Rest and recovery in Paris

It was life admin time again so we had to load up a suitcase and head to the local laundromat. We were there early on a Sunday morning so we were on our own with no one to help translate the instructions. Nonetheless with a little help from google and trial and error we managed to get everything done.

Next it was breakfast time. Being a Sunday our usual haunt was closed but we found an excellent replacement just up the road. Gotta love crepes and apple or apricot tarts for breakfast!

We didn’t have anything special booked until later this afternoon so we found a self-guided walking tour of Paris’ trendy arts district Montmartre. It was a bit of a walk but we found the starting place and found where Parisians and tourists go on a Sunday - Montmartre! It was packed.

Montmartre is on a hill overlooking Paris and over time lots of artists have lived in the area including Van Gogh, Renoir, and others. We checked out Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre a 12th century church which is the second oldest in Paris. Some of the stone columns date from the second century.

This weekend also happened to be the Harvest Festival around Montmartre Cathedral which is essentially a big food and wine festival. We shared an excellent bowl of chilli con carne which came in a pastry bowl but there was food and wine of all types. The whole area of Montmartre seems to have lots of different and excellent food options available.

After an exhausting morning we headed back to the hotel to recover and have a siesta before heading out for our afternoon activity - climbing the Eiffel Tower.

The Tower opened in 1889, it took 2 years to build and at first everyone hated it. It was built for the Expo so was meant to show the world what France could do. But people thought it would fall over, it was originally painted red which no one liked so with all the complaints the government said they wouldn’t fund it.

Gustav Eiffel paid for it out of his own pocket with the understanding he would be able to recover his costs once it was finished. Being a bridge builder of some repute (see blog post from Porto in Portugal) he knew what he was doing and built it like a bridge with lots of curves and being near the river he made sure the foundations were properly laid. He did everything right when building it and then he made sure it would remain useful by putting antennas on the top, or by using it as an observation point and of course people came to look at the view. He made his money back within 6 months of it opening.

It was a great view. We went all the way to the top and then came back down the level 2. Fortunately it has lots of elevators so getting up and down was reasonably easy.

Tomorrow we see a few classics!Okumaya devam et