2 questions about the 7e
 

Is there a consession stand or snacks avaiable on the top level of the Tour Eiffel?

Where will I find the best crepe stand near the Tour Eiffel? Rue Cler? Will it be easy to find?

Hungry and watching pennies.

I don't remember any food at the top but they do have food/snacks on both the first and second floors.

Rue Cler isn't much of a walk from there.

There are no concessions at the summit; the platform is simply too small. There are snack bars, toilets, shops, and the Jules Verne restaurant on the second platform, and the Altitude 95 restaurant, more snack bars, more shops, a post office, a small continuous cinema, and other things on the first platform (in winter, there's even a small ice rink).

The sacred rue Cler is a considerable walk from the Eiffel Tower; it has no better selection of restaurants than any of the surrounding areas.

Please try to remember that the rue Cler is nothing special; all of Paris is like that street, even if Rick Steves never bothered to look at any of the other streets.

AnthonyGA, your tone is hauty. I've been to Paris twice, just not the 7e or the Eiffel Tower. I was only asking if there was a crepe stand within the area. I am not a Rick Steve's devotee; I thought I remembered reading there was a crepe stand in rue Cler and wondered if someone could verify that.

Haughty. I meant your tone was haughty.

I walked from Rue Cler to the Tower last week, it is not a long walk at all.

I went to Rue Cler because it was my first time in Paris. Though some people dismiss it (much like the Champs de Elsysee/Louvre walk), it's usually best to find out for yourself when there are opinions on both sides.

Have a great time :)

I hope I don't sound haughty but the fact is Rue Cler is really not at all extraordinary. Many people refer to it as a market street but it simply is not. A true market street or area is where vendors come in early in the morning, set up their stands and sell fruits, vegitables, clothes, crafts, meats, poultry, fish etc. Rue Cler has none of that. There are only ordinary stores whose products extend out in front of the store as well as inside. There are just a few very mediocre restaurants and a few shops such as hardware, books etc. The prices at the stores are higher than average because the street is frequented by so many tourists and an upscale resident population. There are many many true markets scattered all throughout Paris that are more worthwhile. If you are in the Rue Cler area and you want to buy food you would do far better to go a couple blocks to the supermarche in front of the Ecole Militare Metro station.

I have no strong opinion one way or the other about Rue Cler or Rick Steves other than to just report what Rue Cler is and is not and it is true that Rick Steves style of travel is one of whirlwind travel and he has never really seemed to stay put long enough to get the true feel and understanding of the places he reports on. In his defense though I must say that he has helped many people who otherwise were afraid to travel through Europe to do so in an economic way. I first became interested in Europe many years ago because of his reporting. I think most people who become addicted to Europe will after a few trips outgrow Rick Steves and his travel style. In the meantime old Rick has become very wealthy and that's a good thing.....it's the American way.

Just an old guy's humble opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Larry J

If you are in the Rue Cler area and you want to buy food you would do far better to go a couple blocks to the supermarche in front of the Ecole Militare Metro station~~~


I agree with Larry on the above statement, we found that little place very good last September. There is also a fruit trader outside the supermarket whose fruit is incredibly cheap and wonderful.

I bought a couple of plums from that place - huge and delicious! Unfortunately they do not sell crepes. Does anyone remember a creperie near there? I can not.

There's a creperie on the rue St-Dominique about a block east from its intersection with the avenue Rapp.

If you'll be hungry and watching pennies, you'll have plenty of options. I don't think planning at the level of detail that would require hunting for a particular crepe stand near the Tour Eiffel is necessary.

From the Ecole Militare Metro station, if you walk down Ave de Tourville there is a small walk up window creperie. I did not eat there but they serve sweet and savorie crepes. I bought a sucre crepe from a vendor at the Trocadero. A Eiffel tower light show snack. Yum.

I just explain things as they are. Someone has to counter the rue Cler mystique. People who go to Paris thinking that the rue Cler is something special or should be a highlight of their trip are going to come away with an extremely skewed impression of the city, and it's important to try to correct that before it's too late.

I don't know why Rick Steves developed a fixation on the rue Cler. There is nothing remarkable about it, and there are more interesting places in Paris. I suppose that, as has already been mentioned, he rushes through the city so carelessly and ineptly that he latches on to a few random things and then promotes them furiously. He dedicates several pages of his book to that worthless little street (now somewhat of a tourist trap); if he were to give the same coverage to every sight in Paris that is at least as interesting as the rue Cler, his book would be the size of two Encyclopedia Britannicas. But he is too superficial for that.

Actually, to Larry, I disagree...
there are two kinds of markets in Paris.
One is a "street market" which is what you described. The vendors 'rove' to different locations on different days, and the market at a given location occurs maybe 2 days a week, the same days. Examples: Place Monge, Marché Bastille, Marché Saxe-Breteuil...

The other kind is a "market street" where the vendors have permanent shops and often extend their wares outside into the street. Examples: rue Cler, rue Mouffetard, rue Montorgueil, rue Daguerre, etc.

Rue Cler is just a normal Paris street, nice enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.

And I know it is reasonably close to the Eiffel Tower... because we ended up there by accident (noticed the name on our street map and had lunch there because the timing was right) walking from Eiffel Tower over to the Arc de Triomphe.

Don't worry about finding a crepe stand, they are all over the city, you don't need to go out of your way to find one. I guess maybe somewhere you could find a bad crepe, but I never had one -lol!

cymbeline, please don't take it personally... AnthonyGA talks like that about all kinds of subjects Parisian. you should have heard him on one thread about dating!

"People who go to Paris thinking that the rue Cler is something special or should be a highlight of their trip are going to come away with an extremely skewed impression of the city, and it's important to try to correct that before it's too late."

That's funny. Do you think people go to Rue Cler, dislike it, and cancel the rest of their trip to Paris in woeful disappointment?

Aw, just because I don't have much money, don't take the fun of planning away from me, St Cirq!(tounge in cheek, wink). I'm writing down the crepe stand you mentioned on a purple index card, along with the other's mentioned too.I know it's a little silly, but I'm excited about my third trip.

Some of the street food is better than others.