Night time in Paris

The days spent in Paris are filled with long walks, a few metro connections and lots of coffee, to keep you going otherwise you would never see all that you want to.

Night time is for leisurely walking, cafes and seeing the city not in bright sun light, but amber light, and if you are so lucky as to see it from the Seine, then as Hemingway said, it will be with you forever.

There are 35 bridges that cross the river in Paris,
 and one of the oldest is the "Pont Neuf" built around 1600.

It's seven arches make up the "long arm" of the bridge from the right bank to the western side of the "Ile de la Cite". The detail work is quite dramatic at night.

Near 10:30 one night we decided to head toward the Eiffel Tower and then over to the river for a boat ride, it was one of the best things we could have done.

 The spring night was perfect, cool enough for a light sweater but also sandals, and sitting on the edge of the boat with the river water occasionally hitting you was a great feeling.

Why not be cold for a little while, then amble over to a cafe for something to warm you up later?

Along the night journey down the Seine, we passed the Grand Palais, Concorde, the Louvre, and along the quays people just strolling, sitting arm in arm, and relaxing on such a beautiful night.

Continuing down, we passed the Hotel de Ville, and  Notre Dame which is amazing in the evening (much more dramatic than in the day time). 

We eventually headed back and along the way went under the most evocative bridges, with gargoyles, gold winged statues, and carved stone,  everywhere you looked.

Continuing along we passed the Institue de France, the fantastic Musee d'Orsay, Hotel des Invalides, then disembarked and stopped for awhile at
the Eiffel Tower.

The Tower was built in 1889 and appears to be in great shape over a hundred years later. Located on the Champ de Mars, it was built as the entry way to the 1889 World's Fair by the designer Gustave Eiffel. 

It appears that everyone has either a love or hate relationship to it, but it is really a very dramatic structure lit up at night, as tall as an 81 storey building.

Slowly walking back through Paris that night was terrific, right down to buying the cliched miniatures from the spread out rugs of the peddlers (my daughter found one that actually glowed in the dark, to bring back to a friend). If you can't buy chotskys, what fun is there?