Our first night sleeping in Paris had limited success for actually sleeping through the night. We didn’t have any hard plans set for the day, so thankfully we were able to take a slow start and ease in. After some much appreciated coffee, we confirmed it was a good day for a leisurely visit to the Eiffel Tower.
I’d initially thought we could walk there, but Ian assured me it would take over an hour and maybe we wanted to take the subway. I’ve upped my navigation game by getting some data on my phone, which has made for much fewer circles walked and a lot more confidence overall. We made our way to the metro station (subway), and made our way to the absolutely icon Eiffel Tower. Named after the the designer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower between 1887 and 1889, it was obviously not to be missed. We were intrigued by the names in gold inscribed around the first floor of the tower, and learned that they were 72 names chosen by Eiffel as scientific scholars (from engineers to botanists to balloonists). One of the selection criteria was that the names could not exceed 12 letters.
Our plans to visit the park around the Eiffel Tower were thwarted by the post-Olympics deconstruction taking place. We were blocked by fences and active construction taking down the temporary infrastructure, and bemoaned the selfishness of Paris hosting games right before our arrival. After making our way around the tower, we headed to the nearby (aka 30min walk) Arc du Triomphe. We did not attempt to cross the very intimidating round-about experience and were content to examine it from across the street (watching someone attempt it, and thankfully relent felt like a high stakes game of Frogger on hardcore mode).
As we started some general wandering, I spotted someone’s jaw literally drop as their eyes lit up seeing the monument. As I was relying this to Ian, he in turn did the same, as we happened to come across a Montblanc store, seller of luxury fountain pens. This was the kind of store where a doorman waited to let you in. So, slightly outside of the norm for a store I would casually enter. We met with a lovely associate who provided multiple pens for Ian to try out, and they both elevated my very limited knowledge on the world of fountain pens.
As we continued our journey, we stopped to fuel up on espresso and delicious baguettes stuffed with ham and cheese.
Later in the day we took in some of the “arcades” of Paris. Not related to gaming arcades, these are covered passages from the 18th century where shopppers could have dry places to peruse away from the muddy and unlaced streets. One of the arcades we visited, Passages des Panoramas, was built in 1799. Across the arcades, we found train themed restaurants, many historical stamp and letter shops, and even a taxidermied coyote with wings and bling. Why? Absolutely no idea. But it’s the most glamorous taxidermy I’ve ever seen.
We finished the day at Brasserie Floserer (brasserie = brewery), established in 1909, enjoying some drinks, lovely decor, and of course more people watching on the streets of Paris. We’ve noticed a pattern of arriving at restaurants and bakeries right before a rush. Naturally we’ve come to the logical conclusion that we are the reason a place becomes popular, as surely our excellent choices of locations are being covertly broadcast to help others find where to go next.
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