Arc de Triomphe, Concorde, Sainte-Chappelle, Eiffel , Boat Tour

July 28

Mom was pretty bushed from yesterday’s forced march and her preceding Ireland trip, so we agreed to have her stand down, returning at 1430 to have her join us for the Eiffel Tower Portion.

The four of us started by going to Place de la Concorde to give Kim and Gerald some perspective on the Champs-Élysées. We then went by to the ecole militaire subway stop and walked to the Champs de Mars for its view and that of the Eiffel Tower. We walked the full length of the Champs, but hadn’t planned to go up, as lines are huge. We completed the segment by walking across the Pont d’Lena bridge and up the steps to Pallais de Chaillot and Trocadero Place, again for the view of the Eiffel Tower from the opposite perspective.

From there we went by metro to l’Arc du Triomphe. They quickly took in the Champs from the top before we went under the street to reach the entrance to the Arc that enables you to climb to its top. It gave the legs a pretty good workout, but the views of Basilica Sacré Coeur and the radiating arms of the street made it all worthwhile, enhanced by the continuing good weather.

From there, we went to L’ Île de la Cité by metro, and walked by the Notre-Dame cathedral on the way to a reservation I’d made, based on web recommendations:

Au Bougnat
26, rue Chanoinesse
75004 Paris
01 43 54 50 74

Lynda and I had stopped in for a (nice) glass of wine Sunday, my believing the closed restaurant next door to be the restaurant from whom I was seeking reservations (fatigue!).

Today’s daily menu offered 19 € for entrée + plat + dessert or 15 € for either entrée + plat or plat + dessert (or otherwise) the alternate prices below applied.

Lynda and I shared 25 cl with a refill of Dany Dietrich, Edelswicker vin d’Alsace 2008

The menu was:

Entrees: 6 €
Salmon quiche
Cucumber and guacamole gazpacho

Plats: 12 €
Turkey & tomato Osso Bucco, puree maison
Ling filet, leek fondue

Desserts: 6 €
Rhubarb crumble
Raspberry parfait

We were all very happy with the meal and its value.

From there, we went to nearby Sainte-Chapelle and its famous glass windows. I’ll have to let the photos do the taking, although I have to confess to being overloaded from a great number of churches.

We returned late to Mom and set out at 4:30 to take a guided cruise boat trip with http://www.bateauxparisiens.com, which runs from Port de la Bourdonnais, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. This was a gift to us by Josiane and Isobel, and it runs around Île de la Cité and St-Louis, offering a good perspective from the Seine and useful information.

Because our earlier experience and knowledge of the location of metro stations, Ecole Militaire and Trocadero, I checked and learned that the closest metro to the Eiffel Tower is Bir-Hakeim. With Mom in tow from its exit, we did a forced march that would have made Napoleon envious. I am convinced that, unless buses enable it, there is no close access to Eiffel.

Because of our experience earlier, we had arranged a wheelchair rental that afternoon, pickup before 1930 closing time from a Pharmacy just around the corner on rue Duphot, above rue St-Honoré.

It was a great tour with continuing good, albeit very warm and humid weather conditions. Upon its completion, I peeled off, as we would otherwise have missed the wheelchair pick up.

Not that much later, while uploading pics to Lynda’s laptop, the system froze. After asking several people, I went to FNAC on Champs-Élysées, which is open until midnight. There, Serge immediately got it to reboot, identified the need to increase beyond its 250 Mb RAM to 750, and go it working again. I love FNAC.