La Tour (Part Un) (Sunday)

The day after we arrived we awoke to a lovely sunny Sunday. By the crack of noon we were more or less ready to head out to explore. And what is the first thing one thinks of doing in Paris? La Tour Eiffel of course.

We carefully planned our journey on the public transit and headed out.

A word on the transit system as we have found it. There is lots of it and it goes everywhere. There's the Metro, which is basically like a subway. Lots of stops. Some are partly like elevated railways like the El in Chicago (?). Some even have rubber tires like in Montreal. The RER (Reseau Express Regional) is like a subway but different. The RER lines come through the middle of town like the Metro. RER has fewer stops and eventually heads out into the suburbs but as a result it's faster. So if you want to go to places that are close to the RER that's your best bet even in centre ville. Your little Ticket T+ (actual name) for 1e45 will get you on buses, Metro and also RER within Zone 1 (Centre Ville). You have 90 minutes from the first time you put it through a machine. You can take stopovers and transfer from one mode to another. But there seem to be conditions on that that we have not been able to figure out yet and have been stung with having to use another ticket. Also some stations you have to scan your ticket to exit. Sometimes it doesn't work (??!!) and you have to use a fresh ticket to get out or jump the turnstiles! We're still working on the ins and outs.

Another word on the transit system. When the horn goes telling you the doors are closing, they close. They don't open again when they hit your shoulders and then your backpack while two of your kids are in the train and your wife and third kid are still on the platform. They simply keep trying to close until you squeeze out of the way.

Here are Dunc and Zita at the Les Invalides station where we had to wait for the next train to meet Alex and Clara at the Eiffel Tower station because they had to go on a different train because our train terminated there and I don't know what happened on their train...







Here we are on the RER during happier times before the whole train-terminating-door-squeezing-family-separating fiasco.

So we finally made it en famille to the Eiffel Tower. Even though we all know what it looks like it's neat to see it in real life. It is quite impressive.

And it's busy. We stood in the ticket line for a bit hemming and hawing. The line looked to be about 45 minutes long. The screen over the ticket booth said 45 minutes wait at the 2e etage before going to the sommet. It also said something about saturation possible au sommet meaning no one else goes up. I left the line and wandered over to the information booth to ask about times and so on. The nice lady there said if we were here all week then Sunday afternoon might not have been our best choice, but yes if we came around 9 or 9:30 am we could have the run of the place.

So we took a few pictures and headed off...

Here's Clara thinking of the lineup!

Duncan consults his map as we
head off.

...and instead headed over to the Musée Rodin.
  

Ahh. Le Musée Rodin.

Good thinking to come here.

We finished off the evening with dinner in: pan fried turkey fillets and some well deserved local chocolates and macarons for dessert.