Visited the Arc de Triomphe. It is 284 steps to the viewing platform, of which I did 100, 50 up and 50 down! The lady in the ticket office offered me transport in the disabled lift, but I assured her I would probably not get out! Three flights to my apartment is high as it gets pour moi.
Napoloeon commissioned the Arc to celebrate his victories, but then he started losing and he never finished it - pretty petulant really! It has an eternal flame for the unknown soldier that was only extinguished once, in 1998 by a drunken footy fan in Paris for the world cup (and I think you can imagine how it was extinguished). Hopefully the world cup fans have matured since then...
Detail from the underside of the Arc (with feet firmly on the ground)
Strolled the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, where many heads rolled, including Marie Antoinette's,
and into the Tuileries. Bought myself a chocolate gelati and pulled up a chair...and that's my chair, right in the centre!
Visited the Place de la Madeleine, which I will remember not for its gourmet food shops but for its public toilet. Built in 1905 it has stained glass detail in the cubicle doors, a toilet, hand basin, dryer and mirror in each cubicle, patterned mosaic tiling on floors and walls...and a sign requesting no dogs!
3 comments:
Dear Sal,
Can I please take a seat in that chair! Not the ferris wheel, but the one firmly planted on the concrete. I'd like to smell the smells, see the view and listen to time passing in Paris.
love Fi
Dear Sally,
I'm doing a lino-cut of that detail of the Arc de Triumph... post more details please,
Fi
Oh yes, I really don't have an eye for detail... Arc de Triomphe... Fi
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