Paris, day 2 - from the Champs Elysées to the Louvre

Lovely breakfast, albeit a bit decadent: smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and natural yoghurt, plus gorgeous French coffee. Strange for it still to be dark at 8 a.m.

The sun was only just over the horizon when we reached the Champs Elysées.

But it was a really, really lovely Autumn morning, so we decided to walk for a bit before we took the Metro… and it was so enjoyable that we ended up walking all the way. We went past the Grand Palais.

And then past the beautiful gold dome of Les Invalides (we visited it later in the week, so more pics later).

The Place du Concord is beautiful, with its fountains.

Strange and rather sad to think that the crowds were baying for Marie Antoinette’s blood here, and more than 1,000 people were guillotined here during the French Revolution.

From here, we had our first proper view of the Eiffel Tower.

Then there’s the Egyptian monument (from Luxor, approx 3,200 years old) – it’s visually stunning.

Turn round, and there’s an amazing view all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe.

Then to the Tuileries – I had expected it to be grassy, but the first half isn’t. We all liked the fountain and the large lake.

And there was lots of sculpture – a curious mix of old and new.


My favourite one here was probably the tree in the lake. (I am a bit conservative about art.)

The part of the Tuileries near the Louvre is more formal. We had another view of the Eiffel Tower – and we had to take a touristy shot, where Chris appears to be holding the tower in his hand.

I loved the arch in front of the Louvre, with its imitation of the Quadrigia from St Mark’s in Venice.

And then it was a matter of going over to the glass pyramid and queuing up to visit the Louvre.