We slept in today, which was alright by me. We took our time getting breakfast (Bread and chocolate croissants) and then hit the road back to Paris. I slept part of the way, and played the hold-your-breath-through-tunnels games with Ethan. The tunnels were all short of my max (minute-forty-five, thanks for asking), but I did manage to last three quick ones in succession! That's gotta be worth something, but I have no idea what.
Paris! We considered seeing the catacombs but the line stretched out the door, down the street, and around the corner. We decided we didn't need to see bones that much. If you really want to read about bones stacked up, I've got you covered.
We went to the hotel instead. It's a really nice hotel a few blocks from the Champs de Mars, which is like the Mall in Washington, a large field for doing whatever-you-want, pointing down to the Eiffel Tower! In fact, we can even see the top half of the tower from our room window. We walked down to the tower just to see what was up, and ended up buying tickets from a booth off to the side and walking right up, all but skipping the line. We walked up to the Primer Etage, which is 180' and 360 steps high. Mom wasn't sure if she'd make it. We wandered around reading the signs and seeing the sites. Then mom all-but-dragged us off to the Deuxième Etage. The second level was another 180' and 360 steps, making it the highest structure I've climbed, even though buying a ticket made it feel a bit like cheating. It was still really fun, and the skeletal infra-structure-esque construction adds to the airy effect of it, magnifying it's already grandiose nature. Not as sweet as last night, but still really really cool, and only $5! The second level was worth the climb; we could see all the buildings more distinctly, even seeing the arc in the Arc de Triomphe.
We slacked for a while waiting for mom to finish with the upper level, taking stupid pictures and spotting our hotel, etc etc. Then we headed down to the bottom. We ate ice-cream and headed out to the tour-boats on the Seine (which I forgot to spit in). Our timing was perfect and we walked right on, finding some of the last seats mere minutes before the boat set off. We saw the Louvre, the Assembly National, sailed around Notre Dame and under the most romantic bridge in Paris. I think we sailed under that one four or five times, at least according to the guide. Said guide spoke at least 4 languages, and knew bits of at 4 (or more) more judging by today's performance.
After the tour we set off to find dinner. We were torn between a straight-home route and a 3 mile walking tour of the city, but we settled on a short river-walk and back to the hotel. Crossing the bridge, we saw two or three guys hustling with 3 card monte. Even harder than following the marked coaster was determining who was working with him. Was it the man who just won 100€, or was it the guy who blew fifty on an obvious mistake? Needless to say, we didn't play. Along the river we took a few pretty pictures of the tower, and had one of the family taken before crossing back to head towards our hotel, looking for dinner. Sort of. Mom was determined to eat, cheaply, in the Rue Claire district, which meant skipping the first few promising restaurants and then walking in a circle and away from our hotel. We ended up paying very reasonable prices at a pizza place we only walked past once. I can't complain.
As we walked back to our hotel Adam says "Hey, it's only 8 minutes till the hour, we should check out the light-show." Great idea! So we did. We sat on the mall with thousands of other tourists and watched children shoot glowy-helicopters into the air (They are pretty sweet, I might have to get one) and then watched as strobes shimmered over the tower for five minutes. Made for great pictures, and I'm pretty sure Ethan took some sweet ones.
And since tomorrow's plans start early, so has our night. G'night!
Shots 1&4 by Ethan, 2 by me, and 3 by other tourist.
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