Epic Honeymoon - Day 36 - Paris

The one and only Arc de Triomphe.

The next morning, we started with a visit to another iconic Parisian sight: the Arc de Triomphe. Built by Napolean to commemorate his armies’ various victories, the Arc is an impressive structure to behold. Inspired by ancient Roman arches of similar design, it’s quite a bit bigger than you might expect when you see it for the first time.

Upon exiting the metro station, the Arc stands in all its glory.

We had purchased the Paris Museum Pass (4 days) ahead of time, which was picked up on arrival to Paris. Entry to the Arc was one of the many included items, so we skipped the line and headed up the 200+ stairs to the top.

Work those glutes!

The view over Paris from the top of the Arc is, in my opinion, unparalleled. Because it towers easily over all other local buildings, you can easily see in every direction. The roads from the Arc radiate out in a wheel-and-spoke pattern, which looks really cool from the top. You can see the Eiffel Tower to the south-east; the business district to the west (the only area allowed to have high-rise buildings);  Sacré-Cœur atop its hill; and of course, right down the guts of Paris, all the way along Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Tuilleries and the Louvre.

An iconic view from the top of the Arc.

A straight shot down the Champs-Elysees.

A back-bending effort was required to take this shot... worth it!

From the Arc, we started wandering down Champs-Elysees, but decided to stop off pretty quickly for some lunch. We sat down at Vesuvio, which was offering what sounded like a decent lunch menu (called a “formula” in France). As it turned out, the food was just okay, and the service was a bit poor. When we asked the waiter what the “plat du jour” (plate of the day) was, the response was an aggressively blunt “Fish.” No information about sauce or sides. Just fish. It could have been fresh from the ocean, unscaled and ungutted as far as we knew!

Lunch stop at Vesuvio.

An entirely edible but generally mediocre meal.

Even dessert looked better than it tasted.

We continued walking down Champs-Elysees, partaking in some minimal window shopping along Paris’ most busy strip. We decided we should get as much value as possible out of the Museum Pass (we’d already planned enough to get our money’s worth, but why not get some more?), so we crossed over the Place de la Concorde and paid a visit to L’Orangerie.

Autumn was in full swing in Paris.

Place de la Concorde and its famous Obelisk.

A modest museum, compared to some, consisting of one main floor in the basement, adorned with many classic portraits, as well as a special exhibition area. During our visit, the special exhibition was dedicated to art through the ages from war-torn and oppressed countries. It was a little bit macabre, to be honest. It didn’t bother me, as such, but Avy felt a little uneasy with it all, so we made a quick loop through and then out. Upstairs, in the much brighter, window-lit mezzanine, there are dedicated rooms for the infamous Water Lillies by Claude Monet. Quite massive in size, they wrap around the walls of the ovular rooms. There’s a nice comfy seating area in the middle from which to bask in their glory, or you can take a turn around the room and admire them up close.

The female form has been admired in art for centuries.

Monet's "Water Lillies" display over multiple rooms.

An amazingly tranquil sight.

We continued on through the Tuilleries, stopping for a rest by one of the large fountains along the way and deciding to tease some seagulls with scraps of chips. Well… Avy did, and I had a go at some fast-shutter photography! One or two of them came out quite nicely!

I like to pretend I know what I'm doing with my camera!

With a big day of museums planned for the next day, we called it for Day 36 and headed back to our accommodation for a quiet evening.

Visit our friend Lisa on Day 37!