Back on land we walked into the Lourve which was built as a fortress built in 1190! Thats old and the architecture is amazing. The museum is closed today so tourist are not as plentiful and you can only enjoy the outside which I did.
From here we walked through the Tuileries Gardens, a little early but they had a few beds of beautiful flowers. The fountains were very nice although one just sent a stream of water straight up? It was a slightly cloudy day but warm so we enjoyed the walk.
Tuileries Garden
We continued toward the Arc de Triomphe beyond the Chanps-Elysees. Lots of people watching but not what I was originally thinking. I thought this boulevard was like Rodeo Drive with lots of fashion, not at all. Chain stores and fast food joints, although we saw our first Mc Donalds with fine patio seating! Many of the cafe’s had patio seating with the seats stadium style for maximum people watching. There were lots of people, mostly tourists and not many extraordinary enough for me to say this was a good people watching spot. There wasn’t any high fashion or fancy clothed people or cars. We did enjoy the walk. And the Arc de Triomphe is something you could sit and watch for a very long time
Laduree Paris Royale Macaroons must be the best because we waited in line and paid 17 e for 6 cookies in 6 different flavors including rose, lavender and Marie Antonette. Tastee, yes. Worth it? probably not! But I have a cute box that I can remember today with instead of another trinket. Who knows maybe when I get home I’ll learn to make macaroons and I’ll wrap them just like this and give to a special friend.
Paul found this fountain very interesting. Definitely different and the tubes light up at night. He wants to build one – we will see how far that goes! And then finally, after all the news at home about the yellow vests and all the warnings we finally saw a small grouping! The look harmless but we saw lots of broken windows along the Champs- Elysees.
And finally to the Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe is located on the right bank of the Seine with twelve radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect, Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.
The Arc is beautiful but the traffic was much more entertaining. The craziest, no horns blaring, no crashes, all speeds, and some vehicles actually stop in the middle waiting for an opportunity to turn off, and hardly any slamming brakes. Buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, delivery trucks and entering and exiting at the same time from every angle and we were not even there during a busy time. Facinating and scary at the same time. I couldn’t believe a bicyclist was in the circle.
We found the tunnel to get to the middle and the line to go up in the Arc although we opted to not wait and do that because it couldn’t get much better than being right on the level of all this action.
Why?
Thats our question but if you look on wikipedia it does explain why a warrior going into battle is completely nude! And then it was time to find a train and get back to our cozy apartment.