For the three or four days we were in Paris, we took the Metro only twice. The rest of the time, we walked. It was a good way to see the city. The very afternoon we arrived in Paris, we walked ten or twelve kilometres from our hotel to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur (famous Catholic church — 800 m), to the Arc de Triomphe (monument to Napoleon in the middle of a five way roundabout — 5.6 km), to the Jardin des Tuileries (beautiful palace gardens — 5 km), then home again (3 km). That’s a grand total of about 14.5 kilometres!
On our last day, we walked from the hotel to Galeries Lafayette (massive department store — 1.5 km) to musée du Louvre (largest museum in the world — 1.5 km), to Saint Michel Place (gateway to the hip/touristy Latin Quarter — 3.4 km), to Jardin du Luxembourg (more palace gardens — 1 km), then back home (5.2 km) — 12.5 kilometres all together.
My feet hurt every day. Now, a week after I came home, my shoulders still ache from carrying my backpack (and camera) everywhere.
The reward for carrying my heavy camera was more photos! It’s worth the aches and pains.
The first couple of photos are from the Arc de Triomphe. You’ve seen it before on this blog.
Last time, I went early in the morning. In the afternoon, there are a lot more tourists.
It seems disrespectful, somehow, to be sitting on a military monument.
Actually, the day we went, some sort of memorial service was happening. There were a lot of elderly men in military dress… and this wreath from Australia. Maybe it was related to ANZAC Day.
These Segways were lying near the entrance of Jardin des Tuileries. I was confused. Was this a Segway carpark? Then I remembered that there were City Segway Tours in Paris. The group of people in the background of the photo have probably just dismounted and are getting a talk from the tour guide. I rode a Segway once, at my undergraduate university’s Open Day. It was a lot of fun.
Jardin des Tuileries seemed to be a popular place for people to slow down and enjoy the sunshine.
No Xboxes here. Just sailboats that you can push into the fountain pond with a long stick, wait for it to reach the other side, then push it again. Hours of fun for the whole family.
The Eiffel Tower…
…surrounded by people with guns.
Galeries Lafayette, the 10-storey Paris department store, is the ‘center of the fashion world‘. I went there for the food.
Lafayette’s coupole was spectacular! Beautiful! I took a dozen photos before a security guard marched over and told me that photography was forbidden.
See my previous post for photos of the Sacré Coeur and Moulin Rouge.
“The very afternoon we arrived in Paris, we walked ten or twelve kilometres from our hotel to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur (famous Catholic church — 800 m)”
I’m confused, how far was it from the hotel to the church?
Or do you mean: “…we walked ten to twelve kilometres: from our hotel…”
Sorry, the maths nerd in me does sums without thinking.
Now a proper comment: I like your shot of the Eiffel Tower. There’s enough around the edges to keep it interesting, but not detract from the subject of the photo.
Ah, thanks for pointing that out, joanna. The ‘ten or twelve kilometres’ was left over from an earlier version of my post, my estimated total walkage before I decided to work it out exactly. It turns out that we walked further than I guessed — 14+ km instead of 12 km.