I woke up Friday morning which happened to be my birthday, and we started it off with our first croissant that our host left for us, and a nice cup of coffee to get us ready. Our first event of the day was a trip to the Eiffel Tower to some of the first people up to the top for the day. We headed out to the metro stop and purchased a two day pass which we would be using to get around the city for most of the time besides walking.
The metro is by far not the nicest that we’ve been on, and the doors have a manual doors which have be used quite often, but one thing good is that there are plenty of useful routes, and cars so there’s not much waiting once you get under. There was definitely a fear of pickpockets when the car gets crowded, but i think everyone else on the train is pretty paranoid so it felt safer than normal.
Once our ticket was bought, we hopped onto the 9 and headed to the Palais de Chaillot which dropped us off just to the west of the Eiffel Tower. Once we exited the metro and turned the corner the Eiffel Tower presented itself in all its glory. We took some pictures, and saw a wedding couple getting some pictures taken.
We got there a few minutes before the opening and it was pretty cool to be the first people to take the elevator all the way to top and have the entire top to ourselves for a few minutes before everyone else was let up.
It was a great 360° view of the entire city and it really made me realize how winding the streets are and how lost you can get if you’re not careful. We spent a good amount of time taking in the views and did the same on the second level as well. We then exited and took a stroll through the park on the east side of the tower.
On the way to the metro to take to Champs-Élysées and happened upon a market, so we stopped in and found that cheese and meats were so cheap that we stocked up on some comte cheese, jambon, a baguette, apple and a small bottle of wine and had a little picnic in the park. It was all so tasty and all for under 10‚¬.
Feeling good after a refuel and wine we took our time walking down the Champs-Élysées checking out some of the stores quickly until we happened upon the Louis Vuitton where we’ve been told has a line to get in, but when we got there we just walked on in. Joy was planning on replacing her old wallet and definitely had her fun rubbing elbows with the elite who were buying multiple purses and walked out a happy lady.
Once we reached the end of the Champs-Élysées it conveniently led us to the Arc de Triomphe which is an impressive structure. Its so small from a distance, but when you walk right up to it, it was really impressive to see all the carvings and sculptures that surround the entire structure. After a few laps around it we were pretty tired already from all the walking and headed back to our apartment to get a rest before dinner.
