Day 8, Tuesday September 5, 2023

It was hot today…34°  and we are visiting  the Arc de Triomphe.  This is my fifth time in Paris and Bob’s fourth and we have never been to the top, so we need to do that today,   Did I mention it was hot? and the steps are winding and narrow, and it was hot! There are  284 steps up to the top, and I am quite pleased that I only have to stop twice to catch my breath.  Climbing 74 steps up to our apartment every day is starting to pay off.  There are twelve major roads that all converge here in a roundabout (traffic circle) with twelve lanes of traffic.  The right of way is the opposite to back home.  The traffic in the roundabout must yield to incoming traffic!  It seems crazy to us, but somehow it works. In this photo 3 lanes of traffic are trying to merge into one to exit the roundabout!

The view from the top is spectacular!  We see Sacré Coeur off in the distance.

And can you have tooo many pictures of the Eiffel Tower?

Here is a view with just three of the twelve roads that all converge at the Arc de Triomphe with the business district way off in the distance.We spend an hour or so admiring the view, and then we climb down those 284 steps, stopping for a moment at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier……and then we walk to the Eiffel Tower. On the way we see this memorial and realize that this is where Princess Diana died in a car crash 26 years ago.

It is hard to believe it was that long ago, I remember hearing that shocking news so clearly.

It is strange that we are not able to see the Eiffel Tower even though we know we are getting close, and then suddenly there it is in the sky between the buildings on one of the side streets. It looks close but it is deceiving.  We still have several blocks to walk… …and a river to cross.We brought a picnic lunch so we find a bit of shade to eat.  It is sad, but there are now glass and metal barricades all around the base of the Eiffel Tower and you must go through a security check to enter this area.When I was here nine years ago, it was possible to walk around under the tower and there was a wonderful view across the river to the Jardins du Trocadero.  You are now allowed  to go to the top of the tower but we will wait to do that when we return to Paris and the weather is a bit cooler. There are quite a few heavily armed policemen walking about.  The one in the middle is carrying a machine gun!We find a spot to relax in the shade only to discover that we no longer have any internet on our cell phone!  We have had so many internet problems this trip!  We are picking up our rental car tomorrow and we definitely need GPS so we use my little paper map book to find a store for the SIM card we bought at the airport.  They do register our SIM for us, which is helpful but they also tell us that their internet has been down and may not be repaired until tomorrow.  We head to the Orange store and get a second SIM for our second cell phone and then discover that our first connection now works just fine.  The price for a month of internet has jumped from the €10 a month that we paid before Covid to €40!   Sure hope that is the end of all the internet issues.  We are hot and tired, and catch a bus home . We walked almost 16,000 steps today, in +34° weather!  And it is going to be +30 for another week!