Tip #5,698 on the Eiffel Tower and other Paris, France Things to Do Tips

I acknowledge the fact that this is probably VT Tip #5,698 on the Eiffel Tower, but it was such a thrill for me to be there that I can't NOT make a tip about it!

And, hey, different people have different reactions to this famous landmark. When my daughter visited Paris in 2000, she was struck by the color of the Eiffel Tower: it looks black in photographs but is actually brown. When I first saw it, I was blown away by how massive a structure it is -- the people underneath it were like ants.

When we saw it from the water at nightfall, the Tower was a symbol to me not only of Paris and France but also of love and romance.

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Address: Trocadero
Directions: Hard to miss

The Musée d'Orsay was more manageable than the Louvre, and without the long lines, but it was still a lot of artwork to take in at once.

The paintings that stuck in my mind: one showing the apostles John and Peter, looking stressed-out and worried on the morning of the Resurrection, and Renoir's Danse à la Campagne. I had seen the latter in books but was awestruck to be standing in front of the actual painting. It was so beautiful.

The gift shop offers something for everyone. My daughter and I bought little presents for each other -- Madeleine in the original French and a bookmark of Danse à la Campagne.

See my Kevin Story travelogue for another Musée d'Orsay memory.

Admission is 7.5 Euros, Monday through Saturday, and 5.5 Euros on Sunday or after peak hours (see website for details). Reduced price for ages 18 to 25. Free admission on the first Sunday of each month

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Phone: 01 40 49 48 14
Address: By the river Seine, Quai Anatole France
Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/

We walked from our hotel to Père Lachaise Cimetière and wandered around at random, having forgotten to get a map. In the guidebook that I’d read before leaving home, the cemetery looked manageable, with the graves of celebrities (e.g. Edith Piaf, Chopin, Abelard and Heloïse, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Jim Morrison) clearly marked. That was misleading, because it left out the hundreds of “regular Joe” graves and family crypts that are laid out haphazardly around corners and up hills.

Some gravestones were so old that the engraved words could no longer be read, some dated from the early 1800s,and some were from just last year. The saddest, to me, was a tiny Chinese girl – cute and pigtailed in the photo on her headstone – who died in 2003 at the age of three. The most ornate was a two-story chapel for the dead – stone foundation and white clapboard, with stained glass windows.

We found Jim Morrison’s grave by accident. VTer Guyon had told me it was the only one with security guards, due to the fact that overzealous Doors fans were always trying to chip off pieces of the headstone. Kelly, who is taller and could see over the obelisks, noticed a uniformed guard taking a smoke break, so we followed him and found a group of tourists gathered at the gravesite. It’s tucked away in an obscure corner, but it was covered with fresh flowers. The stone reads "James Douglas Morrison."

I took a photo of the grave and of the other tourists, some of them posing cheerfully in front of the grave. Seemed a little macabre to me, but chacun à son gôute.

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Address: Boulevard de Menilmontant
Directions: 11me arrondissement. Metro: Pere Lachaise ou Philippe Auguste

Our wonderful hotel manager gave us tickets for a tour with Bateaux Parisiens and recommended that we go at sunset. We sat outside on the huge tourist boat and -- despite being tempted to throttle the loud woman from Texas sitting near us -- it was a lovely trip.

The armrests were actually telephone-like instruments that pulled up so that you could put one to your ear and listen to the commentary. The young woman guide was incredible – she moved seamlessly from French to English to German to Italian, and back to French, with very good accents in all four. We passed under 24 bridges and floated past major buildings like Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay.

They played Parisian-themed music in between – Gershwin’s "An American in Paris," with instructions to listen for the car horns, Edith Piaf’s "Vie en Rose,"and others, like "Can-Can" and "I Love Paris in the Springtime." I even found myself humming along with the annoying Texan – “I love Paris/Why, oh, why, do I love Paris…” as we glided on the Seine and watched as darkness fell and Paris truly became a City of Lights. It could have been hokey, but instead it was magical – so beautiful and romantic.

Thank you so much for an unforgettable experience, Ouali!

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Address: Aux pieds de la Tour Eiffel

Paris Plage (Paris Beach) is a summer event that began in 2002. Over 2,000 tons of sand, plus beach umbrellas and full-grown palm trees in planter boxes are carted to the banks of the Seine each July and August, transforming it into a giant beach for city folks. There are concession stands, atomizers, musical acts, games, and trampolines for kids.

It's an amusing concept, but the last time we were in Paris, the city was in the middle of a heat wave, so hanging out at the beach didn't hold much appeal. We walked by but didn't linger. The Plage has a different theme each year, e.g. Brazilian-Copacabana in 2005.

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Address: On the banks of the Seine near the Hotel de Ville

We took the Métro to the Louvre and entered the museum via the Palais Royale entrance. There were several ticket stations but no lines on a Sunday morning at 10 AM; we walked right through.

Went to see Her Holiness, La Joconde, first, figuring that was the room that would get crazy quickly. We could’ve saved ourselves the rush – it was already nuts, everyone squished like sardines in front of the painting and flashes going off every second, like the Oscars. I managed to wriggle to the front of the crowd in about 15 minutes. Every time someone left, I’d slip into the space. Mona and I communed together for several minutes, she smiling her non-mean smile.

I remembered the conversation that Beck and I wrote for 9th grade French class: "Aux Pieds de La Joconde…mais tout le monde sait qu’elle n’en a pas."

My reactions:
1) The Louvre should house her in a much larger room, like the Rijksmuseum and Nightwatch.
2) I was surprised that they allow flash photography and that so many people wanted to take photos of her. How will their photos look any different from a postcard or a photo in a book?
3) It’s an intriguing painting, but not at the top of my list. I just don’t understand the hysteria.

We spent about 2½ hours sampling the Louvre’s treasures – Michelangelo sculptures, paintings by Goya, Raffael, and Bellini, furnishings from Napoleon III’s apartment, and (as Kelly said) more Greek heads than you ever wanted to see. If I lived in Paris, I’d get a pass and go to the Louvre every week. For one day, it was overwhelming. Also, the descriptions were in French. If I went back, I’d rent an English audio tour.

I grew weary of all the Annunciations, Crucifixions, Piètas, etc., with stylized gestures and eyes cast piously to heaven. Instead, I liked the religious paintings where the people looked real. There was a Madonna who was breastfeeding the Infant Jesus, and a Pièta where Mary’s nose was red from crying.

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We spent twice as long standing in line as we did actually viewing Sainte-Chapelle, but it was so worth it. When I entered the upstairs room, I really truly gasped – the long, narrow stained glass windows were SO gorgeous.

As you enter the ground floor of the chapel, there’s a sign saying SILENCE, which is the same word in French and English. By the time people got to the second floor, however, most had forgotten that it was a place of worship, and the level of chattering had increased. Every now and then, someone would call out, “SHHHHHH!” and the room would quiet down. I wondered if Ste Chapelle employed a professional husher.

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Phone: 01 53 73 78 50
Address: Boulevard du Palais
Directions: Sainte-Chapelle is inside the Palais of Justice on Ile de le Cité-- a few minute walk from Notre Dame. Métro : Cité, Staint-Michel, or Châtelet. RER: Chatelet -Les-Halles, Saint-Michel
Website: http://www.pbase.com/francist/chap&page=all