From the Sea to the Seine

Yesterday we jumped ship in Marseilles and headed into the city to catch a train. We had very little time to see Marseilles itself, but our taxi driver gave us a quick tour as we drove to the train station. The train station is quite nice. It is 'U' shaped with the trains entering and leaving from the open end. The shops, stores, info centre and ticket wickets are at the opposite end. It was quite easy to find your way around.

St. Charles Station - Marseilles

These trains really move! We made the 700 km trip in a little over 3 hours. And that was when the fun really began. We hopped off the train at the Gare de Lyon station and immediately went into 'How the heck does the subway system work around here!” mode. Luckily, there's an app for that! I had downloaded the Paris subway app on my iPod. You punch in where you want to start from and where your going and it tells you all the train numbers and stops along the way.

We arrived at our stop about 4:00 pm and were thrilled to see the Arc de Triomphe as we ascended the subway steps. We were even more thrilled to find that our hotel was right around the corner.

Arc de Triomphe

A view from our balcony

Today we had an early start and started touring the city in earnest. The streets and buildings here are very well kept and the locals have been very accommodating.

We walked from the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower enjoying the sights and shops along the way. The first view of the tower was very impressive because you didn't really see the tower at all until you were standing right in front of it in the mall.

My first impression of the tower was that it was bigger and better than I had expected. I guess it is the sceptic in me, but I was expecting pigeon poop and rust, but neither was anywhere to be found. It looked like they knew we were coming and gave the whole tower a thorough scrubbing and paint job, it looked that good.

A view of the tower from the Military School

The three of us!

After touring around the the tower for a while we hopped onto a tour boat that left from the base of the tower for a 12 kilometer trip through the city on the river Seine. From the tour boat, all the areas of the city appeared to be uniformly clean and groomed. Very nice.

Seine boat cruise

We were hoping to get the Louvre Museum today, but time didn't permit. We're hoping we can get there when we return to Paris next Sunday before flying out.

Tomorrow – Jolly Old England!

P.S. I hear that some people have tried unsuccessfully to post comments.  I have changed some of the settings to try to fix that problem.