Paris Week 2 - Bastille Days; Avoiding the Crowds

On the day before Bastille day (7/13) we went to the Nanterre Ville Street Market.  It is held every Wednesday and Saturday morning and they have tents or umbrellas set up to sell just about everything; produce, bread, meats, milk, cheeses, spices, hardware, and small electronics.  They had clothes too; suits, dresses, casual clothes, underwear - from plain to sexy stuff, shoes, and purses.  It was all new stuff, inexpensive and it reminded me a little bit of Canal Street in NYC.  


The spice and rice/legumes counters were amazing. 

The foodstuffs all looked good so we got the makings for dinner,and wandered back to the train.


We had heard that people start celebrating Bastille Day on the 13th and that was correct. The fireworks started when the sun went down (about 21:30) and continued until around 1.  The cats were not happy and stayed close to the boat.

We got up early on Bastille day and headed to the train to scope out Rue Cler and the Eiffel Tower.  This was perfect because almost everyone else went to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the parade!!! No crowds - yay! 

Oh, and is Rue Cler nice!  It's about 4 blocks long, but packed with little shops.  Talk about good produce, meats, and cheese!  Expensive, but very nice.

We wandered and noshed our way to the end of Rue Cler and back to the main drag then headed over to 'La Tour Eiffel'. 

The Eiffel Tower is amazing... no matter how often you see it.  We started at the Ecole Militaire end of the Champ de Mars and worked our way to the tower.  

The Bastille day celebration had started - I believe - with one concert the night before and they were gearing up for another as we wandered through the park.  This was late morning and people were already staking out their territory for the evening's show.

Everyone was taking pictures and there was a lot of magnificent posing going on.  We are so boring... not trying to touch the top of the tower or lean against it!




After it was built for the 1865 World's Fair, the French people thought it was an eyesore and asked for it to be taken down.  I'm glad they didn't. 

The closer you get to it, the more it seems to overwhelm.



We didn't go up in the tower as the crowds were lined up and more were milling about.

It was starting to get crowded and hot so we headed back to the boat... we had great timing on this venture.