Paris - II

Day 2 of our weekend trip to Paris and we start of with a visit (2nd time) to Arc de Triumph. Since this is the first sunday of the month, we get a free ride to its top, to the musuem and the view of Paris from Top.

As with most things in Paris, the musuem was all in French so all we could do was stare at the artifacts without appreciating the context. I get a feeling (post this and Louvre) that French do not want english speaking (and non-french speaking) people to appreciate their history. Such a shame, anyways...



What you see in the distance is La Defense, the commercial part of Paris (where we had gone last night). The other end of this road goes to Concorde.



Eiffel tower. Wish the sky could have been more clearer but this was early winter morning (not even 10am)



Another view of the road leading to La Defense



In the distance is Sacre Coeur. Now one realises that that (Sacre Coeur) is indeed the highest point of Paris



Memorial for all those who lost lives in the first world war. Arc de Triumph doubles up as a memorial for all martyrs (a la Amar Jawan Jyoti in India).

We now head to Eiffel Tower.

The queue to get to the top of Eiffel Tower was about 45min long. And while we stood there, guess what we were discussing? Financial planning. At the base of Eiffel tower (perhaps one of the more romantic places on the planet) three MESsengers were dicussing financial planning and that too in Hinglish! Obviously none of us had any great success in our respective love lives, at least not till that time! - things are unchanged with me since :(



The man after whom the tower is named - chief engineer of this construction.



There are three levels on Eiffel tower. The photo above is from the first level. Captures the river and one of 36 bridges (over that river) in the city of Paris. There are also islands in that river!



This is from the second level (taken from behind a glass window and hence the reflection).



Finally, we are right on top. There was some serious wind blowing.

In the centre above is the Arc de Triumph. Looks very small from top.



Paris landscape and almost half a dozen bridges.



Another view of Parisian landscape...



Notice the shadown of Eiffel Tower in the picture above



Finally the MEN in black, the three MESsengers on top of Eiffel tower.

WE WERE THERE!