Walking out the door of the Cinéma Gaumont Pathé Beaugrenelle on Rue Linois, your pleasant walking tour of Paris officially begins.
Across the street Rue Linois, you’ll see a typical French newsstand.
Walking along Rue Linois towards the West, you’ll find a Vélib’ bicycle sharing station on your right and a Morris column (Colonne Morris), a cylindrical advertising column beside the Vélib’ station.
First Sight of the Eiffel Tower
If you haven’t yet seen the Eiffel Tower, then this moment will be your very first glance, pleasantly surprising. The Eiffel Tower is in the background behind the bicycle station.
First Sight of the Seine
Continuing walking, you’ll see the long and wide Pont de Grenelle bridge across the River Seine.
“Front-de-Seine2014 001” by Martin Greslou — Own work. Licence under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Don’t miss the opportunity to see and appreciate Pont de Grenelle at night.
Keep walking on Pont de Grenelle towards the West. The Eiffel Tower is always on your right, smiling at you; even an ordinary Métro looks extraordinary in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Replica of the Statue of Liberty
While strolling on Pont de Grenelle, you won’t miss a replica of the Statue of Liberty.
See Also: Copy of the Original Scale Model of Statue of Liberty
You have seen the Eiffel Tower—from afar; you are probably looking forward to approaching it. There are a couple of walking routes you can take towards the Tower while appreciating the scenery along the way.
Walk to the Eiffel Tower via Quai de Grenelle
The most direct shortcut is the Quai de Grenelle along the South Bank of the Seine towards the North. This route will fit you if you just want a quick glance and to enjoy the feeling of walking Paris streets.
Walk to the Eiffel Tower via Voie Georges Pompidou
You can also cross Pont de Grenelle to the North Side of the Seine and walk along Voie Georges Pompidou towards the Eiffel Tower. People always say that the North Bank is better, but you’ll have to see for yourself. This route is loved by photographers since you can film the Eiffel Tower from varied angles from afar—Distance creates beauty.
Walk to the Eiffel Tower via Île aux Cygnes
There’s a special island, Île aux Cygnes, in the middle of the Seine that separates the 15th and 16th arrondissements of Paris and goes from Pont de Grenelle to Pont de Bir-Hakeim close to the Eiffel Tower. On the island there’s a tree-lined promenade l’Allée des Cygnes. If you don’t care about the busy Paris streets and just want to relax while feeling Paris in its green, tranquility and fresh air, this is the perfect route. There’s also Pont de Rouelle in the middle that offers alternative connections to the Paris streets.
“P1040964 Paris XV île aux Cygnes rwk” by Mbzt – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Walk to the Eiffel Tower via Beaugrenelle quartier
Then there’s a path starting anywhere inside the Beaugrenelle Quartier and you can just walk North towards the Eiffel Tower. That’s when you get to feel really close to French culture, experience the off the beaten track, and find charming surprises.
Thanks for those tips 🙂
I have never used this route before, I will definitely try it.
You can actually feel the temptation of approaching to the Tower as it pops up bigger and bigger with every picture and paragraph.
I adore apparent disproportion of the tower to buildings, street and cars in 7th picture – it looks like someone added it there manually out of fun, and yet that is how it actually looks like for real 🙂
Better have good running/walking shoes as the distance can be pretty challenging. And a bottle of water.
But what a reward in every street corners.
Thank you for all those indications.
Thanks for this post! It is very informative and I’m quite sure that it will be very helpful. Going to Paris for the first time might be kind of frightening because you will have in front of you a new country which distribution and population are unknown to you. But with this post you will have a route to follow and have a great first day in Paris.
As I can recall the first day, I arrived in Paris I was in an absolute dreamy-like state. I just wanted to gobble up everything I saw, sensed and smelled. Blissfulness. Since I had very little time I didn’t have the chance to take the route you mentioned above and it’s sure wonderful that you took the time to provide such insightful tips for experiencing Paris on foot.
Thank you.