Eiffel Tower Light Show

I absolutely love the light show at the Eiffel Tower.  The show begins at the top of the hour for five minutes every hour after sundown.  It's magical.

Day Two Paris

With only two days in Paris, we had to pack them full.  With a quick stop for an umbrella to shield ourselves from the spring rain, we were off to visit two stops...Notre Dame and the Lourve.

Construction began on the cathedral in 1163 during the reign of Louis VII.  It amazes me to see such history when the US is so young in comparison to the history of Europe.

 

 

 

Here I am standing at point zero or Kilometre Zero of French national highways, located in Paris on the square facing the main entrance of Notre Dame cathedral, and considered the official centre of the city of Paris.

 WikiMiniAtlas

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We stood in line in the rain waiting for our turn to climb a narrow set of 387 steps at the top of several spiral staircases to visit one of the towers.

Although standing in the rain wasn't too much fun, it did give us a first hand experience of seeing he gargoyle spouts in action.  About 5 minutes after the rain began, the gargoyles started spewing the run off.  It was quite impressive.

 

The gargoyles were so interesting to us.  They were freakish and mesmerizing at the same time.

 

 

Notre Dame was one of the first cathedrals to use the architectural technique of the flying buttress.

 

I had to take this picture for my coin collecting son Evan.  He would love to see that people had put their coins in the spouts of the gargoyles.

 

We saw postcards of this view all over town.  But, we didn't need to buy a postcard when we captured it ourselves.  Can you see the Eiffel Tower there in the distance?

Scary, right?

This gargoyle I found to be the most disturbing.  I could barely look at him.  But it is said that the gargoyles represent that all creatures are the work of God and are deserving of his love and salvation.

A view of Paris from Notre Dame tower.

The eastern façade of Notre Dame cathedral.

 

Upon leaving Notre Dame, we crossed a nearby bridge and were delighted to find it covered in locks.

The Pont des Art or also known as the love lock bridge was constructed in 1802 under Napolean I and was the first metal bridge built in Paris.

No one really knows when the locks began to be placed.  At first it was done in secret at night, but now it is done openly and in broad daylight and usually recorded or photographed.

One night about two years ago, someone cut through the wires and removed all the locks on one of the bridges. But in just a few months, locks of all sizes and colors reappeared, more conspicuous than ever.

Supposedly the locks represent everlasting love.  We didn't add a lock to the bridge.  There are practically no spaces left.  Here is a link to a youtube video of someone who added a lock the same day that we visited.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIoBt21fvAY

Our next stop was the Lourve.  We didn't buy a city museum pass since we were only spending two days in Paris, so we had to stand in line in the rain to wait our turn to get in.  It didn't take us too long though.

The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in with more than 652,000 sq ft dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre has sculptures, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. It is the world's most visited museum, averaging 15,000 visitors per day, 65 percent of whom are foreign tourists.

Some of our favorite sightings: Venus de Milo created sometime between 100 and 130 AD.

We also enjoyed the ancient Egyptian section of the museum.

This section contain over 50,000 pieces ranging from 4,000 BC to the 4th century.

Directly across from the Mona Lisa is this painting called the Wedding at Cana.  It is the largest painting at the Lourve.

 

The Mona Lisa on the other hand is shockingly small. It has been on display at the Lourve since 1797.  The nice thing about the Lourve is that they allow you to take photographs as long as you don't use a flash.  The Mona Lisa is roped off and you cant get very close and there are always so many people surrounding it, but still a cool experience to see it.

 

On our way home we nearly missed the light show that happens every hour at sunset at the Eiffel Tower.  IT is so sparkly!

 

The Eiffel Tower is even more impressive at night. 

École Militaire building across from the Champ de Mars.  The French know how do light their city.  No wonder it is called the city of light.

 

 

 

My 40th Birthday

Thanks to a business conference in Europe, Dave's parents who took care of the house and the kids, and the fact that France and Spain are so close together, I was able to climb the Eiffel Tower on my 40th birthday.  It was really incredible.

We arrived in Paris in the afternoon on the day of my birthday.  We made it to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, pushed through the strong urge to go to sleep and we were off the visit the Eiffel Tower, only a few minutes walk from where we were staying in the Rue Cler neighborhood.

 

 

 We decided to skip the long lines for the elevator and climb the 669 steps to the second floor of the tower.

 

The views of Paris from the Eiffel Tower are pretty incredible.

 

But, I also enjoyed seeing the inner workings of the tower and what an amazing feet of engineering it really is.

The Seine River

Here I am taking a picture of step number 660 out of 669 steps.

The tracks of one of the five elevators at the Eiffel Tower.

The underbelly and more elevator cables.

 

After visiting the tower, we strolled around the city for a while.

We crossed the Seine River at the Pont Alexandre III bridge which is a classified as an historical monument.

It was fun as we walked around to see the Eiffel Tower present itself again and again as we looked back from where we had come.

 

We finished off the evening by finding a nice café for dinner.  Unfortunately, it was too cold and rainy to sit outside like a true Parisan and people watch during our meal.

 

We sat inside and indulged ourselves on a couple of delicious pizzas.  We had an amazing day.  It was so nice of Dave to take a detour on his business trip to give me such a fabulous birthday.