Rowkin Rovings Blog

Awoke to a very overcast cool day which for a traveller is perfect weather. The morning was christened with our first of what will be many croissants from the local boulangerie. A very Parisienne thing to do.

We are attempting to keep our activities to two events at the most in a day as we have 8 full days here and don’t want to burn ourselves out. As many of you will have guessed, we have a spreadsheet for our time in Paris.
First task is to master the local transport that we have at our finger tips in the form of the Metro and bus. We are staying in the 11th arrondissement which is quite central to the city but still a 25 minute bus ride to the center – well, as much as Paris has a center. It is one of those cities that has several focal points.

Our apartment is on loan from a friend and the building is a very typical Haussmann style which is characterized by their elegant, uniform facades and are a hallmark of the city’s architecture. This is the town hall for the arrondissement we are staying in.

It was then off to the metro which is a four minute walk from the apartment and past all the neighbourhood shops which give this place a great local vibe, and to catch up and meet with our tour guide.

We are using this tour group called Walkative where you register on line and then meet at a designated location. After the tour, you then pay them on how good you thought they were. Our tour today starts on Ile de la Cite which is the island where Norte Dame Cathedral is situated on in the middle of the Seine River. The name of the tour was “A brief History of Paris”.

After two and a half hours of walking around quite a small area and learning a few bits and pieces, we made a quick side ways trip to the Louvre for the obligatory “influencer” picture and then back to the apartment for a rest as our feet were killing us.

On the way back we got very tempted by one of the multitude of cafes for a light lunch. The food was good but god, they packed you in like sardines – it was most uncomfortable sitting on top of other people as you tried to eat. We will definitely make sure we don’t get sucked into one of those places again.

Replenished and refreshed we headed out again. It was the #69 🚌 that took us all the way to the Eiffel Tower and gave us a tour on the way. To get tickets to the Eiffel Tower was a lesson in perseverance which started two months ago. We had heard you could buy them on the day but we did not want to line up for four hours on the off chance of getting one.

It was 8.00pm and had just had a big rain shower and made the sky very moody which just topped off the view. We paid extra and managed to get tickets to the top level.

There was certainly a fair bit of movement from the tower up that high. The platform was packed with other tourists.

Looking down on the city gave you a great perspective of how the renovations that were carried out in the 19th century Paris, make the city what it is today. They rebuilt half of the city during that period.

This was the very tight little elevator going from the top level down to the second level.

You have to swap at the second level to the elevator that takes you to the ground or you can walk down the stairs. Fras opted for the stairs.

We then made our way by foot across to the Trocadero where you can look back at the tower to get this quintessential photo.

We timed it perfectly for the light display. By now our legs felt like stumps and we were sooooo ready to head home. Luckily, it only involved one train line and a short walk to get us home.

Steps –  16,403