Paris, Lunch at the Eiffel Tower

(2 photos)
In late October 1979 we parked our RV under the Eiffel Tower, right where these cars are parked and had lunch with a view unknown to the best of Paris restaurants. The people who saw us (both tourists and employees) were pleased we had the nerve to enjoy a special sidewalk cafe, all our own. (This photo shows where we parked, the photo below shows the RV we were using that year, but I forgot to take a photo while we were parked for lunch.)

When I took this photo I was standing with the Palais de Chaillot and the Seine River to my back, and that tower in the distance is the Tour Montparnasse, the 59 story tower, the tallest building in the City of Paris. The photo is not clear, but between the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse is the Champs de Mars, then the École Militaire and the UNESCO buildings.

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On July 26, 1995 (while driving a different RV) at the south leg of the Eiffel Tower I spotted a parking lot, so in we went. It was rather obvious this was for employee parking, but we did not block any of the parking spaces. Emmy kept saying, the police would throw us out, but I said, “Just fix lunch.” And she did. What a location!

We could see the legs of the Tower just out our dining room window, the upper part of the Tower was hidden by large trees. Nearly buried in the sand and weeds outside our window I saw a piece of copper pipe. A little inspection and a lot of digging uncovered a three-foot long heavy copper pipe with a bend in the middle, a spigot on one end, a threaded fitting on the other. It must have been buried there for decades.

I first thought it was leftover from the Fire Department, but Emmy’s Cousin Klaus, who was an architect for the city of Offenbach, Germany, says it is part of a Paris fountain. It makes a nice addition to the, by-now mis-named cane collection. Well, there are also two 10" pieces of the Berlin Wall displayed in that collection.

There are restaurants on the upper floors of the Tower. A restaurant named “Altitude 95” is located on the first floor, 189 feet above the ground. The name of the restaurant comes from its height, 95 meters (312 feet) above sea level. The prestigious Jules Verne Restaurant is located on the second landing, 379 feet above the ground. The Humberd RV Cafe was by far the best place for us to eat, during both of our lunchtime visits. (We've visited Paris and the Eiffel nine different years.)