On our official trip to Paris in may 2017, I along with a group of six other colleagues decided to take a boat ride on the seine river. This was our first visit to the Eiffel Tower or ‘Tour Eiffel’ in french. Named after Gustave Eiffel, the wrought iron lattice tower is on the Champs de Mars, Paris.
We arrived there late evening and were slightly restless to locate the ticket counter as we didn’t had prior bookings. It was around 9.30 pm and the place was very crowded. Luckily, we managed to secure seven tickets from the operator ‘Croisière sur la seine’ -Boat cruise along the seine. The tickets costed us 13 Euro each for one hour sightseeing tour.
Inside the boat, we climbed through the stairs on the upper deck with an intention to sit, but ended up standing next to the railing on the sides for most part of the cruise. Even other passengers preferred to stand barring few couples who seemed to be happily involved in each others company.
The boat was full and it took about ten minutes for the cruise to begin as there were many other tourists who took a while to settle in.
We saw a couple of wedding boats, one was stationery while the other passed by our boat. It was written ‘Le Paris’ on the moving boat which means ‘Everyone in Paris’. Some people from our boat started waving at them and they too responded gracefully. Some even shouted ohhh…hooo…ho uhh hooo! Maybe they were excited with the wedding scenes on a cruise.
There are a number of bridges over the seine river connecting the city. Our boat crossed quite a few of them offering some breathtaking views.
It was just enough daylight when our boat started moving downstream. And after the sunset, lights came up in full glory. It’s a remarkable idea to have one consistent light color. Either sides of the river was lit up with bright yellow lamps forming a golden postcard view.
An ideal photographic moment with some amazing views of orange-yellowish skylines. The golden lighting formed reflections of the structures on the river. Some of these structures have historic significance and are tourist places.
The boat took a turn from a designated area and started moving upstream and after a while we returned to the dock . We came to know that there will be a fifteen minute light show at eleven pm and another one at twelve midnight at the Eiffel tour. So we decided to wait. Sharp at eleven, the light show began leaving us mesmerized. Entire crowd was looking at the top, taking pictures, videos and selfies.
We bought a few replicas of the tower from the local sellers before leaving from the wonderful site.
Some more pictures taken during our visit:
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Author: Vijay Malhotra, Mumbai
Great post 😁
Thank you😊
You have weaved this post so beautifully that it almost feels real. What an insightful Write up!
Am glad you liked it, thank you for these kind comments.
Great photos! Thanks for sharing!
Your welcome