Waking up in Paris! Yes, we had arrived in the French capital the day before and it was time to explore the city. Little A had a wish list of places to see based on the animated TV series Miraculous. The series about Lady Bug and her superhero friends takes place mostly in Paris and Little A has a lot to tell us about the Eiffel Tower.
A Walk To the Center of Paris
Is Paris a walkable city? Somewhat, yes. But the distances are a lot longer than expected. It is flat, but wear shoes that can handle the hard concrete pavements. Paris has many cozy streets, but when walking you will most likely end up along huge boring roads mainly filled with cars.
There were a few interesting sights along the roads towards the center. Especially the two large railway stations of Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord caught our attention. We had set our target on the Jardin des Tuileries, a park area along the banks of the river Seine. This first part of our walk was only around 5 kilometers, but, still, our feet and knees hurt from the hard ground. The park was quite empty at this time of the year. There was even less to see due to ongoing construction works. So we continued across the square Place de la Concorde. We were soon walking along the famous street of Champs-Élysées.
Champs-Élysées is a grand street with a lot to see, but I’m still unsure what the hype is about. Well, for Little A this was the closest place where we could find a McDonald’s. That was Little A’s wish for lunch and as she has been a good fighter with the long walk, then why not? We did, however, have quite a distance to walk, and one of my knees kept telling me that the current walk was not appreciated.
In Front of the Eiffel Tower
From Champs-Élysées we continued back towards the River Seine. This time, our aim was the Jardins du Trocadéro, a park just across the river from the Eiffel Tower. From the park, it was just a very scenic walk across the Pont d’Iéna before we stood at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The tower itself was closed for visits due to an ongoing strike. The reason for the strike had something to do with the workers not appreciating the plan for how to save the monument for the future.
Seeing Little A’s eyes when she finally saw the main sights from her favorite TV series was amazing. We recorded a few messages to her friends and grandparents with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Along the River Seine
We continued our walk along the River Seine, with the Eiffel Tower still in our background. We got to see a few of the bridges across the Seine and enjoy the great view of the river. We walked to the impressive Pont Alexandre III. This is where we saw the even more impressive Hôtel des Invalides. It was also from here that we took the metro back to our hotel. It was enough of exploring Paris for one day and we looked forward to just sitting down in the hotel room and ordering some pizza.
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