Day Fifty Three: Rue Cler, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe

November 12, 2017

Although November 9 is past, our Anniversary tour is still rolling, and so we are still thinking about those 50 years past. Music always seems to play a role when your thoughts turn this way, and certain songs come to mind. Today, its this one, Time in a Bottle, by Jim Croce

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Rick Steves, the prolific author of guide books for Europe, is usually right on with his descriptions and recommendations. So when he made a major section in his "Pocket Paris" about the Rue Cler street market, we were inclined to go see what he was on about. This is despite the fact that we figured the "Halles de Levis" market right by our hotel would be about the same thing.

One good thing about something having been written up by Rick is that you can read what he had to say and compare your actual experience. Then even if the experience was so so, you did get the fun of comparing to the guide book.

Rue Cler is on the Left Bank, not far from the Eiffel Tower. It's 4 km from our hotel - so a fairly short Metro ride. We walked down the Rue Cler, which indeed is quite like our own Levis street, with Dodie reading out what Rick had to say. This made it lots of fun, as we identified each place and noted any historical, architectural, or product facts that Rick had dug up.

Rick Steves shows us what to see on Rue Cler.

One of the first stores was the kids' clothing chain Petit Bateau. We had spotted them also in Printemps yesterday, and thought their stuff was very nice. Rick says "The French spend at least as much on their babies as they do on their dogs - dolling them up with designer jammies...Babies-in-the-know just aren't comfortable unless they're making a fashion statement (such as underwear with sailor stripes)." The photo shows some of those Petit Bateau jammies.

Top Halles Fruits and Vegetables is next. Here I was impressed by the light pink mangos, not to mention the fact that the fresh squeezed orange juice is a euro less than back home on Levis. Unfortunately, a mango is just too heavy and too juicy to be dragging back to our hotel room.

There are almost 30 places mentioned on the Steves Rue Cler walk, and we won't review them all (!) But here are a few more:

The cheese shop has more than 200 types of French cheese. Rick mentions the various shapes - wedges, cylinders, balls, and miniature hockey pucks, all powdered white, gray, and burnt marshmallow. It's a festival of mold, he says, and points out that the shape tells the region of origin and thereby the terroir - the physical and magical union of sun, soil, and farmer love that gives the cheese its personality.

The little cheeses with all these shapes did not attract a photo from me, because by and large they are chevre - goat cheese.(Blech!) Also I have a limited tolerance (Dodie more so) for weird or moldy specimens. But we do love cheese and might have to admit that this one store had more selection than the two at Levis taken together.

Also a little better than Levis were the caterers. Not that there were more, just more yummy looking. There are two, on either side of the street, that compete with each other. Rick says that because most Parisian kitchens are small, locals rely on these caterers for many of the dishes. The caterers in turn take pride in cooking excellence, with cooking contest awards posted on the back wall. One of the two - Charcuterie-Traiteur Jeusselin is located in the oldest building on the street, which is from the early 1800's.

Rue Cler also has A La Mere de Famille chocolate shop. Despite the poor reviews we gave it yesterday, we had another go. Dodie was willing to upgrade the score, based on her chocolate dipped orange rind, but I am sticking to my "no big deal" position, based on a truffle. I think we have been spoiled forever by those chocolate chataignes we found in Colmar.

One other shop, not even mentioned by Steves, was La Praluline, a praline shop. Unlike Mazet, this one did have brioche a praline rose. In fact there was a giant clay model one on the sidewalk. Despite even this, the things did not look as yummy or varied as what we have seen in many ordinary shops in Burgundy. We turned up our newly sophisticated noses and moved on.

Fresh orange juice. Not only cheaper but pre-bottled!

The cheese store had a really good selection, but it must still be a bit local. There are varieties we have seen while out cycling that are not here.

Add those potatoes to this duck with peaches!

The Praline shop - see the giant one on the sidewalk?

Rue Cler ends at Avenue de la Motte Picquet, and that has more bakeries and other shops. But we declared that under reasonable rules a shop had to be on Rue Cler to be included in rating Rue Cler. So, we felt Rue Cler was very short on bakeries, but it got high marks on caterers and cheese. Overall, we liked it a lot!

Once dumped out of the end of Rue Cler, the question was where to go next. Eiffel Tower was the logical answer. It's a 1.2 km stroll.

We were of course eager for out first view of the famous tower on this trip, and so made one photo as it poked up from behind some buildings. Next we found our way blocked by a large craft fair. We though we would have a look, but they wanted a 10 euro admission. We have been part of craft fairs that charged admission, but 10 euros is 15 dollars! We went around it.

As you draw closer to the Eiffel Tower it naturally gets bigger. And various details come into focus. For example, the coppery sheen of the metal, and the fact that each leg sits on a sort of real building. There is an elevator in one leg, but only stairs in another. We of course shared the space with lots of other tourists, with a large proportion being from Asia. The tourists were being solicited to buy trinkets by a remarkable troupe of young men. They were not a "troupe" in the sense of being an organized group. But some selection process must have been at work because all (at least 30) were African, all male, all about 25 years old, and all selling exactly the same stuff. What's more, those selling from cloths on the pavement had organized their stuff in exactly the same order. I did not want to end up having to buy more Eiffel tower key chains or I would have asked one for the background on all these fellows. Interestingly, these vendors were selling those key chains at 5 for a euro. In the tourist shops of Montmartre, we had paid 2 for a euro!

The Eiffel tower makes a preliminary appearance

It was cold and raining for much of the walk so far, and clearly time to find a café. Amazingly for Paris, there was none in sight. So we decided to cross the nearest bridge, the Pont d'Iéna, to see what would turn up. On the bridge there is suddenly (of course) a great view of the river, plus unexpectedly Sacre Coeur in the distance. Sacre Coeur has a habit of always turning up in the distance!

We were amazed to see a bride out for wedding photos down on the quai. Here we were bundled up in five and six layers of merino. More than anything, I think the groom should have got her a blanket.

Apartments downstream of the bridge by the Eiffel Tower

Looking upstream from the bridge by the Eiffel Tower

A statue on the bridge, with the Eiffel tower behind.

The gotta be chilly bride. The groom is standing by, with his hands in his pockets.

We were then walking along the Avenue de New York when a man came and asked us how to get to the Champs Elysees. Dodie pulled out the map and showed him. The man was Italian and spoke only Italian. I thought he was quite brave to be without any language that people here may know.

Showing the man the way to Champs Elysee triggered the idea in us - that's where we should head. Follow that guy! But I think he crossed in the middle of the street, and so we went to the next intersection.

That intersection happened to be at the Pont de l'Alma. That's where we got an emotional surprise. It's the spot where Diana was killed. Yes, Avenue de New York dives into a tunnel there, going under the bridge. Even today, there is a handmade memorial, and fresh flowers.

Also on that corner stood a pistachio specialty shop. We love pistachios, and this place had dozens of types. More than us, Dodie's Mom loved pistachios. Dodie mentioned this to the young man behind the counter, as we bought some colourful and oh so good candied ones stuck together into a bar. He was from Lebanon, and had just explained to us about from which countries they sourced which type of nuts. About Dodie's Mom, he said "May her soul rest in peace". It seemed an Islamic turn of phrase. Such a nice man.

Diana died in the tunnel under this sign.

Cars on Ave de New York heading into the tunnel. The gold blob is an unrelated replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty. Note the Eiffel tower in the background.

We took the broad avenue George V towards Champs Elysee. Near the pistachio shop a lady was on her knees, head to the ground, and a cup for donations held out. We are fairly immune to such "tactics", but sheesh, why should anyone have to do that, especially in this city. The contrast became immediately more stark as we passed the Four Seasons Hotel - George V. We might have dropped in for a peek, but we were not at all sure that two yellow clad, backpack wearing walkers would be welcomed by the doormen. We checked later on Booking.com. We could have walked in and popped down our Carte Bleu for €1090. Well that's an exaggeration - we could also have done €926.50. Booking calls that one "low rate - no refund". Not that we would really have done any of this - because breakfast is not included. That is €46 extra.

We reached Champs Elysee and turned toward the Arc de Triomphe. Quickly we passed the half block long HSBC branch, which is actually the one out of which my Carte Bleu is issued. Looking at the solid, decorative building I can see why they have to take that high annual service fee!

My bank, main Paris branch - my branch. Frankly, they are pretty goofy.
Note: everybody huddled under umbrellas.

The Arc de Triomphe is surrounded by a very large and active traffic circle, spinning out by my count eleven major avenues. You really can not cross Champs Elysee right there. But to get a good dead on shot of the Arc, you need to stand in the middle of traffic. Some hardy souls were doing that. My own shot is pretty good, I think.

My best shot of the Arc de Triomphe. Other shots are clogged with cars.

People are out walking on the Champs Elysees

All ordering seems to be from those new McDonald's touch screens.

People are lining up to get their bags checked and enter the Disney shop.

Supplement: Steve the Detective

As I was typing this, around 6 p.m., there was a lot of racket from outside in our corridor. A peek out revealed a room cleaner vigorously vacuuming in a nearby room. It was annoying, but oh well. A little later I went to do a save on what I had written, and boom - no internet. Hotel wifi systems are often complicated and flaky, so I started tracking down the problem - starting with trying to reach the website of the company that somehow provides the hotel internet to each room that gives a username and password. But no luck, until it came to me:

In an episode of Ladies #1 Detective Agency, people were dying in a certain hospital room, but why? The mystery was solved when it was found that the cleaning lady was unplugging the respirator to run the vacuum.

Out into the corridor I went, and followed a black electrical cord to where - yes - the lady had unplugged the internet repeater in the hall to plug in the vacuum. I put her straight right quick. Her response: "Desolée".

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