Ann and I have been to Paris several times before but have still not actually been up the Eiffel Tower. So, having been warned about the long queue, we set off early. The first part of the journey involved getting to grips with the Paris Metro and, after buying a 5 day pass, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower. After a 20 minute wait, followed by two lifts and a few minutes spent talking Ann into actually going up to the top, we arrived to enjoy the view from 276m up. It is hard to believe that when Gustave Eiffel’s iconic tower was built in 1889, it was criticised as ‘useless and monstrous’. The critics were silenced when two million visitors ascended the tower in the first year and over 200 million have now made the pilgrimage.
In the back streets, between the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalids we found a wonderful selection of shops selling fresh cheese and fine wine. The sight of all this food was too much for me to bear so we stopped for an excellent lunch at one of the pavement cafes. From there we walked to the Musée de l’Orangerie, which is strangely not mentioned in all good guide books. It is situated on the east side of the Place de la Concorde and is the place that houses some of Claude Monet’s last paintings. The collection highlight is Monet’s astonishing Water Lilies – eight huge panels conceived for the oval basement rooms of this former Tuileries greenhouse
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