Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame

There was still so much to see and so little time left to see it. We hopped on the metro and headed for another iconic Paris sight - the Arc de Triomphe.

Built over a period of 30 years (from 1806 - 1836), the massive structure honors those who fought for France over the centuries, especially those who fought in the Napoleonic wars.

The traffic circling the Arc is truly amazing. Cars come from every direction wildly beeping their horns and jockeying for position. I soon lost track of the number of near collisions that occurred right before my eyes during the fifteen minutes or so we spent gazing at the arc.

Next we walked several blocks down the Champs Élysées as Joni Mitchell sang about being a free man in Paris in our heads. I imagine that strolling down this famous street was a much more pleasant experience back in the 70's when the song was written. There are a lot of not-very-impressive stores and cafes now and a chaos of noise and congestion. You can walk down this street all the way to the Louvre, but a couple of blocks were more than enough for me.

There was one impressive exception to the mediocrity. A long line of people stretched down a side street waiting to be admitted to Louis Vuitton. Fortunately I had no desire to go inside so we skipped that line and abandoned our stroll down the avenue.

Our next destination was Notre Dame. I had been struck by the beauty of this medieval cathedral during our Seine River cruise. Most of it is still closed as a result of the fire which ravaged the roof in 2019 so we contented ourselves with viewing the outside.

The atmosphere was ruined somewhat by the many seemingly desperate young women who cruised the crowd trying to get people to sign petitions. Apparently, this is another typical Paris scam. If you fall for it and sign, they will press you for a donation.

We soon wandered on, leaving the silly tourists and scammers behind.

We passed this elaborate monument on our walk back to the hotel.