Day 8b - Paris at Night!

When we left the Louvre, it was darkening and we headed toward the Giant Ferris Wheel at the end of the Castle gardens.

The ferris wheel is 200-ft (60 meters) high and in the heart of Paris at the Place de la Concorde. I think there were about 36 enclosed compartments on the ferris wheel, able to seat 6 people a piece. An older French couple who have done extensive traveling were in the compartment with us. They served as temporary "tour guides" and told us about the sites that we could see. We went around 3 times for 10 euro. It was a beautiful view, but I was unable to use my flash through the glass and so the pictures turned out blurry with the movement. Sorry!

The loading platform - the ticket booth was like the ferris wheel compartments.

Looking down from about 1/2-way up the top.

Paris from the Air!

The Eiffel Tower and the Obelisk of Luxor as seen from atop the ferris wheel. The Champs-Élysées is at the right top. Our hotel was over near the Eiffel Tower.

Then, a little further left of the above picture is the below picture...the Hôtel de Crillon.
The Hôtel de Crillon in Paris is one of the oldest luxury hotels in the world. Our temporary "tour guides" told us about it. It is located on the foot of the Champs-Élysées at the north end of Place de la Concorde. They told us that the cheapest room there would be no less than 500 euro, while many regular rooms & suites went up into the thousands. We checked this online after getting home and found this to be true. The cheapest was 530.00 euro and the presidential suite was 3,820.00 euro!!! Many famous dignitaries, royalty, and celebrities have stayed there. Just next to this hotel is the US embassy.

When we disembarked from the ferris wheel, our "tourist guides" pointed out the way toward the docks to catch a cruise on the Seine River. They said the best time to take the cruise was at night, anyway, so we were right on time! I grabbed a picture of a sign as we walked by....everything is in kilometers as probably all of Europe is.

And....the Eiffel Tower by night - again! Sparkling. And behind my favorite bridge. The Eiffel Tower now has flood lights which beacon in the Parisan night sky. I was glad it showed up in a few pictures.

After walking around and winding our way, we finally arrived at 7:25 for a 7:30, one-hour trip, aboard The Seine River Cruise. And no, there we were not the only ones on the boat! We had to walk through this boat and over to another further out on the water. That one was filled with people.

We went past many Paris landmarks we'd already seen by day, including the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, and the Eiffel Tower. Besides the sights, we had a very good time talking, although by the time we disembarked, we nearly resembled frozen icicles! It ended up snowing that night. I never did take a picture of the boat we were on. But below is a picture of another cruiseboat.

A closer-up of my favorite bridge! It's beautiful! I just wish I knew it's name. Would you be able to help me out, Audrey?

More of the Notre Dame Cathedral from the waterfront view.

Anyone know how many bridges cross the Seine River in Paris? In total, there are thirty-five! The oldest is about 430 years old and the newest was just built in the mid 1990s. Our cruise took us past about 20 of those bridges. It was amazing: you'd be going under one bridge and be able to see the next 3 ahead! I'm not sure if they all show up so well on photo, though. The second one down you can see 3 bridges if you look closely.

Couldn't resist!!! One more of the Eiffel up close from the Seine! I think this might be my favorite one of all.

I had fun digitally spicing up this picture...color...sharpness, contrasting... I hate that the water and beauty just didn't show up in the pictures as they had to our eyes that night!