The Eiffel Tower

It was a beautiful blue sky morning today so we decided to climb the Eiffel tower.  We managed to get an early-ish start and beat most of the queues for the stairs.  It has to be said that even if the climb didn't take your breath away the view certainly would.  We spent much longer than we had expected taking in the sights of Paris from a different vantage point.

looking up from the second platform 43 floors up.

French butchers leave the heads and feet, and sometimes even feathers on the poultry

we loved these wee handbags in the store next door to the butcher

and we loved the flowers at the florist

Les Invalides

Les Invalides - keep off the grass, don't hug the trees!

The entrance for Les Invalides

where the moat was is neatly mowed also

Walking in the autumn leaves

detail of statue on the Pont Neuf

fancy street lights on the Pont Neuf

Oh how romantic!

The Eiffel tower from the Pont Neuf

Galleries La Fayette - seven floors of over-the-top shopping

Galleries Lafayette

Afterwards we went for a wander at The Invalides and got told off for accidentally walking on the forbidden grass.  It appears there was some kind of military anniversary or something so we were unable to go inside to the Army Museum unfortunately.  Instead we wandered back through the gardens and along the Champs Elysees (again) and through all kinds of interesting side streets to Galleries Lafayette where we had an overload of luxury shopping (300 euro scarf anyone?) and then headed home foot-sore and happy after another lovely day in Gay Paris!