Views from la Tour Eiffel

Posted 7/23/2014

You can wait in line for hours to go up to the top of the Tour Eiffel, or you can buy a ticket in advance, for a designated date and time, and wait not so long.  I went online in mid-March and tried to get tickets for the time Ellen and I would be in Paris (April 12-24):  all sold out.  Then I checked the time my friend Marilynd would be there (May 10-16):  all sold out.  Then I checked the time my sisters would be there (May 31st-June 4th):  all sold out!

The first day I could get a ticket was my last full day there:  June 10th.  So be it!  I bought one ticket for myself.  As it turned out, it was a fitting close to my stay, to be able to survey the city and pick out some of the many places I had visited.

Here was how the tower looked when I arrived a little in advance of my reserved time:

Oops.  Oh well.  Hopefully this couple wasn't trying to get the top of the tower in their photos. 

So I got in line, avoided eye contact with scammers, and got on the elevator, which first went to the second level. 

I will confess that I goosed the heck out of a lot of these photos with Photoshop, to make them a little clearer, because it was pretty cloudy that day.  Some are still a little hazy, and one could probably find better pictures by googling "views from Eiffel Tower" or some such.  But I was there and I took these, so they are special to me.

This is looking east toward the Invalides (gold dome).  You can see Notre-Dame over to the left, with St Germain des Pres (dark spire to its right) and what I believe is part of the Universite de Paris in front of it (series of similar low structures).  The Pantheon, over to the right, will have its dome wrapped for several months to come, for repairs/renovations.  The green area to its right is the Jardin du Luxembourg.  St Sulpice is hiding behind the gold dome. That black building to the right of the gold spire is not the Tour Montparnasse...

There is the Tour Montparnasse.  This is looking southeast, over the Champ de Mars and l'Ecole Militaire.

I believe the cluster of high-rise buildings in the distance marks the Quartier Asiastique, also referred to as the Triangle de Choisy, at the southern edge of the 13th arrondisement.  This is one of the largest (if not the largest) "Chinatowns" in Europe (also having significant Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian populations, according to Wikipedia). 

 This is looking northeast, with Sacre Coeur in the distance, and the Grand Palais, Petit Palais (some of it) and Pont Alexandre more in the foreground.  The building with the light-green spire (in front of the gold columns of Pont Alexandre) is the American Church, where I saw an excellent piano recital one Sunday evening.  Further back and to the right is the Place de la Concorde (the pink billboard is on the Hotel Crillon, which is being renovated).  You can also see Ste Marie Madeleine (green roof past the Grand Palais) and the Opera Garnier, farther back. 

Here is a closer view; the Madeleine and the Opera Garnier can be seen more clearly.

I'm not sure what the tall buildings in the distance are.  My map shows a complex of interesting-sounding buildings in that area, including la Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie, la Cite de la Musique, la Geode, which is an Imax theater in the form of a large reflecting sphere, and la Grande Halle de la Villette, a cultural center which used to be a slaughterhouse (!).  However, based on photos, none of these is particularly tall... I think we are looking at the burbs (les banlieue).

This is looking farther to the east, towards the Marais; you can see the Louvre, the D'Orsay (long semicircular roof), and the Centre Pompidou (building with blue bits on the top; you can also see the rick-rack of the escalator going up the side).  That appears to be the Tour St Jacques way over to its right, and I believe the cathedral in the mid foreground on the right is Ste Clotilde.  Judging from the size and angle, the green area in the background must be Pere Lachaise.

And here is the Palais de Chaillot and Jardins du Trocadero, looking the other way (northwest), across the Seine, with the skyscraper district (La Defense) looming in the distance, past the Bois du Boulogne.

Yikes!  We're at the top!

The Palais de Chaillot includes (or is attached to) an architecture museum, which I never made it to on this trip.  Maybe next time.  Up and to the left is a small cemetery, where my sister Ellen and I located the grave of Claude Debussy.

This is looking down on the Musee Branly, just adjacent to the Tour Eiffel (I'm getting dizzy!).  I did make it to this museum.  It focuses on "indigenous art from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas" (i.e. non-European).  The collections are compelling, and it is beautifully laid out, with very large rooms and interesting lighting.  You should go.  (I went on a nice sunny day and afterwards walked over to the Jardins du Trocadero.  I counted 26 tour buses on the Tour Eiffel side of the river.)

Here are some of the same vistas as above, but from higher up, and sometimes hazier (rain was threatening at this point).  You can make out Notre-Dame over to the left, and St Sulpice in the middle, and the Pantheon was always easy to spot.   The green area to the right is, again, the Jardin du Luxembourg.  The gardens now visible behind the Invalides dome are part of the Musee Rodin.

The Champs de Mars and Ecole Militaire again, and, below, the Grand Palais, Petit Palais (a bit more of it this time), Pont d'Alexandre, Place de la Concorde, etc.  

 

 

This is looking downstream (southwest), with the 16th arrondisement on the right and the 15th on the left.  The funny island is the Allee des Cygnes (swans), and the unusual building to the right is la Maison de Radio France.
I didn't spend a lot of time in these areas, though my visit to the Musee Marmottan Monet with my friend Marilynd was in the 16th, and I did make a specific trip to the 15th just to check it out.  It's primarily residential.  I went to a pleasant little park, Parc George Brassens, which is near a large house called "La Ruche" ("the beehive"), which housed many artists over the years for little or no rent and is now a collection of artists' studios.  
Also, at the southern end of the Bois du Boulogne (off to the right, in the distance) is Stade Roland-Garros, where my younger sister (Ellen) and I spent a day at the French Open!  We watched, among other players, Andy Murray (who won his match) and Li Na (who didn't).

Here is the Arc de Triomphe, surrounded by the Etoile with its twelve radiating boulevards. I believe the tree-lined boulevard that stands out is Avenue d'Iena, with the Place des Etats-Unis extending off to the left at the midpoint.  The large building in the left foreground is the Musee Guimet, a museum of Asian Art (I didn't make it to that one either).  (There are so many!)

On that note, I believe I will base my next post on several museums that I visited during my stay but haven't really covered on the blog.