Le deuxième jour à Paris

My second day in Paris, Megan and I had arranged to meet to see the Arc de Triomphe. There are long lines pretty much all the time for the major attractions in Paris, so we decided to arrive before the Arc opened. I was late, as I accidentally took the right metro, but going in the wrong direction. I still arrived before the Arc opened, but there was already a considerable queue. Happily Megan did not make the same mistake, and was holding us a place right near the front of the queue. 

You enter the Arc via an underground tunnel, which passes under the roundabout which surrounds the Arc. David told me that if you get in an accident on that roundabout your insurance will not cover it, as it is seven lanes and everyone drives it like they are insane.

The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin (1739–1811), in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture (see, for example, the triumphal Arch of Titus). Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. The main sculptures are not integral friezes but are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze appliqués on Empire furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Arc are The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot), Resistance and Peace (both by Antoine Étex) and the most renowned of them all, Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 commonly called La Marseillaise (François Rude). The face of the allegorical representation of France calling forth her people on this last was used as the belt buckle for the honorary rank of Marshal of France. Since the fall of Napoleon (1815), the sculpture representing Peace is interpreted as commemorating the Peace of 1815.

In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major Revolutionary and Napoleonic military victories. The inside walls of the monument list the names of 660 people, among which are 558 French generals of the First French Empire; the names of those who died in battle are underlined. Also inscribed, on the shorter sides of the four supporting columns, are the names of the major victorious battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The battles that took place in the period between the departure of Napoleon from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo are not included.

You then climb up a very, very tall spiral staircase to reach the top of the Arc. The only picture I took was blurry, but gives you some idea of how tall it is.

You then come out in a small space which has this sculpture. You then climb up another set of stairs, leading you to another room, and a gift shop. After that, there is yet another set of stairs, and then you are finally on the terrasse.

David recommended the Arc over the Eiffel Tower for the best view of Paris, both because of its location (it is like the centre spike in a wheel) and because you can then actually see the Eiffel Tower, whereas if you climb the Tower, you cannot see the Tower...

I love the skyline, the contrast between all these old buildings poking their spires over the apartments, the modern high-rises sitting right next to them (the building with the gold roof is, I think, Les Invalides, which houses the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.)

Here you can see down the Champs-Élysées, the huge building behind the ferris wheel being, of course, the Louvre. So the day before, that was where we had walked - from the Louvre to the Arc. Also, I'm now realizing... does that look like a traffic accident in the bottom of the photo?

Inside, the same attic which houses the gift shop.

Megan and I then went on a bit of a shopping spree at the flagship Sephora store on the Champs-Élysées, which was awesome (it was huge), before heading over to the Catacombs, which are supposed to be really cool. Unfortunately, last admission was at three, and at one when we arrived, the line was being cut off.

Source

But this is the sort of thing they have down there. So cool.

We were heading back up to where we were staying (Megan was staying at a hostel only a couple of metro stops away from David's building) when we passed the stop for the Eiffel tower, and decided to get out. While we weren't crazy about walking up another huge building in the same day, we decided to check out the line.

Unfortunately, the line was HUGE, and it was raining on/off again, so we decided we would rather not.

But it was well worth it to walk under the tower, and examine the architecture from up close.

So many tourists everywhere.

I spent forever looking at these photos, trying to figure out if they were out of focus, or if it was just a result of the lattice work at different depths of field. Very, very cool.

The space between those two large buildings (yet another museum, I think) was where I was the day before, when I took the photos of myself in front of the tower.

This photo was from the day before, but I missed it in the previous post. But it gives you some idea of where I was in relation to the tower the two different days.

This was just kind of random.

Crossing the canal between the metro station and David's street.

Then it was New Years! We had a huge amount of cheese and bread for dinner, with like five different kinds of cheese, and was pretty much the best thing ever. Then we had some drinks before getting ready to head out. We had found a club offering free admission (fairly rare in the city on New Years) and planned to spend the evening there.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Crossing the bridge on the way to the club, the tower was all lit up (which I think it is every night?)

The club had a little cave-like basement room, with an excessively low-ceiling'd hallway leading in (I am genuinely so amazed and happy that I did not smack my head into it at all - as the bathrooms were upstairs and I kept having to go through it).

David was trying to get a picture of the light doing weird things with the glass while I was drinking, so had me holding this position.

David and Andrew (Andrew is English, but is doing the same teaching program thing that David is doing).

We then headed back out to the bridge just prior to midnight, to watch the Eiffel Tower light up and fireworks go off.

A fun night, and a happy new year in Paris!