Paris to Swiss Alps: Evening in Paris (3/26/2017)

Sunday, March 26, 2017 (continued)

The Pullman Hotel is within sight of the Tour Eiffel/Eiffel Tower, only a couple blocks away. You could not have asked for a more convenient lodging. You also could not have asked for better weather!

We finally met our host, Mike, to receive a welcome letter and information about the optional tours in Paris, for which it was too late to register or even go! Also met our Program Director, Mieke, a cosmopolitan Dutch woman, who is fluent in many languages, including probably Berner Deutsch, or at least one of the Swiss dialects!

Tour Eiffel from the corner across from the hotel

Lots of little clouds and lots of chimney vents

Hotel Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel

View from our hotel room

Took an evening stroll around the Champs de Mars, the former parade ground of the École Militaire/Military School.

Monument au général Gustave Ferrié/Monument
 (1933) to General Gustave Ferrié, a pioneer in military
radio communications; the bust disappeared in 1972
and was replaced by a copy in 1974

Ferrié is responsible for putting an aerial on the Eiffel Tower!

Pruned tree

Bicycle rickshaw with blaring music

Mur pour la Paix/Peace Wall (2000) by artist Clara Halter and
architect Jean Michel Wilmotte, inspired by Wailing Wall

The word peace is inscribed in 49 languages

Unfortunately, due to vandalism and controversy surrounding the chosen site of the memorial, it is now surrounded by a chain-link fence, and is open only for pre-arranged tours.

Champs de Mars as a dog park

Monument des Droits de l'Homme/Monument
to Human Rights (1989) by Czech sculptor,
Ivan Theimer, was inspired by Egyptian temples;
two bronze pylons are covered with signs,
symbols and text symbolizing human rights

Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe?!

After a dinner of Croque Monsieur (thin ham sandwich covered with cheese and broiled) and pasta carbonara, it was fnally dark enough to see the lighted Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower at night

Next: Luxembourg.