More stairs....

When we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe we took the underground passage to get to the monument. You can attempt to cross the multitude of streets, but there are no stop lights and the drivers just whirl around without looking for tourists...you take your life in your hands! The short underground tunnel is by far the only sane way to go. We emerged at the the base of this huge monument and paid our 8 Euro to climb more stairs...285 this time. I wonder if the ticket salesmen secretly laugh at crazy tourists who pay money to climb things? There are elevators, but they seem to be for handicapped use only. Anyhow, we climbed up the stairs, pausing halfway at a small giftshop, which strikes me as both good marketing and funny at the same time; that all these wonderful pieces of history, including churches, have gift shops half way up, or beside the sacristy. I guess money is money, but it just seems so bizarre to see plastic rosaries and mini-Eiffel Towers beside an 11th century painting or statue. but, regardless, we continued up the stairs and were eventually spit out at the top, with yet another phenomenal view of the city. Then we climbed down those same 285 stairs. So that means that todays climbing was 1,340 steps, plus probably 5 miles of "regular" walking. No wonder my legs were so sore the next day that I could barely move. And I'm used to being on feet and walking for hours each day! We slowly wandered home, it seemed like we were on Embassy Row as there were all sorts of Embassy's there...some with gun-toting guards, some so securely closed up that you had no idea who they belonged to, and others just proudly announcing who they were. We continued on, and ended up walking beneath the Eiffel Tower (saving it for another day) and around the corner to our hotel. Dinner was gathered up on Rue Cler, and we ate in our room while watching The Simpsons Movie on the laptop. A funny ending to a wonderful day.