Marseille’s Notre Dame de la Garde, from the bottom of the hill. As featured in the very first line of The Count of Monte Cristo.

I didn’t know that this building was featured in The Count of Monte Cristo until we arrived home. Another prominent landmark, the Island d’If, however, is well-known as the island on which the prison in the story is set. We intended to travel to the island while we were in Marseille, but alas the winds were too strong and we were unable to make the short trip.

A shame, since the prison was quite notorious in it’s time, but you can see the island quite clearly from the top of the hill in this shot.

A gargoyle atop the Notre Dame thoughtfully ponders, while looking at the Eiffel Tower.

The shot was taken on our second visit to Paris. It was a Saturday, and a busy one at that. We sat and had a pathetically awful coffee at a terrible cafe across the road from the Notre Dame; the girl was extremely rude to us so we decided against more food there. After waiting in line an hour we began the long hike — we weren’t charged, but instead were handed a ticket (this was due to all Parisian monuments being free that weekend — we’re still not sure why, but hey it was free).

After spiraling up, and up, and up, there is a landing which doubles as a gift shop. There is not much to look at besides crappy souvenirs, so we ascended further. The view once you reach the next platform is the shot shown here. This section is where you walk across from one tower to the other, and ascend further. At the top is a massive bell, which requires more climbing along an extremely thin, old, wooden staircase. There were not many people inside but everyone had the same photo of them standing zombie-like in front of the bell. We didn’t.

The stairs down run from top to bottom without pause, and when you’re finished you are disoriented for a few seconds as your brain tries to grasp that you are now walking forwards.

Day Thirty-Nine
Paris
15 September 2007 23:12

We arrived in Paris early after our “five star” breakfast in a dining car which was, in actuality, two croissants, some toast and juice.

As we already knew our destination and the public transport system getting to the hotel was a piece of cake.  We chose the same hotel as last time as it in a quite area.  A bit out of the way but close to a Metro anyway.

We tried again to hire bikes using an automated machine but just like everywhere else it rejected our credit card.  Instead, we headed off in a random direction.

Soon afer we decided we should go “somewhere”, so headed towards the Bastille monument.  Not super interesting — it’s another tall monument — but a start.

More wandering in the general direction of the Notre Dame lead us onto the “Ile” where we had a Berthillon ice cream from the store itself as it has reopened.  Justine had white chocolate and I had wild strawberry. Both were fantastic.

At the Notre Dame the line to climb the towers was long so we sat in a cafe where a grumpy French lady grabbed the menu from our table as soon as I ordered two drinks; we’d intended on eating there too.  After the drinks we rejoined the line and waited for an hour.

The entry as free (usually 7.50€ each) which was strange but we weren’t complaining.  We climbed, and climbed, saw a view and climbed some more.  At the top is the famous large bell and it’s incredibly thick, about ¾ of a foot.  After the descent we headed into the Latin Quarter where some more wandering lead us to the Pantheon.

It was free too so we eagerly entered and climbed the 200-odd stairs to the top there as well.  The huge pendulum back at the bottom is also cool.  We learned that many Parisian sights are free this weekend so headed to the Arc de Troimphe since it is expensive.

Another few hundred stairs and the view from the Arc is great.  Streets just fan away from the roundabout and the view down the Champs Elysee is very nice.

We decided not to watch amilitary thing which was about to start at the bast of the Arc and instead walked down Champs Elysee.  Part way down we saw a Planet Hollywood and thought it might be fun to eat there,  It wasnt’t “fun ” but the food was OK.  A lady snapped our photo and 20 minutes later came back with a horrible printed copy of it.  The one she had chosen (from the 5 she took) was awful.  It cost 10€.  We turned them down.

At the other end of the Champs Elysee is the Place de la Concorde; I snapped photos while Justine waited patiently.  Sadly none turned out as I’d set something wrong and many were a waste.  After some confusion over the Metro entrance location, we caught 2 trains back to our hotel.

Between the two of us, we stepped on over 4,000 stairs today.  Including the Paris Metro, it might even be as high as 5,000.  I guess we are used to climbing stairs now!