Our first full day in Paris

The last couple of days were big days in Paris.  The Lord blessed us with fantastic weather that was perfect for touring one of the most beautiful cities.  We started with a bus tour through the city on Saturday morning.  There are so many sights to see!  Our tour guide, Veronique, who joined our bus at Lorraine, was our guide through the city and through the Louvre.  We have had fun getting to know her and she has been very helpful both when we are together as a group and when we need assistance finding our way through the city during free time.  After our whirlwind bus tour of Paris, we stopped at the Eiffel Tower and went to the second level.  It was very crowded, but we got to skip waiting in line because we had an appointment time to go up the elevator.  From the second level of the tower, you can see everything in Paris.  The city is huge!
<><> <><> <><>

Is this a view from the North, East, South or West?  Nan can't remember.

From our vantage points, we saw such landmarks as the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the River Seine, and much, much more.  As we made our way to the ground level, we saw several guys climbing a rope to the upper arch of the inside of the tower and rappelling back down.  We learned that this was a training exercise for the fire department.  It was very impressive.  There were also several “vendors” of little Eiffel Towers and other souvenirs all throughout the ground level.  Their sales technique was rather aggressive and “no” not a word they understood – even when said in French emphatically.  “Vendors” is in quotes because we learned that they are not legally allowed to sell their petite Eiffel Towers, etc. when the police came and all of them took flight very quickly in the opposite direction.

It looks like we are standing right in front of the tower, but it is actually a couple hundred yards in the background.  See picture below...

This will give you some perspective.  When Carol and I posed for our picture in front of the tower, we were standing in the flat area between the two mirroring buildings seen in the middle of this photo.

We left the Eiffel Tower to make our way to the Louvre for a small window of free time for lunch before our scheduled tour of the museum.  Unfortunately, somewhere between our stop at la Tour Eiffel and the food court at the Louvre, Anita was pick-pocketed which bummed us all out.  Her wallet is all that was stolen so she still had her passport.  Fortunately, she was able to alert all of her credit card companies before anything was charged, and she worked it out with Veronique to find a Western Union to access some of her cash.

This was as close as we could get to the Mona Lisa.

Our tour of the Louvre was great, but we all needed much more time than we had.  We saw Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa (from a distance due to the number of people), and an impressive collection of art that our guide told us was acquired in several methods: purchased, presented as a gift, or stolen.  Again, we needed much more time, but our tour ended and most of us needed some breathing room after working our way through the crowds.

So at this time we split into smaller groups and took advantage of an evening of free time.  While some went to Notre Dame, Carol and I opted to walk towards the Champs Elysees thinking it was just past the gardens of the museum.  We were waiting for my niece, Carmen, to meet up with us and have dinner at one of her favorite restaurants… what we didn’t know was how far away the Champs Elysees was from the place we started.  So we walked and walked and walked and walked – and then walked back to the Louvre to meet Anita and Will after they got their money issues straightened out.

Nan with Carmen in front of the St. Michel Fountain

Carmen met us and took us to a place where we got the best meal of the whole trip.  We ordered real French onion soup, steak, and an “ooh la la” dessert that was like an éclair with ice cream in the middle rather than custard.  YUM-O! Carol really enjoyed her “French coffee” – so much she got two.  The whole meal was just what the doctor ordered after a long day of walking, walking, and walking.

After dinner we walked up to Notre Dame to see the beautiful cathedral all lit up in the night.  There were street musicians along the way.  Every once in a while a spinning blue light would fly through the air from the ground.  It made me think of a combination of fireflies and fireworks and it was neat against the dark façade of the walls of Notre Dame.  The massive stone towers bathed in the glow of the lights made for an even more impressive display than I ever imagined. 

We would have loved to stay to enjoy more of the atmosphere, but we were exhausted so Carmen arranged for a taxi to take us back to the hotel.  We made it “home” after a full day in Paris.