Recently Alessio and myself visited Paris for a long weekend, the main reason for a wedding which took place on the Sunday. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and made our way to our hotel, which is located very near to the Arc de Triomphe.
As this was the first time for Alessio I tried to plan things that would interest him and of course me. For me this trip would be the fifth one to Paris so I also wanted to see and do things that were new for me.
In the evening after wondering around the city we ended our first day with a visit to the Arc de Triomphe. I have seen this monument probably on each visit but had never been to the top. Since I wanted to avoid the queues of the Eiffel Tower I decided this was an excellent alternative. There was a small queue but this moved quite quickly and soon we were ready to climb.
Sadly there was not a lift so climbing the many, many steps was the only way up! To be quite honest I was completely unfit for this endeavour, and as my son lovely said to a friend when we had returned "my mum nearly died climbing to the top". Well I wasn`t quite dead but my legs were like jelly by the time I reached the top and eventually my breathing returned to normal!
The views are the reward and we were extremely happy with what we saw and most of the iconic sights can be seen from the top. Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Solider from WW1, interred on Armistice Day 1920.
The Arc de Triomphe is situated on the Place de Charles de Gaulle, to reach it you must take the underpass. Alessio got in for free and for me it was 9.50 euro, not too bad, certainly well worth a visit (even with the climb).
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