It was very easy to get to our hotel; again…surprising. The hotel was on the sixth floor of a nice, clean hotel, with a very nice and helpful wait staff. (When will the luck run out?)
We even had time to do laundry!
Our plan was to take a couple hours to walk from our hotel (east side of town) to the Eiffel Tower for dinner (west side of town), stopping at Notre Dame on the way. We walked along the canal of the Seine for about an hour, and I have to say that if I never smell another homeless person’s pee for the rest of my life, it will be too soon! My question is…if you’re going to pee under a bridge next to the canal, why not just pee in the canal??
Anyway, we had a very lovely walk and were getting more and more excited to see the tower at night. We stopped to take in the sites for a moment, and I got out the camera to take a picture of a cute little dog next to the water. …Nothing… Our luck had officially run out. Travel tip: When traveling with a single camera with a single battery, you MUST charge it every night just to be safe! A few colorful words, metro rides, and glass of wine later, we were at the Eiffel Tower at dusk!
We arrived at the perfect time to see the end of a lightshow that takes place at the top of every hour on the tower. The Eiffel Tower is fascinating during the day, but it was a site to see at night! After taking in its beauty for a bit, we found a café close by to have dinner and marvel at the lighted tower for a little longer. We had steak with fries (because that’s how they come in France; not mashed potatoes!) and a perfectly crisped crème brulee for dessert.
Travel tip: When ogling the beauty of the Eiffel Tower, do not lose track of time and miss the last train! This will force you to either take a taxi ($$$$) or the very appropriately titled “night bus.” Of course it runs at night, but after riding it, I find the name to be much more symbolic. There were drunks, druggies, and drug deals for our 35 minute bus ride home. Travel tip: When forced to ride the night bus after ogling the tower and missing the train, do NOT sit in the back. The front gets you to exactly the same place without nearly the amount of sketchiness! After we got off the bus, we could not have walked home faster.
Wednesday was thankfully a new day and reminded us of the Paris we visited three years ago: cold and rainy!! Luckily we bought ponchos in Brussels…and conveniently left them with our bags in the locker at the train station. No matter; this was our only day in Paris!
We had two things we really wanted to do that we did not do on our last visit: Tour Notre Dame and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were able to catch the free tour of Notre Dame, which lasted about an hour and a half. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and could answer any question we threw at her! Being out of the rain for a bit wasn’t half bad either.
Then we went to the Eiffel Tower, where mother nature was still taking a shower. There were some mechanical issues with the lifts, so we could only go to the second level, not all the way. This was a huge disappointment, but we were going to do what we could while we were there! The lift ride up was very frightening for me because it felt like an amusement park ride; like when the lift stopped, it was going to be suddenly dropped to the sounds of metal and screams. Flash back to reality: that didn’t happen.
Part of the second level was enclosed, but we decided to go to the outside deck. Once you’re wet, you’re wet. I felt better about my fears when I saw a grown man looking out at the city, while keeping his lower body as far from the edge as possible. Ha! When we went back inside, our luck had returned; they had JUST opened the lift to the top, and we were able to buy tickets and take that crazy 1 minute 40 second ride up! I thought that being that high we would have actually been above the rain cloud, but I think we were right underneath it. However, I was not going to let a little (or a lot of) rain keep me from having this once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We had just enough time to do what we wanted to in town, get Steven a crepe, then go to the market to pick up some food and 0.35 euro wine for our overnight train ride! Vamos a Espana!
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