Day 2

Where to begin? We woke up around 7:30, ate our free breakfast, and headed out on the town. After getting directions from some very helpful Frenchmen drinking cappuccino at a sidewalk cafe, we found and boarded the Metro (like a subway or tram). We went to the Louvre for our first adventure, entering through the glass pyramid to buy tickets and go into the museum (which was really cool). There were more paintings and statues that I could ever imagine, from all countries and time periods. When we finished going through the endless rooms and walls of art we took a rest outside, and some lady looked at me like I was crazy when I tried to take a picture of a pigeon (which didn’t even turn out quite right). We then spotted a bright yellow two story tour bus, which we hopped into and rode for an hour or more, passing by the major sightseeing hot spots. Exiting at the tall brown tower of Eiffel, we got into a long winding line to pay to make it to the top. Somewhere in between rows 3 and 6 of the line, it began to rain. A drizzle really. Then to a shower. Then it stopped. Then it drizzled some more. Smart travelers we were not, as we had no umbrella or rain jacket to speak of. So we got wet. Finally we made it to the front, paid, and waited in another shorter, dryer line. Elevator please! First Floor. New line. Second Floor. New line. TOP FLOOR, up one more set of stairs and I was overlooking the majority of Paris France under overcast crying skies. Oh how wind blew! I may have caught pneumonia, or just the shivers.

All the way back down and onto solid ground we went. As I was exiting the tower, a very tan dark haired young boy offered me an umbrella. Having heard all sorts of warnings and horror stories, I knew better than to grab the handle, despite the fact that my newly dried clothes were quickly becoming damp once again. So instead I stuttered out an "uhhhhhh" and turned around searchingly for my grandmother to answer the waiting vagabond. After some quick and witting bargaining, while I stood there silent as a deaf mute, Nanny bargained the price from 10 Euros to 5, which I paid. Then we had to run back to the bus stop, like idiots, to try not to get left behind. We made it, boarded, and rode for quite some time, trying to figure what we were doing, where we were going, how to get there, so on and so forth. The bus halted at one of the usual stops and, after about five minutes, the driver got off, leaving us and a few other passengers. I managed another eloquent "uhhhhhh", but no one else seemed at all effected. On a whim we got off and crossed the street, having spotted a bistro looking place that just turned out to be a bar. Whoops. Back to the bus! Ours had left so we got on some other one, the driver of this missing as well. After a while he came back and we ended up at the Louvre once again. Backtracking about a block, we came across a small restaurant by the name of CafeRuc. I had a salad and a few slurps of Nanny's onion soup (apparently one of Paris' claims to fame), as well as the most amazing raspberry cheesecake known to mankind and "cafe crème". The meal was nice, but overpriced I decided, remembering the 57-67 cents extra per euro every time I hand over a bill or coin. Nanny felt it was her duty to teach our poor waitress new words in English, such as "share" and "strawberry". After sufficiently harassing a man who appeared to be the manager by asking for directions, we located the Metro we had arrived through and I (no, I'm not completely useless) located the proper train to board (despite Nanny's doubts) and made it to the Cadet station. From there we were somewhat lost. The hotel couldn't be far but when we resurfaced the territory was unfamiliar. Using my advanced map skills I determined that the hotel was about two hundred yards away from the spot where we stood.

I'd call it a day well done, wouldn't you?


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Everyone and his brother trying to take a picture of the Mona Lisa

My photograph of the Mona Lisa













Winged Victory










Tower and Flowers






View from the Top (see the wet!?)









"Someday, all of this will be yours" whispered Mufassa