We begin our first full day with a breakfast on the Avenue Charles de Gaulle - between L'Arc De Triomphe and La Defense and you will immediately notice some discrepancy between the English and French contribution. Premier Jospin is in favour of giving a refund but the cafe owner seems to have other ideas. Maybe it's in honour of the great man as he always said that Britain should pay more as they were late in joining. It was academic as it wasn't available as they couldn't get any beef sausages.
It needs no introduction L'Arc De Triomphe at Etoile Charles de Gaulle.
A rather nice little road sign designed with a certain je ne sais quoi.
A look down the World's most famous avenue from near the Place de la Concorde.
The view back up Les Champs Elysees from an island sanctuary on the Place de la Concorde.
Into Le Jardin Tuileries and the first fountain of the day.
The base of L'obelisque with some Egyptian hyroglyphics probably telling tourists that the have to change at Chatelet for the Gare de Lyon.
Another fountain by popular demand. There is a mathematical element to some of the designs (more later.) He we see the water describing a perfect parabola because there is constant acceleration under gravity g (about 9.81 m/s metres per second.) Integrating twice we have.
s = ut + 1/2g(t squared)
Where s is the vertical distance, t is time in seconds and u is the initial velocity in metres per second. The horizontal velocity is almost constant in no wind hence the parabola.
Statisticians will also note how the waterdroplets are distributed acording to the Gausian (sometimes called Normal) distribution.
They say that Paris is for lovers and here we see two ducks enjoying a quiet moment together oblivious to all the tourists.
A picture showing the axis of Les Champs Elysees. This is a much better picture than the one that could have been taken say ten years ago mainly due to lean burn engines particularly on the busses.
The controversial La Pyramide situated in the original courtyard of La Louvre. Whatever you say about it the structure does work well inside giving a feeling of space as you queue up for your ticket helping make your visit to the gallery as stress fee as possible.
A close up of the imposing glass structure.
The fountain by La Louvre.
Away from the tourists we see an example of an Avant Garde metro sign. I read somewhere that they were inspired by Dali.
More of the same
The view across the River Seine on the way to La Cite and yes the bridge looks as if it has been painted.
A metro train on line 6 makes it's way to Charles de Gaulle Etoile. The Eiffel tower is on the left.
Well we just had to do something different.
And yes we are still waiting for the call from La Centre Georges Pompido Actually this was taken after a leisurely lunch with aperatifs a bottle of full bodied Bordeaux and a couple of cognacs to help the digestion.
Not really it was done as a B-side/jam session and somehow made it onto the album.
Full credit to the GIMP programming team for making it all possible.
The view towards L'Ecole Miliaire emphasising the thinking of the original city planners.
You get all sorts of offers doing this type of work from would be supermodels trying to get their first big break but it's one of the things you have to deal with if you want to succeed as an international photographer. Personally I think this one looks like the back end of a bus.
We take the metro to Montmartre - the Bohemian district known for cheap restaurants and popular with tourists. Metro station Anvers for Sacre Coer
The brand new cable car that takes tourists to the top - metro tickets are valid but we decided against it after spending the day foot slogging. We did on the Sunday and found a small exposition of Dali's works sponsored by Le Monde - well worth a visit as it explodes a few myths surrounding the great man.
A rather attractive illuminated sign - presumably by a wine shop.
The famous night-spot in a much enhanced photo. Sorry if it doesn't look so good on your PC. It's funny it's much smaller than the one in the film and there's a hamburger joint next door which detracts from the impact of the sign.
A pinball machine which sums up the area after dark when the tourists retreat and Les Parisiens come out to play.
If you press the right buttons at the right time you should hear bells and see flashes before your eyes. But could you handle it if you amassed enough points for a replay ?
Next we spend Saturday morning at La Defense which worked out very well as it is incredibly spacious and a welcome respite from the stresses of being a tourist.
