My Paris Travel Experience Day 1 – From White Church to Eiffel Tower
Continued from my day 1 story in Paris travel, we reached Gard du Nord at 12.40PM and checked into our hotel at 3.45PM. We took a rest… and went back out onto the street, with my tripod on my shoulder (you will know why I brought it out later). The first tourist spot we went to was the White Church at where we lived in Montmartre area. Officially it is called the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, or Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral. It sits on top of Montmartre Hill, the highest point of Paris city centre.
From butt Monmartre at the bottom, we walked up the narrow street in between shops to the foot of the church. The white church was so gorgeously sitting on top. From here, we needed to walk up stairs to reach to the top.
At the foot of the hill, there is a souvenir kiosk and a Merry-Go-Round.
Once you have reached to the top, look back and you will be amazed by the breathtaking view of Paris city centre! You can see some of the Paris popular attractions from far, such as the Notre Dame, Louvre Museum and the Centre Pompidou. But where is our beloved Eiffel Tower? Why isn’t it in the frame of this cityscape? Sacred Coeur Cathedral is facing South while the Eiffel Tower is located at its South West, just being blocked by those trees. 🙂
Read more stories on Travel by photos to Sacre-Coeur Cathedral
After coming down from the church, we caught bus No.30 at downhill which took us straight to Trocadero at its last stop. It cost €1.70. Buses are plentiful in Paris and with comprehensive network (view the bus map here). It covers all the Paris main attractions and are good alternative to Metro where tourists can do sightseeing on bus while traveling. For Bus No.30, it passes by the Triumphal Arch before reaching Trocadero.
From Tocadero bus station, we could walk to the Palaice de Chaillot where I reckon is the best viewpoint for Eiffel Tower in the evening.
It was 6.30PM and the evening view of Eiffel Tower was brilliant.
I said the esplanade of Palaice de Chaillot is the best place to oversee the tower in the evening because the evening sun is shining right onto the tower and I think it is the perfect natural lighting of all!
We continued to walk across the River Seine and came to the bottom of the tower. The tower is so huge in actual that you won’t be able to feel it from photos! You have to see it yourself to believe! And I’ve seen it and touched it! 🙂 Unfortunately, the queue was too long to go up the tower that we decided to let it go.
Read the whole story of my Travel by Photos to Eiffel Tower
After the Eiffel Tower visit, we had 2 options of next destination to choose from. We could either explore further to the Champs de Mars, or went back to Trocadero for our dinner. It was already 7.45PM though the sky was still bright in late Spring. So our answer to that is obvious: Go for dinner!
Trocadero area is full of restaurants for us to choose from. We strolled down streets after streets to hunt for something good value which wouldn’t burn a hole in our pocket.
While searching, I took plentiful of street view photos…
… and Paris parking machine…
… and even petrol filling machine. 🙂
Finally, we picked a Portuguese cuisine cafe called Le Bistro De Longchamp, or read as Longchamp Bistro in English, at No.40, Rue De Longchamp.
The cafe serves delicious Portuguese dishes. Read more on the restaurant here
Another reason why we chose to have dinner in trocadero is I wanted to go back to the viewpoint at Palaice de Chaillot. I wanted to view the night lighting display of Eiffel Tower that starts at 10PM every night! So now you know why I carried my tripod all the way from our hostel to Trocadero! 🙂
A photo of a lifetime… for us. 🙂 Fantastic night view of Eiffel Tower, though a bit cold at night. It was Spring and weather at night fell under 10°C!
We took Metro (subway) instead to get back to our hostel from Trocadero station. Following Line 6 then changed to Line 2 at Charles de Gaulle and got off at Anvers station, it took us merely 15 minutes to reach home. We called it a day…
Oh, wait a second! Sacre-Coeur cathedral really shines at night! Snap it and here is it! Isn’t it beautiful? It was viewed from our balcony. Can you see the balcony railing? 
– Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog
>Click HERE to view all full resolution photos taken in Paris via Flickr
About The Author
Cecil Lee
The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.
