The last time either either of us were near Tour Eiffel was 1973 so perhaps it was time to return. We can report that the tower still stands and dominates its surrounds; the queues to ride the cable lift on the North pylon are still long and those to mount the stairs on the South are still very short.
We started our visit from a stroll up the swanky Avenue Paul Doumer from Place de la Muette. You could lighten a heavy bank account by getting a fur or three in that boulevard. The Palais de Chaillot provides perhaps the best vantage point to survey the Eiffel landscape.
The Champs de Mars then becomes an easy stroll. Walking north east towards the Musée de L'Armée we came upon Rue Cler, mentioned in several guide books as a street to come to grips with typical Parisian food shopping punctuated by a coffee. Far be it for us to challenge this estimate or the habits of apartment dwellers nearby, but it did seem to us that the Mouffetard, Montorfgueil, and Marché des Enfants Rouges and surrounding de Bretagne, all have more attraction than Cler for variety of choice and eye appeal.
We crossed the Seine again at Alexander III and after negotiating the huge traffic standstill at Concorde and took the Metro to home base for lunch via a large supermarket at Republique.
After a suitable break we sallied forth to obtain the long and eagerly awaited ice-cream Berthillon on Ile Saint Louis. A double cone at €4.50 is good value for intensity of flavour that is unsurpassed. A little personal shopping on Rue Saint Croix de la Brettonerie was also attended to.
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