Rue Cler is the kind of street you hope to find when you are looking for a pedestrian market street with cafés, specialty food stores and some delicacies for that picnic basket.

From the Ecole Militaire metro station, walk east on Avenue de la Motte Picquet, away from the Ecole Militaire. The first street on the left is Rue Cler.

On the corner of Rue Cler and Avenue de la Motte Piquet is a post office where you can mail off those postcards you've been carrying.

Rue Cler is a pedestrian street with a variety small shops specializing in cheeses and wine, boulangeries (bakeries), produce shops and traiteurs (caterers) where you can get prepared foods, ready to take away for a picnic, or for sitting at the sidewalk tables provided.

On the right, east side, of the street are book stores and newspaper stands. They usually have some bargains offered in the way of art and cookbooks.

The street is bright with flower shops and produce stands. Here, the produce sellers shout out their specials of the day.

The Eiffel Tower was constructed for the Universal Exposition of 1889, the centennial of the French Revolution. Little did the architect, Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), know that it would become an icon of the Parisian landscape.

There are many ways to get to the Eiffel Tower. The one that offers a most stunning view of the Tower is from the Palais de Chaillot.

Take the Metro, lines #6 or #9, to the Trocadéro station. Once at the Trocadero station, follow the exit signs to the Palais de Chaillot/Eiffel Tower. If you happen to take another exit to the street, just look for the most impressive building around. That will be the Palace of Chaillot. The others are restaurants.

The Palais de Chaillot is made of two columned, curved buildings connected by a large plaza. It was built for the World Exhibition of 1937. The Palais houses the Théâtre National de Chaillot and the Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine in the East Wing, and the Musée de l'Homme (Museum of Mankind), the Musée de la Marine (Maritime Museum) in the West Wing.

Walk through the plaza, past the many gilded statues and the colonnaded wings of the Palais, and you'll get an extraordinary panorama of the Trocadéro Gardens, the Seine river and the Eiffel Tower.