I spent a rainy day absorbing l’Arc de Triomphe. No, I didn’t bring an umbrella when I knew Paris was a rainy city. Yes, I did eventually buy a hoodie which still soaked me but NO the cold and rainy May weather did not ruin anything. I was too busy being ecstatic about being in Paris!
Even in the rain, Paris is beautiful. It didn’t start raining until I climbed all the way to the top of l’Arc de Triomphe. The view is fantastic. From there, you can see the star formation of all the streets coming together at the bottom of the arch. That’s why it’s called Étoile (‘star’ in French).
My tour book said that most arrondissements can be accessed from that point. Later that day, I sat outside of a cafe and drew sketches of the Arc.
Then came the storm. The rain came down at an angel and I got wet. Still, not soaking but enough for a blog post :)
The above sketch took a while to complete as I was nutty enough to insist on drawing in the Paris rooftops. It was finally finished as I waited for my plane to take off coming back home.
I’m persistent but lazy, too.
You can see about 50 of my 500 Paris photos on my flickr account.
By the way, if you want a fantastic leg workout, climb the stairs of the Arc de Triomphe. 230m upwards in a tight spiral staircase. My quads have never been blasted like that before and I’ve done the CN Tower climb (1077 steps)!
[tags]Paris, Arc de Triomphe[/tags]