Paris Finale: A Boots on the Ground Special

Bon jour. 

Today we take you a final time on a sightseeing trip to Paris in April.

We’ve stepped aside the last few weeks from Sunday Gravy action to bring you a few moments of Paris. Hope that’s been cool with everyone.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it because it was life changing. Like to think that’s come across over the last few weeks. 

We’re back to the traditional Sunday Gravy next week. 

While we’ve showed off the food, twice, we tripped around Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Picasso Museum, it’s getting to be about time we just show off the “hits.” Also known as the reasons you take your camera with you to Paris.

Strapped in?

And we’re off.

Of course. I think it’s actually illegal to visit Paris without visiting their most obvious landmark. We Ubered to the tower on our first day when we didn’t have a tour scheduled because you pretty much fucking have to go.

Funny but we only caught distant views of the tower the first couple of days in town. Turns out we weren’t that far away, we were just around a bend in the river blocking it from view.

Here’s another angle.

You can spend entire days just trying to find a way to frame the tower for a photo. The neighborhood where it’s located is filled with plenty of framing opportunities.

As mentioned previously, if you want to go up in the tower buy your ticket MONTHS in advance. We were not prepared so all we had were shots from the ground. I found it to be crowded but not overly so even visiting on a Saturday morning. I fucking shudder at what this would be like in mid summer, They did have the “Stair” option if you wanted to walk up to the base of the tower but my broken ass wasn’t exactly in a climbing mood on this day.

We basically walked around the tower and walked the grounds nearby before deciding to see what else was nearby. Fully committing this day to site seeing.

There are several more monuments or points of interest in this part of the city, including another “must see” of a monument.

The Arc De Triomphe. This was indeed a busy tourist spot.

The sky was extremely photogenic this day.

Another shot.

Yep, the traffic circle, or “Carousel” as we now know it’s called, is insane.

See those scooters? You can pay to ride on the back of one while some insane local circles you around the Arc a few times. Should you have a need.

Another tip? Don’t run across the street through traffic to get to the Arc itself. That’s just fucking stupid. There’s an underground passage that goes beneath the road and takes you right there.

Take this unassuming shot.

Then put your bad ass zoom feature to work and you have…

The Champs-Élysées, seen here in basically its entirety.

Gonna hit up the wikis for the descriptor: “

“The avenue is 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 70 metres (230 ft) wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. It is known for its theatres, cafés, and luxury shops; as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race; and for its annual Bastille Day military parade.

It has been described as the “most beautiful avenue in the whole world”.

That’s a cool fucking shot taken with a pretty decent zoom from right around here.

The Place de la Concorde.

Wiki me again! “The Place de la Concorde, originally the Place Louis XV and later the Place Louis XVI is a public square in Paris. Measuring 7.6 ha (19 acres) in area, it is the largest square in the city. It is located in the 8th arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

The square was the site of many notable public executions, including Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre in the course of the French Revolution.”

French history is so much fucking cooler than ours it’s embarrassing. 

That’s the Luxor Obelisk or “Obélisque de Louxor” in the above photo, seen in closeup detail here.

Bring it Wiki! “The Luxor Obelisks (French: Obélisques de Louxor) are a pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks, over 3,000 years old, carved to stand at either side of the portal of the Luxor Temple in the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC). The right-hand (western) stone, 23 metres (75 ft) high, was gifted by Egypt to France in the 1830s and moved to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, while the left-hand (eastern) obelisk remains in its location in Egypt.”

The “Gifting” of the obelisk is an interesting story but I’ll leave you to research that on your own.

Yep, that’s the Eiffel Tower in the back left and the Luxor Obelisk in the back right of the photo.

Here’s the outside of the Louvre and the Tuileries.

Another angle of the Tuileries and the former palace.

Notice the chairs? They are free to use and move around as you see fit. Find a statue you like or want to sit by the fountain? Grab a chair and drag it where you like.

Another view.

All of this shit was in the same area, in or near the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre. And there’s a whole lot more.

Want fountains?

They got your fountains.

Need some alternate transportation?

Eglise Saint-Eustache.

Built between 1532 and 1633. 1st Arrondissement. Second largest church in Paris behind only Notre Dame. Hosted Easter mass in 2019 after the fire at Notre Dame.

Not a bad second fiddle.

This is all in one area! Paris is a big fucking city and you can encounter perfect photo ops just by walking around.

All very walkable from where we stayed.

While walking between the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Triomphe on an earlier day we discovered another point of interest. One maybe a bit more morbid but a landmark none the less.

The Princess Di memorial or “The Flame of Liberty (Flamme de la Liberté), located at the Place de l’Alma right above the Pont de l’Alma tunnel where she died in 1997.”

A more reverential shot.

Yes I’m a ghoul and here is the “Tunnel of Death” itself.

You can see the “graffiti” or the notes of remembrance at the bottom of the photo. She was well remembered. 

As mentioned previously we stumbled across the water taxi, “The Batobus,” on our last full day in the city, more on that in the Paris and Notre Dame episode but I thought I could include a few more shots from the water taxi tour.

This one is super cool.

Mad respect to the various tradesmen required to repair Notre Dame, seen under construction in the background. Also a very effective view obstructor so you can’t see how extensive the damage still is and how much more work is needed.

You pass underneath EVERY city bridge as you meander down the river.

Directly underneath Pont Alexandre III.

The boat takes you to the doorstep of the Eiffel Tower.

If you’re lucky and the wind is just right, you can adjust your zoom feature on your phone and FINALLY get that shot of the French flag you’ve been trying to get for the last week.

All the visuals you could possibly take in.

For me though?

These are the visuals I’ll really remember.

That’s the Paris that still haunts me, visits me in my dreams and the Paris that I’ll remember forever.