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paris0204_001.jpg
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Dover Castle, taken through the bus window as we threaded our
way through town.
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paris0204_003.jpg
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The famous White Cliffs of Dover from the ferryport as we waited.
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paris0204_004.jpg
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Another ferry, identical to the one we have now boarded, turning
around preperatory to docking.
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paris0204_013.jpg
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Our hotel in Paris, a very nice 4-star hotel. Note the American
flag...
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paris0204_014.jpg
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The Arc de Triomphe ("Arch of Triumph"), a 16-story war monument
conceived by Napoléon. it is at the top of the avenue des Champs-Élysées.
It was constructed between 1810 and 1836 (there were a number
of long delays).
It is possible to reach the roof of the monument by climbing nearly
three hundred steps, which we didn't take.
The arch is surrounded by a huge vehicular roundabout. Some tourists
foolishly try to cross the roundabout in front of hundreds of
cars in order to get to the monument. We took one look at the
traffic, and decided there *must* be an underground passage to
the Arc. It wasn't hard to find.
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paris0204_022.jpg
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A view of the Trocaédro from near the Tower. Also called the Chaillot
Palace, it replaced the old Trocadero Palace. It was built in
1937 on Chaillot hill, for the International Exhibition. It houses
a number of museums. The bridge is the Pont d'Iléna
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paris0204_024.jpg
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Of course, no photo album of Paris is complete without a few images
of the Eiffel Tower. Here's a bunch of information I didn't know
about this tower before I went to Paris: It was completed in 1889,
at a cost of $1.5m. It is 986 feet of wrought iron. It was, of
course, built by Gustave Eiffel. It was built in commemoration
of the French Revolution, was the tallest building in the world
when it was
unveiled at the Paris World's Fair in 1889.
Before the Tower's construction, critics called Eiffel's design
an eyesore and predicted that the Tower would cost too much to
build. Eiffel knew better. His crew assembled the 18,000 pieces
of iron in just 21 months, under budget and in time for the fair's
opening day. With the completion of the Tower, Eiffel earned the
nickname "magician of iron."
Eiffel was one of the first engineers to recognize the importance
of wind forces on tall structures. He designed the surface of
his Tower to be so minimal that the wind has virtually nothing
to grab onto. All pieces of the Tower form an open lattice of
light trusses through which the wind can blow.
The Eiffel Tower was one of the first tall structures in the world
to contain passenger elevators, and tourists loved them. Elevator
ticket sales in the Eiffel Tower regained almost the entire cost
of the structure -- in just one year!
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paris0204_025.jpg
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One of the statues on the Pont de Lerie bridge nearest the Eiffel
Tower.
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paris0204_026.jpg
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View of the docs as we await our trip with the Bateaux Parisiens
cruise line on the Seine river.
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