DAY 123 THURSDAY JULY 26 PARIS WALKING TOUR

Pam and Ken arrived late last night.  We made plans with them over breakfast to synchronise activities for the next two weeks.  Tried to book our sleeper to Copenhagen at the station but the queue was too long so we set off on foot to see the central sights.  Today was HOT.  Chemist shops have temperature readings flashing and they varied from 31 to 36C during the day.  We kept in the shade and stopped every hour for a drink.  By the time we got back to the hotel at 6.45 we had covered a lot of territory. First 2 kms straight down to the Seine, stopping for morning tea at the Pompidou Centre.

This is the Museum of Modern European Art and the same building that we saw from the Sacre Coeur yesterday.  We had likened it to a multistory carpark and it did not look suited to a hot day.  Just before we saw the river we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.  So much for the idea that you cannot escape it in Paris.

First impression of the Seine was that they had turned it into a miniature Coogee Beach, but no one actually got their bathing suits wet except under the central shower.

Crossing to the Ile da la Cite, we circumnavigated Notre Dame and ticked off gargoyles, flying buttresses and ornate doorways and rejected the 100 metre queue to climb the tower.

For once we could not find a scale model to get the big picture in miniature.  Perhaps it was inside but we agreed not to join the continuous shuffling throng entering and exiting.  So off to the next big one, the palais de Louvre.  Too big for the crowds to obscure.

Or for us to get into a frame.

Along the way we saw the bateau mouche, too exposed for us today (as were the topless buses). We also passed the bookstalls on the left bank and saw electric rental cars at various spots.

After lunch in the Tuileries Gardens we passed through the Arc de Triomphe.

Non, non, that is the OTHER ARC DE TRIOMPHE as Monty Python would point out.  We realised then how straight a line could be drawn up to the Place de Charles de Gaulle.

On the camera zoom we lined up the fountain (right) the Obelisk and the big A de T. We missed the top of the Obelisk in each photo.

To continue  up the hill where the Tour cyclists raced last weekend we had to cross the Place de Concorde roundabout, which involved five separate sets of pedestrian lights, none of them synchronised.  Supposed to use the Metro?  Stopped halfway up the Champs Elysees for a traditional sidewalk cafe drink.  But the crowds and traffic brought back nothing of the romance to be seen in photos from the 1950s in French Culture classes.  The Arc required a tunnel to reach it in the Place, which worked well and it inspired an occasional snatch of the Marseillaise from the onlookers.
A sign in several languages invited people to treat with quiet respect the tomb of the unknown soldier  and the eternal flame.

With Pam and Ken as our guides we had covered a respectable tally of Paris Monuments so set off back to the hotel with tiring legs and sore feet.  We cut across past the Galeries de Lafayette where some of you may have shopped and tried our luck again at the Gare du Nord,  where the queue was even longer.  We will try to be the early birds tomorrow when they open at 8am.