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Last Day in Paris - The Shotgun Tour

January 17, 2001
It was foggy and somewhat warm. We got up and prepared for our last day in Paris. We had coffee and baguettes at the hostel and set off on the shotgun tour of Paris.First, we all went to the Musée de L'Armee (the Army Museum). We saw swords and armor from all different countries and ages. My favorites were an ancient Roman sword that was beautiful and the display of ancient Chinese armor.
We saw wonderful cannons that were covered with bas-reliefs. We took a photo of Pete looking like he was being shot out of one them with me lighting the fuse.

Le Hotel des Invalides We then went to the Hotel des Invalides. The Hotel des Invalides was began by Louis XIV as a place for disabled soldiers who had been forced into either panhandling or subsiding on church charity. The institution of the Invalides was created in 1670. Libéral Bruant carried out the plans, and construction was finished in 1676. The first men moved in 1677 and the building is still used for this purpose.

The Church of St. Louis des Invalides, known as the Soldier's Cathedral, is the work of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, and its construction predates the dome. Its interior was all white with many captured enemy flags hanging all around as decoration. The dome crowning the church is Hardouin-Mansart's work as well.
The major historical event witnessed by the Invalides was the reception of Napoleon's ashes on December 15th, 1840, now housed in a tomb designed by Visconti.
Napoleon's Tomb
is located in the
Dome Church behind the Soldier's Church. It is incredible. It sits down in a round alcove and to see it you must bend over a railing to look down. On his visit in the 1940's, Adolph Hitler was particularly impressed with Napoleon's tomb because you had to bend over the rail to see him and even in death you still had to bow to the Emperor. Napoleon is actually encased in six coffins, one inside the other, ranging from wood to lead and finally the beautiful oak outer coffin. The standard joke around Paris claims that it is set up that way so that he can't escape and come back. Around his tomb are statues of the twelve Arch Angels watching over him.

Surrounding Napoleon's tomb are four chapels. Two hold his brothers, and two hold his generals. The Throne of Charlemagne is in one of the chapels. We met two Texans at the Tomb and we chatted with them about home for a few minutes, then we were on our way. At this point we split up. Gary needed to go back to the hostel as he had a migraine coming on and needed his meds. He was to meet Mike and Phil at Sacré-Coeur. Pete and I were off to the Eiffel Tower. You could see it from the Hotel des Invalides and we decided to walk. We got a bit sidetracked as we tried to leave the grounds of the Army Museum and found a cool park with a fountain shaped like a guy holding his head. The water came out the neck. It was very interesting.

Le Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower) was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of England, opened the tower. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, Gustave Eiffel's was unanimously chosen.
However, at first, the public did not accept it. A petition of 300 names protested its construction, but it is now completely accepted and must be listed as one of the symbols of Paris itself. At over 300 meters it was the world's tallest building until 1930.
Other statistics include:
· Height: 320.75m w/ antenna & 324m w/ flagpole
· 2.5 million rivets.
· 300 steelworkers took 2 years, 2 months, & 5 days (1887-1889) to construct it.
· Sway of up to 12 cm in high winds.
· Height varies up to 15 cm depending on temperature.
· 15,000 iron pieces (excluding rivets).
· 40 tons of paint.
· 1652 steps to the top. (This seems useless now, but it's
WAY important later)

It was almost torn down in 1909, but was saved because of its antenna - used for telegraphy at that time. Beginning in 1910 it became part of the International Time Service. French radio (since 1918), and French television (since 1957) have also made use of its stature.
During its lifetime, the Eiffel Tower has also witnessed a few strange scenes, including being scaled by a mountaineer in 1954, and parachuted off of in 1984 by two Englishmen. In 1923 a journalist rode a bicycle down from the first level. Some accounts say he rode down the stairs, other accounts suggest the exterior of one of the tower's four legs, which slope outward.
With 2 million visitors the first year and almost 6 million people a year today, by December of 2000, over
192 Million people had visited the tower. Pete and I were doing our part to keep the tower the most popular and well-known monument in the world.
I brought my kite along but wouldn't you know it, the minute we got to the top the wind stopped. Just my luck. So we looked around and the view was spectacular. You could see all of Paris and beyond, even with the bit of fog. We took lots of photos and scoped out lots of beautiful women. We met a guy from Canada who told us that some guy had purchased Napoleon's penis. We thought it was odd, but it turned out to be true. The guy that bought it owns a Canadian company that makes exercise weights. We laughed and chatted with him for a while longer, and then went to have coffee and a crepe at the snack shop on the Tower's second level. (Both were terrible) Never eat at the fast food joints at the Tower. Go to the Jules Verne Restaurant. It costs a lot, but it's worth it.
Fear of Heights Pete and I decided that we would attempt to walk down the stairway to get back to the ground. It turned out to be a really, really BAD idea. It just so happens that both of us are afraid of heights. Terribly afraid. The stairs are metal grating that you could look down through surrounded by chain link fencing on the sides. It felt as if we were standing in mid-air about forty stories from the ground. After about three or four flights the panic attacks set in. I gripped the handrail so tightly that my knuckles went white. My heart was pounding so loudly that I am sure that the people on the observation deck could hear it. I know I could hear Pete's heart. We decided that we weren't that brave or stupid, so we turned around and carefully, ever so carefully, made our way back up to the observation deck and we waited for the elevator.On the way down and I chatted up the operator who was a cute little thing that spoke good English. (Pete thinks it's funny that I talk to all the women and calls me "Casanova".) We reached the ground and hopped the Metro to the Arc de' Triomphe.
Le Arc de' Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe is located in the center of the largest rotary in France at the end of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. The Arc and the Place Charles de Gaulle that surrounds it, together form one of the most famous landmarks in Paris. There are twelve avenues that radiate from the Arc, which explains why it is also called Place de l'Etoile. (Etoile is French for the word "star".) From the terrace on top of the Arch, you can see the 12 avenues, many of them named after Napoleonic victories (Wagram, Lena, Friedland) and illustrious generals (Marceau, Hoche, Carnot). The Arc was beautiful, but we had to figure out how to get there. I asked a local for directions and found out we had to go back down into the Metro, follow a tunnel, and come back up on the other side. Then we had to go back down into another tunnel that took us to the ticket booth for the Arc. We paid to go up and up we went, right back to the street level.
The Arc de' Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate the imperial victories. Chalgrain was appointed Architect. It took two years to lay the foundations and construction was finally completed between 1832 and 1836 under Louis-Philippe. In 1840, the chariot bearing the body of Napoleon passed beneath the Arc.

The Tomb of the Unknown contains the body of an Unknown Soldier from WWI, which has been interred beneath the Arc since 1920. The Flame of Remembrance is rekindled each evening at 6.30 pm. There were flowers on the tomb and around the Flame.
Four high-relief panels cover the Arc. The most famous is on your right as you face the monument from the Champs-Elysées side. Entitled "le Départ des Volontaires de 1792" and also known as "La Marseillaise", it is the work of François Rude. The sublime masterpiece represents the Nation leading her people to defend their independence.
We took several photos and began to climb 284 stairs (in a spiral) to the top. Pete and I stopped several times to catch our breath, curse our smoking, and for Pete to tell me that he hated me for making him climb all the damn stairs. On our way up, Dean and Ryan, the two Canadians from the hostel passed us. They ribbed us about our smoking. We finally got to the top, where there was a museum with the history of the Arc. We examined the exhibits for a while, caught our breath, and then it was up more steps to the terrace. From the terrace you could see all of Paris below you. We bumped into Ryan and Dean on the terrace. They had come from Morrison's grave and were on their way to the Eiffel Tower. We checked out the view for a while longer and then made our way back down to the street. We were supposed to meet the rest of the guys at Ponte Neuf at 8pm, so Pete and I chose to go back to the hostel and get food.
Dinner, Pastry, & ReunionWe got back to the hostel and found Mike there, and then we found Phil. Gary was not there. It was beginning to rain and all of us were very tired. I took a nap for an hour or so. Gary finally came back, headache down somewhat, but not gone. He went to sleep. The rest of us decided not to take the boat trip due to the rain. We chose instead to go eat. We went back to the Rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter to a Greek restaurant called Le Minotaure. The food was awesome. We got free wine, and for an appetizer: grilled feta cheese with peppers and olives. The feta was to die for. We devoured it in moments. The rest of the meal was on par with the fromage. The meat was grilled to perfection and was tender and juicy. We all ate until we were stuffed. We sat around smoking and basked in the glow of our awesome meal over a cup of coffee. We thanked the owner and the chefs for a wonderful meal and shook their hands. We promised to come back again on our next trip. I also said that I would put a review on my website. It is a shame that Gary was not able to go with us. He would really have enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere.
On the way back to the Aloha, we stopped and got a huge box of pastries from a Tunisian bakery. We went back to the hostel planning on all of us going to bed early, as our ride to the airport would be picking us up at 7 A.M.
But, when I went to my room and was taking off my boots, the phone rang. It was Steve that I had met on the airplane!! He said he would be there in about an hour. We ate pastry and shared with everyone at the hostel. We mentioned that the pastries were from a Tunisian bakery and it turned that there were four guys from Tunisia (go figure) sitting in the bar. We invited them to join us as well. We all laughed and had a great time. Steve showed up and we talked and drank. Around 4:30 in the morning Steve said he had to leave. So we all said our goodbyes and went to bed. It was cool of Peter, who was working at the hostel, to let us stay up so late. We only had an hour and a half until we would get our wake up calls. I went up to my room, packed my gear, laid out my clothes for the trip home, took a shower, and lay down for an hour. It had been a great big busy day!