The first official day of our tour brought a rude wake up call...at 6:30am. Our leisure mornings are over. We had to be ready and on the bus by 8am to begin our city tour of Paris. We had a local guide who talked about the history and highlights of the locations passed. We rode by the Arc de Triompe, up the Champs Élysées, by the lock bridge, over the Ise de Paris and by Notre Dame Cathedral, along side the Louvre, and finally to the Eiffel Tower.
We faced the cold rain to get in line to go to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower. When we got off the bus there was already a line waiting to go up and we quickly learned a major benefit of being with a tour group as Patricia handed out of tickets and we immediately bypassed the waiting lines and proceeded to the elevators. The elevators go up the tower diagonally and we got off on the 2nd level. Our local guide pointed out a few highlights from the observation deck and then we had free time to wander and take pictures.
One of Samantha Browns' first episodes of Passport to Europe has her in Paris and when she went to the Eiffel Tower she found a post office at the tower so, of course, I had to find this and mail a post card to my parents stamped from the Eiffel Tower. Katie and I had to buy umbrellas because the rain just wouldn't quit. The group left and went to the gold dome where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried within 7 caskets.
We had free time the rest of the day so Katie and I went back to the St. Germain area and found a cute lunch place called Cafe Louise. We were the only foreigners in the cafe and we had to piece together Katie's French and the waiters minimal English to order. We strolled St. Germain before going to the Opera district to the Galleria Layfayette, a famous department store similar to Harrods. The Galleria Layfayette was 7 stories of pure misery! Since it was a rainy Saturday everyone wanted to be inside and the entire 7 levels were elbow to elbow with people. Katie and I surved 1 hour before we had to escape the madness. We shopped a little more before going back to the hotel. Charles, the concierge, recommended an Italian restaurant "just down the street" for dinner. Either Charles gave us the wrong directions or his perception of close by is way off base because 45 minutes later and 3 stops to ask directions later finally made it to Da Vinci. Thankfully the food was well worth the walk and the little waiter showed us to a bridge where we could see the Eiffel Tower twinkling over the Seine River.
Gorgeous pictures! I love Paris, and the Ile de Paris is so pretty and charming. Napoleon's tomb is one of my favorite sights and it's not as popular as many other things in Paris though it should be. I love your pics and time you spent at the Eiffel Tower, but I can't believe you ate Italian food while in Paris!
ReplyDeleteBrandi Bradley @ Rotax Metals