The Jarvis Holiday - Early morning walk and the "selfie"

Eric invited me to walk him to the United Nation (UNESCO) building this morning.


He is attending a conference there.

The UNESCO building is located south east of the Eiffel Tower, about the same distance we are north-west of the Tower. See the map.

We are staying at Square Lamartine in the left hand corner and UNESCO is in the bottom right corner.

First selfie of the Eiffel Tower from just in front 

of the Paris Military School

It is a pleasant 40 min walk with the mid-way point being the Eiffel Tower.

Getting closer at Ave Joseph Bovard

Thus the reason that my early morning walk includes many photos of the Eiffel tower.

I think I have found a new favourite spot for taking an Eiffel Tower photo.

Everyone wants to take photos from Trocadero, but surprisingly Champs de Mars, the garden to the South east of the Tower was completely empty in the early morning.

I took a selfie each time I crossed a garden/street on my approach to the tower.

I took a selfie each time I crossed a garden/street on my approach to the tower.

Avenue Gustave Eiffel

Now at Avenue Gustave Eiffel near the base of the tower.

The gardens on this side of the tower were nearly empty except for a couple with 2 toddlers from Australia.

They were trying to take a selfie but with little success.

Not easy to juggle 2 children and hold a phone camera.

I offered to take a family photo, for which they were grateful.

So now, to explain, why this approach to the Eiffel tower is deserted.

completely blocked

Since our visit 2 years ago, the Eiffel Tower has been encircled by a metal fence.

 No one is allowed to walk underneath the tower without first going through security and purchasing a ticket to ascend the beast.

 Here is the old path to the north tower.

 Completely blocked. In order to get under the tower, you now either have to line up along Quai Branly, or along Ave Gustave Eiffel.

 To make matters worse, they have put a double metal fence around the parks which lie on either side of the tower. It's so absolutely weird.

 There is no way now to just take a leisurely stoll from Trocadero to Champs de Mars and pass underneath the Eiffel Tower.

 You are re-routed to one side or the other in a circle around the tower.

I guess the glass half-full response to this change would be that Champs de Mars is now basically empty. A beautiful place to take an unobstructed photo of the Eiffel Tower.

Here are the interesting things I saw on the rest of my walk home. Trocadero continues to provide a spot for people watching.

In this shot you can see its busy-ness even by 10 am.

... see the bride and groom ...

Here are the interesting things I saw on the rest of my walk home. Trocadero continues to provide a spot for people watching.

In this shot you can see its busy-ness even by 10 am.

This photo shows someone taking a photo of the Eiffel Tower (right into the sun mind you), along with a tourist with knapsack checking out a statue in front of of the Museum of Man, and a Bride and Groom taking wedding photos.

What a place.

 It is however not for the faint of heart after 9 p.m when bus loads of tourist descend to this exact spot for a selfie with the lighted tower behind them.

We should know, since we have already done that.

The Trocadero Fountain was full of water when we arrived last week.

This morning it had been drained and there were a handful of men using brooms to clean the algae off the bottom of the fountain.

What a job.

You can see the nice white color of the cleaned pool on the top right side.

Four brooms and a high pressure hose are the tools needed to finished this days work

Trocadero is normally teaming with men trying to sell trinkets.

I didn't catch a single one in the two photos above.

The cause might have been these two police officers that were standing in the centre of the Place du Trocadero near the traffic circle.

 My suspicion was confirmed when I saw the group of salesman hiding behind the Creperie, bartering with some lucky tourist.

A few salesman weren't in the mood to hide but had still cleared out of Trocadero Square.

 I saw them over talking to the security guard in front of the Museum of Man.

And thus another day in Paris begins.

I arrived home to find my teenagers still in bed and Hebe hiding in her room.

While I was gone, she had woken up.

She got up but couldn't find me, so she hid under her covers "because she kept hearing noises".

I asked her why she hadn't woken up Thomas who was asleep on the couch.

Her reply, "because he was sleeping."

Well that makes sense.

So on that note, I think I will head to the same place -- sleep.

C