Exhausting power sightseeing ticks Parisian highlights in a day

Paris is an eminently walkable city, though most people might not want to do the 14 miles my pedometer reported in on our first day of power sightseeing. The majority of the key sites are in a reasonable strip along the Seine, with the real blockbusters being in the square mile around Notre Dame. That means that when you’re packing it in, you can accomplish quite a lot in a short time.

Saturday morning, full of energy and slightly under-estimating the distance between our hotel and the Eiffel Tower, we set out for a brisk walk. It had rained overnight; the water slicked streets were silent and beautiful. We cut up to the Pantheon (great dome, though seemingly out of proportion with the rest of the building), through Luxembourg Gardens, across the top of Les Invalides and finally came out on the far side of the Champ de Mars below Paris’ most famous monument. I remembered painful crowds from previous visits and wanted to start early. By arriving at opening time (9:30) and choosing the cash only queue (Southeast corner), we only had to wait about 40 minutes to buy a ticket.

Clearly, had I realised the RER was a straight shot from Saint Michel, we would have taken the train, gotten there even earlier and had a decent breakfast. Instead, we got exercise and downed a pricey repast of weak java … the French ability to serve up truly horrific coffee never ceases to amaze me … and slightly stale muffins while the skies erupted with rain. The day was not starting well.

Miraculously, by the time we emerged from the first lift, which takes you to the observation decks in the square girdle about a quarter of the way up the tower, sun was starting to break through the clouds. By the time we reached the top, wet streets glistened below us like fresh gold gilt, and by the time we returned to ground level, blue skies framed our photographs. Clearly, things were getting better.

From there we wandered down the Seine, past the new Musée du quai Branly. A striking modern building with a towering glass wall creating a sheltered garden beside the busy street, it holds collections covering indigenous cultures from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, and probably would be worth a wander on a more leisurely future visit. But we had a more critical objective ahead: the Army Museum at Les Invalides.

My boyfriend is a military history fan with a particular interest in Napoleon’s 100 days campaign and his final defeat by Wellington at Waterloo. (See 3.5.10) So Les Invalides, with both a sprawling military museum and Napoleon’s tomb, was always going to be a top priority. I had been here before and rated it highly, but his opinion was not so good. Probably for the same reason I enjoyed it so much. The collection … at least the bit from Louis XIV to the Franco-Prussian war … is dominated by uniforms, portraits and highly decorated weaponry. It’s full of beautiful things, and it’s rather easy to forget that these were accoutrements of war. It’s practically a fashion museum.

It was an information-hungry Piers who pointed out the dearth of dioramas, military models or much of anything that discussed the details of war. (The WWII section is supposed to be more balanced on this front, but we skipped that in favour of other attractions.)

The high point of any visit to Les Invalides, however, must be the church beneath the dome. Architecturally, it’s a beautiful and unique thing; a double church separated by a towering glass wall behind the shared high altar. This allowed the court to worship in the royal church and the "invalid" war veterans originally housed here to pray in their own building without mixing. Today the royal church is most notable for the tomb of Napoleon. He is enshrined amongst so much monumental architecture and hyperbolic carved panels, you’d swear this was a temple glorifying a pagan god rather than a military and civic leader. A man who, let’s face it, would have been a lot more successful if he’d known when to stop.

The giant, weeping angels surrounding his burgundy granite sarcophagus make for a somber and beautiful scene. But we both found the monument to WWI’s Marshal Foch far more moving. Eight life-sized and highly realistic soldiers carry their leader on a platform on their shoulders. The men’s faces convey the pain of war, the brotherhood of arms and their sense of loss. It’s the most real and emotionally stirring thing in all this baroque magnificence.

Time for a quick lunch in the museum cafeteria. Deeply average, expensive but practical.

Next, a wander back to the Seine and over the art nouveau magnificence of the Ponte Alexander III, which must be one of the architectural highlights of the whole city. Don’t miss the glass-headed river willows, actually street lamps, sprouting behind the water gods at the bridge’s centre. Behind you, the gilt dome of Les Invalides sparkles. Before you, the 19^th century glass-domed fantasies of the Grands and Petite Palais loom. The Eiffel Tower stands to your left, while the Seine sweeps towards the Musée d'Orsay on your right. For my money, if you can only take one 360 degree view of Paris, this is it.

From here you can descend onto the embankment on the north side of the Seine and head toward the sprawling, modern dock of the Bateaux Mouches. These huge touring barges with a capacity of up to 900 are one of the sightseeing “musts” for any introductory visit to the French capital. (Piers hadn’t been here since school, so we were operating as if first time visitors.) The boats cruise upriver past the Louvre and Notre Dame, circle the Isle St. Louis, come back downriver past the Eiffel Tower and return to base an hour later. At least half of the city’s iconic sights can be seen from this tour, which at 10 euro per adult really isn’t bad value for money. See the video below for highlights.

After the hour’s rest, we realised we were at this point a short hop from the Champs-Élysées and had enough energy to hobble there. From the boats, it’s up the stairs to the Pont d’Alma and then along the achingly fashionable Rue George V, past the eponymous hotel, some of the world’s most famous designers and the enticing headquarters of Hediard. The most epicurean of food shops in this most gourmet of cities, Hediard is a treasure trove of exquisite sweets, imported coffees and teas, foie gras, caviar, champagne and anything else that comes to mind when you pair the words “food” and “luxury”. I sprang for a jar of the new season fig jam, at 8 euro amongst the cheapest things in the store.

We rambled down the Champs-Élysées which, as ever, left me unimpressed. The monument at its summit looks like Wellington Arch, but framed by traffic rather than greenery. The crowds are worse than Oxford Street at Christmas and the shops mostly of the huge global brand variety. It’s not a place you want to linger when you’re tired. So, ticking that off our list, we hopped the Metro to Hotel de Ville and wandered back towards St. Germain through the restoring charm of the Isle St. Louis. It was here I needed to do my main shopping of the trip, stocking up on foie gras at the more reasonable prices of the regional producers showcasing their wares here. (Check out La Petite Scierie at www.lapetitescierie.fr; I never visit Paris without picking up provisions here.)

After that mammoth day we felt we deserved a profligate dinner. In which we did indeed indulge. But for that, you’ll have to wait for the special dining round-up. Two more days of sightseeing coverage to come first.