Paris the beautiful

We left Saulieu relatively early in the morning, parting with Sophie and Olivier who were going back to their home in Dijon. I drove parts of the way to Paris, Pascal doing the rest. The drive was relatively short, like going from Montreal to Quebec. Once we reached the outer limits of the city, we quickly found ourselves in the middle of traffic.

Paris is very beautiful. One of the many things I like about it is its homogeneity. Most buildings have a similar architecture, yet each group bears its own unicity. The inner city itself is a piece of art whose appreciation is enhanced as we walk its streets. Like New York it is grandiose not only by its size but mostly by its beauty.

Paris (English /ˈpærɪs/, ⁱ/ˈpɛrɪs/; French: [paʁi] ( listen)) is the capital and most populous city of France. It is situated on the River Seine, in the north of the country, at the heart of the Île-de-France region. Within its administrative limits (the 20 arrondissements), the city had 2,234,105 inhabitants in 2009 while its metropolitan area is one of the largest population centres in Europe with more than 12 million inhabitants. 

We got to our apartment a few minutes pass our expected ETA. We were given the keys and quickly got settled. We got the apartment on airbnb.com. It was pretty much what I expected it to be, on top of four flights of circular stairs in an old building. While the place was nothing great, it was going to be a good place to live in for the next few days, it's location perfect.

Suzanne and I left to go see the one monument most of us think of when we hear the name Paris: the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl]) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon ofFrance and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris^[10] and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

The city is wonderful to walk. Everywhere there are bistros, bakeries and wine shops. The road system is very well designed for both vehicles and pedestrians. It's also logically divided, so well that after a few walks it becomes easy to find what you're looking for. Note that the Maps application on the iPhone really helped as well. We reached our destination with little effort.

We left the tower to walk along the Seine, the river that snakes through the city.

The Seine (French: La Seine, pronounced: [la sɛːn]) is a 776 km long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometers northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (and Honfleur on the left bank).^[1] It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 120 km (75 mi) from the sea. Over 60% of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by commercial riverboats and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche within the city of Paris.

After walking along the Seine, Suzanne and I found a little bistro where we had a nice dinner. We got back to the apartment after this amazing first day in Paris.