Paris Day #2 - Bye Bye Eiffel Tower

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Our second day in Paris started out like most of our other days...early!

The goal of the morning was to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. I had read that you needed to get there early if you wanted to see the Mona Lisa so we got up early and headed down there. We walked to our normal Metro stop and navigated our way to the Louvre.

The train was a little bit busier than it was the day before but we were all able to stay together.



Louvre

We exited the Subway and followed a sign that we thought said Louvre. Well, Louvre was in the word of the sign the rest of the sign was in French. We really should have listened to that French CD a little bit closer. We had it for six months and all we learned how to do was count to 10. Anyway, of course, we were walking in the wrong direction.

Ok, we got back on track and found it. The fact that we didn't see the place right when we exited the metro is a testament to how little any of us knew about the Louvre.

I have seen the little diamond shape entrance but I never saw really knew about the entire property. It is humungous and grand and detailed. When you look at the building walls you cannot understand how someone could create a wall of a building with such detail. As you looked at the walls of the building you begin to wonder about the level of effort it took this person or people to create these statues and columns and window casings. Looking up close at the building makes me want to learn more about the age and construction of the building. Will I, probably not but it was a good thought.

We finally approach the diamond entrance and I see this line is wrapped around the side of the diamond. The Louvre only opened 30 minutes ago and the line already has over an hour wait.

I walk around to the front of the diamond and I ask someone where we enter with our museum pass. He said, 'right this way.' What? we can skip the hour long line? Yep! Whoop, whoop! If you are going to Paris I would encourage getting the Museum Pass because you really do get to skip all the lines. It's like a FastPass (that's a Disney term).

As we walk in you are immediately sent down an escalator. That's when it dawned on me as to why we didn't see anyone walking into any of the buildings that surround the Louvre. All the entrances to the buildings are underground. It's like a little city under the city. There are escalators taking you up here and down there. I could not get over how many people were already mulling around the Louvre and it hadn't even been open an hour.

At the entrance to each wing there is another checkpoint where you have to show your passes again. The lines get very narrow and you kind of have to push your way through. Did I mention the place had been open less than an hour?!

We followed the signs to the Mona Lisa (along with hundreds of people). We walk up stairs and around corners. We pass a ton of statues and lots of art work. I could not even begin to tell you what we had passed. We were just making a beeline for the Mona Lisa.

As we walked we would pass tour groups. The thing I noticed about the tour groups is that they all had headphones on. Well, the guide would have a microphone on and they would talk into the microphone and all the people attending the tour would have their phone and they would be listening to the guide talk. I just thought that was the neatest thing. There was a lot going on at the Louvre and if you were a tour guide you would lose your voice within the first hour trying to talk over the hustle and bustle of everyone moving around. Don't they just think of everything these days!

As you are walking towards your destination you pass sign after sign about pick pockets and to be aware. I appreciate all the signs but it just bothers me that they are everywhere. It just takes away from the experience. Maybe it's a liability thing, who knows. Every time someone bumps into you it makes you want to question their motives in your head and that gets annoying after the 500th time you get bumped.

We found the room where the Mona Lisa is displayed. When you walk into the room you see artwork lining the walls and then you see a big wall in the middle of the room with a single painting encased in glass. There she (or he) is. There are guide ropes that attempt to corral people into a particular spot to view the painting but they don't really work. It is just a cluster of people bumping and shoving.

Me, mom, Jeff and the boys looked at the painting and took our picture and then went and sat down. Kelsey and Megan had a plan to take a selfie with the Mona Lisa. We all went and sat down and waited for Kelsey and Megan to get done. It is quite funny to watch Kelsey and Megan take selfies. They are really good at it but it takes about 500 pictures to get the right one.

The picture they took was really cool. It's Megan on one side and Kelsey on the other side and the painting in the middle. The girls have very straight faces and the caption for the picture is 'are we smiling or not'?

So, mission accomplished, let's go eat



Break Time

We exited the Lourve and we headed back toward the Metro thinking a restaurant would be around that area. We found a little sandwich shop and we sat at the tables outside.

The restaurant that we chose was right beside another restaurant. We think the owners knew each other because the one at the other restaurant yelled to the other one and then started mouthing something about tourist and they laughed. French people just do not like us! It was so weird.

Everyone orders their drinks. For some reason Timmy has occasionally attempted to order Sweet Tea. Sorry son, wrong continent. Anyway, they bring our sodas to the table and they give us a wine glass to pour it in. Um, ok. Well, I've noticed this since Scotland that whenever we order a soda it is always brought to us in a old fashioned glass bottle. I don't understand why. Aren't cans cheaper? Someone research this glass coke thing in the Europe and let me know what you find out.

As we are sitting outside eating Kelsey, Megan and Alton notice a store across the street. This store sign has a butterfly in the top left corner. They start talking about this butterfly and that they want to go into the store.

Later Kelsey told me that a butterfly landed on her shortly after her mothers passing and so every time she sees a butterfly she thinks of her mother. I thought that was a very sweet story. It moments like this in the trip that I treasure. I really enjoy hearing the little things that make Megan and Kelsey the people that they are.

We find a little knickknack shop and spend entirely too much money and then we talk about the game plan for the rest of the day.

The goal of the day is to see the Eiffel Tower one more time before we leave to go back to the states. We decide we should go back to the apartment, take a nap, relax, pack (and weigh) our bags and get everything set up so we can get up and go tomorrow morning.

We head back to the Metro and make our way back to the apartment.

As we are walking to the apartment we finally spot a grocery store. Hallelujah! We go in, buy a couple bottles of wine, some sodas, some snacks and then we head back to the apartment.

About 3 hours later we head off for our last adventures in Paris



Thames River Tour

After our naps and packing we head out for the evening. We took the Metro on our usual path to the Eiffel Tower. This time we walked along the Thames River bank. The Paris Pass included a Thames River cruise so that was the next stop on the trip.

Walking along the Thames River was relaxing. The walkway was very quiet and it was not busy at all. You could see the Eiffel Tower from a distance and you could see the Thames River down below. There were a few grassy spots along the pathway. I could see this as a place where you could take a little break from the fast paced city and unwind.

We got our tickets to the boat and waited in line to board the next boat. The boats are very deceptive. They are way bigger then they appear. We thought we would have to wait for the next boat but we were able to board the boat that was waiting. We were happy about that because it was hot and we did not want to hang out in a line anymore than we needed to.

We all sat on the benches on the top of the boat. Gigi decided to sit down below out of the sun.

On the Siene River Cruise there was alcohol and funny commentary. There was neither on this cruise. If you wanted to listen to the commentary you needed to be downstairs were Gigi was and plug your head phones into the plug and tune into your language channel.

We know most of what we were seeing because we had passed most of the sites on the Big Bus tour.

What I was looking at were the people that were hanging out on the river bank. You know me, always looking for an opportunity to people watch.

There were these guys drinking beer on the river bank. They had their six pack and they were hanging their legs over the side of the river wall bank and you could tell they were solving some kind of world's problems. The problem I had with this picture was they were sitting on a river bank and they were clearly about 20 feet above the river. There wasn't a breeze, there was no sand in their toes and there wasn't any kind of band playing or any restaurants around. They were basically hanging out on a sidewalk with no breeze drinking beer. Why? Maybe they were wondering why all these tourist were traveling on these pack tour boats looking at them. Whatever, all I am saying is, if I'm around water with beer my toes need to touch the water or be buried in sand.

The next group of folks we passed were laying out on the river bank. Again, a sidewalk 20 feet above the water without sand. They were clearly in bathing suits, if that. It was a sight to see. I think we might have seen some folks making out too.

As we cruised up and down the river we passed several other tour boats that were packed with people. Some of them seemed more lively than others. Some folks decided to try to engage with the other boats and started to wave and yell. The people on the boat also thought it might be fun to make noises when you passed under the bridges so that you could hear the echo.

I did find it neat that there were house boats on the river. You could tell that people were actually living on these boats. The boats are long and slender just like an RV. Once house boat even had a car. I don't think I took a picture but this little car was just sitting on the back of the boat. I don't know about parking by house boat on the Thames River with all the tour boats going by but I guess there are several people that do not agree with me. They are cute and they were fun to look at. It was fun to wonder in your mind what life would be like on a house boat chillin' with the Eiffel Tower as your backdrop.

I can't say that it was the most eventful boat ride but we can now say we cruised down the Thames River. Check, check.



Night, Night Eiffel Tower

We found this cute little restaurant without air conditioning to eat at. I ordered a steak and salad. My American body needed red meat at this point!

When we stopped at the grocery store by our apartment I had bought a bottle of Riesling and Chablis for Jeff and I to drink our last night in Paris. This restaurant had Chablis on the menu so I decided to order a glass since we were going to be drinking it later. Oh boy, it was so good. I ate my dinner and ordered a second glass.

Being the classy folk we are we asked the waitress for plastic glasses so we could drink our wine later. She wasn't the most engaging waitress in the world but so obliged and gave us eight plastic Heineken glasses.

We strolled around the little vendors and bought a few more things then we headed back to the lawn.

The Eiffel Tower twinkles every hour on the hour starting at 9 pm. The first 'twinkle' happened and we were caught off guard so for the next 'twinkle' we had to get ready. We found a spot, took some practice selfies, talked and laughed waiting for the next show.

The 'twinkle' happened and we got all the pictures we ever desired. Mission accomplished! Time to head back to the apartment.

As we walked back to the Metro we talked about Joretta and how we think she would have loved this trip. I believe her presence was with us whether anyone want to acknowledge it or not. It was that gentle breeze, the perfect timing on things, butterflies and that random smile on your face. She was with us and this was the time we acknowledged it to one another. One of those wine induced bonding moments. Kirby got emotional because it finally dawned on him that he just spent 11 days with his mom and Kelsey and Megan did not get that chance.

We got past that moment an boarded the Metro.

Jeff walked everyone to the apartment. Kelsey and I stopped by the neighborhood bar/restaurant to have a last glass of wine before we bid our farewell to Paris.

Since that glass of Chablis and the $9.99 bottle of Chablis from the grocery my mind has been stuck on this type of wine. Well, without looking at the menu I ask the waitress for a glass of Chablis. Kelsey, being the responsible adult orders water. You go Kelsey!

Jeff comes back to get us and the waitress comes with the bill. Jeff told me that he doesn't care how much the wine cost he was just going to give her the 10 Euros he had because she was very nice to us. Weeeelll, my little glass of Chablis was 20 Euros. Say What?? Apparently Chablis is quite a high end wine. The waitress told me if I was going to drink Chablis all night then she would clock out and hang out with me the rest of the night. Ha! Uh, no, I asked for my to go cup and we walked back to the apartment.

I am sure it was close to midnight at this time and we needed to be out the door by 5 am.

So, I drank my 20 Euro glass of Chablis and headed to bed.

Night, night Paris.

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