Arc de Triomphe and Isle de la Cité

Paris Day 5 - Sunday, July 17 - Arc de Triomphe and Isle de la Cité

We awoke fairly early and prepared for our final day to explore the city. We had already hit the priority sites that we had missed our first time in Paris ten years prior, but there were a couple that wanted to revisit. First on that list was walking the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe. From our hotel it was almost a two mile walk up the grand boulevard. I guess I had had too much coffee that morning, because not long after we had set out, the call of nature beckoned. Luckily I saw a bright, glossy sign for “Point WC Paris.” 

I followed the sign into the sparkling granite corridor into a mall, and entered the storefront of this luxury bathroom, walls adorned with an array of dozens of artful, fancy toilet seats and rolls of toilet paper in every color imaginable. For a mere €2, I could pee in a private chamber that had been manually disinfected and sanitized just prior to my arrival. A refreshing experience indeed.

We continued up the boulevard, past designer boutiques, both exotic and familiar, and fancy car showrooms playing annoying loud techno music. At the top of the street, we reached the famous “Etoile de Charles De Gaulle,” where a dozen streets converge at this mother of all roundabouts encircling the glorious monument.

It was fascinating to watch the traffic swerve and navigate this chaotic, lane-less, circular road, near misses every second, and throw in the Darwin Award contenders, reckless pedestrians, risking their lives to jaywalk across this crazy jumble to get to the arc through this mess. Did they not just walk past the stairs to the safe, underground pedestrian walkway? We shook our heads, wondering if they really were such idiots, or just crazy thrill seekers. 

As we actually value our own lives, we chose to take the underground passageway to access the monument, and walked through the tunnel to get in line to purchase our tickets. The wait wasn’t long, only 5-10 minutes, and we then began another installment of our European vacation cardio workout plan, ascending yet another claustrophobic, spiral staircase, 284 steps to the top of the monument. Today was the warmest day yet, and I was dripping with sweat when we emerged onto the roof, welcoming the cool breeze that gave a small bit of relief from the heat of the abundant morning sunshine. 

We enjoyed yet another set of Parisian views from yet a different vantage point, returned to the base for more photo ops, and then found the nearby Metro station where we boarded a train heading to the Isle de la Cité, the island in the middle of the Seine which is oldest part of Paris. We wanted to revisit the two famous landmarks here, Sainte Chappelle and Notre Dame, but first, we stopped at a cafe for lunch. The cafe was directly across from Sainte Chappelle, and after a shared charcuterie and cheese plate, we crossed the street and purchased tickets. 

This small chapel boasts the most incredible collection of stained glass in all of Europe. The chapel doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside is a floor to ceiling display of graceful, gothic pointed arched windows bursting in a kaleidoscope of colors. Supposedly this chapel houses the crown of thorns, though to Ewan’s disappointment, this famous relic was not on display.  

From Sainte Chappelle we progressed down the isle, pausing briefly in a street market selling birds, all kinds of cages, food, toys, and any other possible avian accessory you could imagine. Ewan was delighted by the hundreds of adorable varieties of sweetly singing feathered friends. They had everything from parakeets, canaries, finches, cockatiels, and chickens to more exotic species of parrots.

We then headed for the famous Notre Dame, though once we glimpsed the line that stretched all the way across the square, we opted not to enter, since we had seen it on our former trip, and Ewan could really care less. 

They are tired of me taking selfies all the time!

Instead, we circled gardens surrounding the building, admiring the flying buttresses and fanciful gargoyles. We stopped at a playground along the side of the church, where there were a few see saws, and gave Ewan an opportunity to play, though it was rather uninspiring so we continued on. 

As we came around the back of the structure, Ewan spied a better playground, however and begged us to extend his play time. It helped that there were several other English speaking boys for him to interact with. They all gravitated to a spinning disk, about a three feet in diameter, and set at an incline. They all took turns either piling on top of the disk or pushing, running, falling, and generally reveling in the joy of centrifugal force. All of this merriment naturally led to the need for a refreshing treat, so we found a cafe and shared a couple of scoops of gelato before finding the nearest Metro stop and returning to our hotel. 

For our final dinner in Paris, we thought we would be spontaneous and just set out on foot and see what we could find, which unfortunately led to disappointment. We had a very mediocre meal at a cafe near the Louvre, so we didn’t bother to linger, but headed toward the Tuileries for one more garden stroll back to our hotel to cap off our visit to this beautiful city.