19,625 step, 8.8 mile odyssey in Paris !

A gray, cold, and misty morning welcomed us in Paris as we opted to discover more of Paris on our own.  We walked up to the Eiffel Tower.

We crossed the iconic Pont d'lena to get to the 'right bank'.

We headed up the Avenue d'lena in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed the marvelous architecture along the way.

Voila!  Yay!  We made it to the Arc de Triomphe! 

We decided to walk a different way back to the ship, down the spectacular Avenue des Champs-Elysees!   Our first stop was a special cafe, Cafe Joyeux (cafe- 'service  with a heart') .. whose mission is to employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through meaningful employment, similar to Portland's Happy Cup Coffee Roaster on North Williams.  Joe needed some carrot cake!

Many interesting and historical buildings on this avenue!

We're now getting closer to the Seine and some spectacular buildings!

This the back of the .. Grand Palais :

Here's the front view :

Here's the front view of the .. Petit Palais, across the street :

We crossed the Seine at the extraordinary .. Pont Alexandre III  !!

Over on the 'Left Bank' we weaved our way through many streets to reach the Eiffel Tower again.

We had stopped at a boulangerie/patisserie to buy some sandwiches and goodies and found a bench to enjoy this lunchtime view!  C'est magnifique!

19,625 steps .. 8.8 miles .. a long (for me!) 6-hour wonderful exploration!

I think we saw a lot in the 2-1/2 days before and the 1-day after the cruise!

I needed to finish this post earlier than normal because we have to pack tonight to get up early and set out our luggage at 7-am, eat breakfast, and depart at 8:30am for the train station for the trip to Bordeaux for our next cruise!

I'll include tonight's pics from our special cruising close to the glittering Eiffel Tower and surrounding lighting in tomorrow's post.   Take care, Joe & Jan.