess they must. The trinket sellers had been on the Promenade d’Australie and were unpacking and setting up again after 2 police on foot had gone past, so maybe the authorities are trying, but just not having much success.

So, we’re home now having a break and then dinner and will head out a bit later for some night time photos. Hopefully there’ll be no rain. We’ve had no sun today, but we’ve had no rain either, at times a chilly wind – a taste of what we’re in for over the next couple of weeks.

Pt 2.

Trevor planned our trip this evening to get us to the Eiffel Tower for the light show and photo session.

Before....

After!!

Unfortunately, 8pm was too early for the sparkles, it was only just getting dark, the lights came on but nothing else happened, except some light rain, so we had to go find somewhere warm and dry to wait it out. Lucky for us we found Le Royal at 212 Rue de Grenelle, who were very friendly and happily poured us some beers and a dish of complimentary peanuts. The menu looked really good, we might even make the effort to come here for a meal when we get back.

Forgot to mention earlier, the top level of the Tower was closed when we were there today, making us more certain we made the right choice to go up Montparnasse Tower the other day instead.

Back to the Eiffel in time for 9pm, hoping like mad that this time there will be sparkles and we were not disappointed. Knowing how special we are, a nice man offered us a glass of champagne ‘very good price’. These guys have it all covered! I think the threat of rain kept the numbers down, I expected there to be more people. Why couldn’t it be like this through the day??!!

Hopping line to line across the Metro like seasoned Parisiennes, we arrive at Notre Dame for her turn under lights. The powers that be have built a dirty big ‘mini’ grandstand out the front, I guess so people can see the façade from a higher perspective, but it hampers our efforts to fit the whole frontage into one photo. We do the best we can and as the rain begins again and the obligatory tourist coach disgorges its’ contents, we make tracks, happy that we beat the crowd.

It’s not very far to walk home from here and we have to walk along the Seine getting side and rear views of Notre Dame along the way. I’m happy, a bit wet and chilly, but I got the shots I wanted.