Today is the highlight of my Paris trip. I finally got to visit the Eiffel Tower, a monument that has fascinated me since I was young. Since the 6th arrondissement is just “next door” to the 7th, I planned for us to occupy our morning with the 6th arrondissement. I used the Paris Insider Guide for the sights we could see in the 6th arrondissement for my planning.

The 6th Arrondissement: The Historic Church and the Garden in St Germain de Prés

We started our day by taking the metro from Concorde to Rue du Bac station. Coming out of the underground station, we spotted a restaurant with red yawning with the words Le Saint Germain written on it. This is where we settled our breakfast. The staff at the restaurant were welcoming and friendly; he knew we couldn’t understand French and gave us an English menu. The food did not take not take too long to arrive. I ordered a baguette and croissant set, and my friend ordered an egg croissant. We also ordered Nutella crepe to share. The croissant was fluffy and delicious even when it was plain. After a hearty breakfast, we started our sightseeing in the 6th Arrondissement.

Strolling on the Streets of St Germain de Prés

We followed the directions on Google Maps for the Church of St Germain de Prés. Perhaps it was still early; we did not see many people on the streets, and the traffic was quite thin. We enjoyed the lovely morning tranquil stroll on the streets of St Germain, admiring the Parisian-style building structures. The Parisian buildings are not more than 6 storeys high, and all come with some form of balconies. They lined up the street like soldiers in a tight formation, giving Paris a unique skyline. As we were walking, we came across a small patch of land with the words Tarass-Chevtchenko Square. This square is an open space annexed to a church that seems to be built with sandstone bricks. It is refreshing to find a small open space in the city where people can relax.

Church of St Germain des Prés

The Church of St Germain des Prés is one block from Tarass-Chevtchenko Square. The church is characterised by a brick-built bell tower that stands taller than the surrounding buildings. We saw some parts of the church facade being covered up, suggesting restoration works were ongoing. We thought this part of the church was closed and tried to walk around to see if there were any alternate entrances but found none. As we were about to give up, we saw some tourists leaving the church. We went to the door they came from, where an elderly gentleman was sitting by it, who signalled to us that it was the entrance.

The Church of St Germain des Prés has an elongated layout, and from its entrance, we can see the entire church and its altar. Hanging high on the far end of the church, behind the altar, are three stained glass panels with Jesus depicted in the centre. The interior of the Church of St Germain des Prés was vastly different from its exterior, while its exterior was covered with one colour, the interior was colourful and vibrant. The bright blue-coloured roof and the many paintings on the walls, complemented by colourful stained glass windows, give the church life. The windows high above the church walls let in natural light, contributing to the bright interior feel. Walking into this church gave me a very comfortable feel. The side exterior of the Church of St Germain des Prés looks like the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, with its walls and vaults supported by a row of flying buttresses.

Luxembourg Garden

The Luxembourg Gardens are about ten minutes from the Church of St Germain des Prés. We arrived at the garden parameters and were met with a single-dome building that seemed to be heavily guarded by policemen. This building was the Palais du Luxembourg, which was originally built as a royal residence. In the 1940s, the palace was designated as the French Senate until today. No wonder there is heavy guarding at the entrances of this building. We took a right and skirted around the parameter and found the entrance to the garden.

From this entrance, the Luxembourg Garden in winter was dominated by shades of brown colour and trees with branches without leaves. The garden was mainly laid with brown gravel (and, in some parts, muddy), with patches of greenery in parts of the garden. There are plenty of benches and chairs around the Luxembourg Garden, which the locals and travellers can use to relax and take in the tranquillity the Luxembourg Garden offers. A little further away from the entrance, we saw the back side Palais du Luxembourg, sitting on the northern end of the garden. Topped with grey roofs, the sandstone-coloured palace blends in very well with its surroundings. There are more benches and chairs in front of the palace for visitors to rest with a view of the gardens or the palace. The palace sits on slightly higher ground, having a commanding view of a large octagonal pond and a vast open space. There are numerous statues of Saints and former French queens surrounding the pond. These statues not only beautifully adorned this part of the garden, but they also gave this part of the garden an artistic flare.

Detouring to the 5th Arrondissement – Admiring the Art in the Magnificent Pantheon

Visiting the Pantheon in the 5th arrondissement was not part of our plan today, as I wanted to leave it to the day when we visited the 5th arrondissement. However, Google Maps suggested the Pantheon was near the Eastern exit of the Luxembourg Gardens. We decided to head for the Pantheon instead of coming back another day. From the east exit of Luxembourg Gardens, it only took us 9 mins to walk to the Pantheon. One cannot miss the Patheon’s unique rectangular base and cylindrical upper floors topped with a grey dome. We attempted to visit the Pantheon in Rome twice but did not get to enter; thus, we were determined to visit the Pantheon in Paris. As we did not pre-book the tickets, we had to queue to buy the tickets. Fortunately, the queue for the tickets was not awfully long. We waited about 15 mins for our turn to buy our tickets.

The Pantheon is large and bright due to its high ceiling design and large windows on the top of the building, allowing a good amount of natural light. Visitors can only gain access to two levels in the Pantheon: the ground level and the underground level. The ceiling of the Pantheon is adorned with intricate floral engravings done in a way that occupies the empty spaces but does not clutter the ceiling. The ground level is filled with art pieces from paintings to sculptures, with the paintings placed on the walls and along the parameters of the Pantheon, while the sculptures are housed in the four corners of the centre of the building. We also saw some paintings under some of the domes and on the wall high up near the ceiling of the Pantheon, as well as a large painting of a war scene and Jesus looking down adorned on the wall towards the back.

We found two spiral staircases leading to the Pantheon’s underground section next to the large war scene painting. The underground level of the Pantheon is a crypt with coffins of famous people in France. There are quite a few coffins, with some chambers dedicated to one coffin and yet some others with several coffins. For the uninitiated (like us), we did not find anything else interesting on the lower floor of the Pantheon. We headed back up to the upper floor of the Pantheon, and on our way out, we saw a large circular area cordoned off to visitors in the centre of the upper floor. There is a pendulum that hangs from the centre dome, occupying this large area.

The 7th Arrondissement: The Iron Lady of Paris – The Iconic Eiffel Tower

After a quick bite, it was time to head to the highlight of our trip—the iconic Eiffel Tower. As I was researching about visiting the Eiffel Tower, many advised visiting the Champ de Mars for a less crowded view of the Iron Lady. We took the metro from Cardinal Lemoine station in the 5th arrondissement near the Pantheon to La Motte – Picquet Grenelle station in the 7th arrondissement. The walk from the metro station to Champ de Mars took around 5 minutes.

Champ de Mars

As we are walking towards Champ de Mars, we can see the Eiffel Tower peeking over the roofs of the buildings in the neighbourhood. Champ de Mars is the open garden in front of the Eiffel Tower in the 7th Arrondissement. The walkable areas of the garden are covered with brown gravel and grass patches in the centre that were out of bounds to visitors. There are avenues between the grass patches, enabling visitors to take pictures of the magnificent tower in the centre amidst the grass patches. We found many photo spots here in Champ de Mars to take pictures with the Eiffel Tower. And the best thing is, it is not crowded here at Champ de Mars. While the walk of the entire length of Champ de Mars took merely 15 minutes, we ended up spending about 1 hour here at Champ de Mars taking photos of the iconic Eiffel Tower at different angles.

The Iconic Eiffel Tower

Our booking for the Eiffel Tower was at 4.30 pm. We booked the tickets to the summit of the tower on their official website (click here for the official Eiffel Tower website) two months before our scheduled date of visit. We had to go through two security checks going up the tower: one at the entrance to the grounds of the Eiffel Tower and another before the lift up to the tower. There are separate queues for those with tickets at both checkpoints, and the ticketed queue is shorter than those who bought the ticket on the spot. Despite being in a shorter queue, the queues moved very slowly. It took us 10 mins to clear the first security check. Seeing the tower from afar and up close felt very different. From under the tower, the Eiffel Tower looks huge. We could see the lattice patterns that were used for the construction of the tower, which seems like a complex ecosystem of spiderwebs. Looking up from the dead centre of the tower feels like peeping up some lady’s skirt. We could see the hole on the first floor and some glass walkways up there. I told my friend we should definitely walk on these glass walkways.

The Second Floor of the Tower

The second security check queue took us 30 minutes to clear. As we were queuing for the second checkpoint at the tower’s base, I spotted a sign at the ticketing office stating the top floor was closed. I was a little worried at this point. Does that mean we paid extra for the summit for nothing? Why was the summit closed? I told my friend we should enjoy the attraction even if the summit were closed. Soon, it was our turn to take the lift up the majestic Eiffel Tower. We skipped the first floor and went straight to the second floor. The second floor was crowded! We headed to the side of the tower and were treated to a wonderful view of the entire city of Paris. The city seemed to stretch on and on till the horizon, and the buildings that we were walking by looked like model buildings. We could clearly see how the city of Paris was planned. We managed to spot the landmarks we visited and would be visiting from the tower’s second floor. On one side of the tower, we could see the entire Champ de Mars that we had just walked by, and on another, we could see the Pont d’Iéna that would bring travellers across the Seine River and the fountain in front of Place du Trocadero. Standing here looking at the view of Paris gave me a liberating sensation.

The Summit of the Iron Lady

We headed up to the mezzanine floor and saw a sign for the summit. Without hesitation, we joined the queue. This was when I realised the sign on the ground floor we saw earlier was referring to the summit tickets being sold out for the day. I told my friend that, luckily, we had bought our tickets online before coming to the Eiffel Tower, or else we would have missed the chance to visit the pinnacle of the tower. The queue to the summit moved relatively fast, probably due to the limited number of visitors who could visit the top of the tower. We snag a good spot in the lift, enabling us to see the buildings below getting even smaller as we scale up from the 115m tall second floor to the 276m tall summit. There are two levels at the summit of the Eiffel Tower; the lift stops at the enclosed indoor part of the tower. Here, we could see even further and see how small the buildings were. We walked one round in the indoor part of the tower and headed up to the open area of the summit.

The outdoor area of the summit is the highest point of the Eiffel Tower, opened to visitors. The views here were similar to the indoor part of the summit floor. As the sky was turning dark, we saw how the City of Lights gradually illuminated. The winter chilly wind was strong up here. There was a side of the summit with significantly more people, as this side was the less windy side. To avoid the crowd, we spent most of the time up here on the windier side, with fewer people. As the sky got darker, the more we saw Paris being illuminated by the street lights. The view here was excellent!! As we walked around the summit floor’s open level, we saw a small enclosed space. This is Gustave Eiffel’s office. We spent the rest of the time here, transversing down to the enclosed area to get ourselves warm and head up again to see the view of the city. As it got darker, we took the lift to the second floor to take more pictures. Here is where we saw the tower sparkle at night. I must admit, seeing it sparkle on the tower was not impressive, all we saw were lights going on and off on the sides of the tower.

Watching the Iron Lady Sparkle

As it was getting dark (it was only 6 pm), we decided to get back down to the ground floor. We waited around 30 minutes before our turn to take the lift down. On our way down, we thought of visiting the first floor. But seeing no one was getting out, we forego the idea, as we were not too sure if we would be able to get a spot in the lift going down. Once we reached the ground floor, we went around looking for a good spot to take pictures with the tower. We were fortunate to see the Iron Lady sparkle at ground zero. The light show was tastefully done. We left the Tower grounds and headed towards the Seine River, where I thought I saw a place with what seemed like restaurants by the river.

The Night Markets by Seine River

As we were getting a little peckish, we walked towards the Seine River, where I thought I had seen a restaurant when we were at the tower. We did not see any eateries here, but we were surprised to see a night market. We went in to check out what’s on offer here. It was a market full of people, probably those of us who just finished visiting the Eiffel Tower. The market sells mostly locally made products, and to our surprise, there were stalls selling street food. The stall owners were very friendly and welcoming and even encouraged us to sample the food they were selling. As we were feeling hungry, we got a plate of curry chicken. Though not as spicy as we would like, the chicken was flavourful and delicious. The food felt very hearty, and we welcomed the warm food amid a cold winter night. There were tables in the middle of the night market where we could have our meal. We explored the market after eating. The market wasn’t that large, and we could cover the entire market in 30 mins.

Exiting the market, we headed for Trocadéro via the Pont d’Iéna, where we found it to be a great photo spot. We could get the Seine River and the Eiffel Tower in one shot. We also spotted several tourists standing in the middle of the road, trying to take pictures with the tower. No wonder the Parisians are irritated by tourists. Who can blame them? I would be irritated, too, if I were driving along the bridge. Whilst at the bridge, we saw the Iron Lady sparkle again. It never gets old seeing the light show on the Eiffel Tower. As we were walking towards Trocadero, we chanced another small food store on the grounds of Aquarium de Paris. This is a simple container-sized food stand selling finger food and hot beverages. It was freezing, and we got some hot drinks. There are fire pits to keep us warm while we stare at the Eiffel Tower from afar. It wasn’t terribly crowded at the time we were there. We enjoyed the relaxing ambience here, sipping our hot beverages while getting a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

Place du Trocadero

Our last stop of the day was a visit to Place du Trocadero, and our purpose of visiting here, like many others, was to find a good spot to take pictures with the Eiffel Tower. Usually, visitors will crowd around the esplanade at Trocadero for a picture. While this spot aligned the tower to the centre of the boulevard, it is always crowded with visitors. I saw recommendations for taking pictures at the stairs that lead from the fountain to the esplanade to avoid the crowd. We went to this spot, and it wasn’t as crowded as what people had said on the internet. This is a great alternate spot for photo taking to avoid the crowd. We headed up the esplanade for a view of the Eiffel Tower and were able to find a spot that placed the tower in the centre of the fountain with no people. Perhaps the time of the day makes a difference. We were at the Esplanade at about 8.30 am, where most of the crowd had already left or were still having dinner. After our fair share of pictures, we returned to the hotel. The metro line at Trocadero station does not link directly to our hotel; we had the option of changing to another line or changing to a bus. We opted for the bus ride; after all, we had been taking the metro.