Day Two in Paris: Eiffel Tower

This itinerary may not be the most intelligent for the number of metro lines you need to switch, you may consider squeezing Tour Montparnasse in between Montmarte to Eiffel Tower if you have time which was the original plan.

- Metro directions for Montmarte to Tour Montparnasse: Blanche > Place de Cichy > Montparnasse Bienvenue 

Montparnasse is an intended stop but we ran out of time, so we had to skip it. It is said to be a good alternative to the Eiffel Tower in providing a 360 degrees city skyline view of Paris at 656 feet above ground. It is less hyped than the Eiffel Tower (hence less crowded), less expensive and you get to see Eiffel Tower itself.

Either way, I was really happy to finally reach the Eiffel Tower! It was a dream come true. I don't think it's an overrated attraction, but I guess my trip taught me that the tower is definitely not the only amazing thing Paris has to offer. I later saw the glistening golden tower again from my return flight at night time amidst a neatly sprawled spiderweb configuration of the city which is - by far and definitely the most breathtaking thing I've ever seen. It took my breath away. Literally. I actually tapped on a stranger's shoulder to signal to her the magnificence of the Eiffel Tower right outside the window, and to that she just smiled rather nonchalantly... anyway it's really so beautiful, from air, on land, in the afternoon sun or at night. 

There was obviously better lighting on this side of the tower, but we realized it a little slowly. That rectangular shadow in the background is the Montparnasse, which was criticized to ruin Paris's flatlay urban design. But it's a good alternative to the Eiffel Tower which was swarming with people, it looked quite scary there. The lifts go up through the legs of the tower, and one of the lifts were closed. I heard that all four lifts are never opened at once because there would be overcrowding at the top of the tower.

Note to Inception fans and the filming locations in Paris:

I bitterly missed the Bir-Hakeim bridge which was featured in this iconic scene (2:42) in my favourite movie. I nearly died of sadness when I knew it. Not enough research went into studying the area, and so we actually walked a parallel street/bridge to it without realizing. I now have a valid reason to revisit this city. If you're really into hunting for all the Inception scenes in Paris, there's another one at Rue Cesar Franck/Rue Bonchut nearby which features Cafe Debussy in that same scene (0:30) except that the cafe has since been renamed to become Il Russo.

We were trotting up the bridge that Ariadne did when she was learning how to build dreams. But unfortunately, when we reached the Passy metro station, we learnt that it was under renovation and we had to take a bus nearby to reroute ourselves back to the metro station. The bus ride was free. Please check which metro stations are working to avoid walking senselessly around. It was still an amazing day to remember despite quite a lot of walking.