This image is of the Eiffel tower from a Paris street in the 7th arrondissment. The city is broken up into 20 sections (each section an arrondissment). For anyone familiar with Paris or French history, the 7th arrondissment is near the Hôtel les Invalides, the location of Napoleon's tomb and a beautiful and historic building. As can be easily seen, the streets in Paris are not particularly wide and everything (people, cars, buildings, etc.) is packed together tightly. This makes for a very different feel than I have experienced in any American city, which generally have much more "sprawl" to them. One interesting thing that I developed as a result of the packed nature of the city is my sense of direction, which wasn't so good before my time there.
I had gotten off work early this day and decided that -- with the remaining daylight left -- I would explore a portion of the city as of yet unseen by my eyes. So I walked home, changed my clothes, grabbed my camera and headed out.
The weather this early spring day was very pleasant and the lighting nice (not obvious in this image of these packed streets). Much of my time in Paris was spent walking -- I visited only one museum (the Palais du Louvre, of course) during my four month stay, but I saw more of the city than most.
The Eiffel can be seen from nearly anywhere in the city, and one really gets a perspective of its size as, when seen from outside the city it still dominates the horizon (buildings in the city are limited to a height of six stories) . Unfortunately, during my stay I didn't really get familiar with the Paris Metro. My one trip outside the city to Chateau du Vincent provided a great view of the Eiffel, but I foolishly went without my camera.