paris 2

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Eiffel Tower Part 2

Sitting on the plastic vinyl couch, writing my postcards, I had this fleeting desire to stay up there all day and into the night; it had all the necessities--a restaurant, bathrooms and a view like no other. Alas, I could not stay there forever and after finishing my postcards, I did as Samantha Brown suggested and mailed them from the Eiffel Tower in order to recieve a special stamp on each. My total Tower time amounted to about 2 hours. I took pictures from each side of the Tower in between the many tourists already vying for the best position for photographs. All things must come to an end and my time was up; I made my way on wobbly legs toward the staircase to take me back down to solid ground.

There were several people behind me waiting to get back down--both good and bad at the same time: good because then I would think of the people behind me waiting to leave and I would not think about being so high up and just focus on getting down. The bad thing was if I had a freak out and could not move or if I want to take my own time and go at my own pace the people probably would start to get mad cause I would be going so slow. When I got back onto the ground I took a bunch of pictures for my desktop--looking up into the Tower from directly underneath it, zooming in on the side struts, then some distance shots of the actual Tower itself. As I was walking away from the Tower to find some better shots, I ran into two guys stopped me and began asking me questions in French, one of the guys had a camcorder and tripod. I got it across that I did not speak French and the one doing the interview tried in broken English to explain that they were students doing a project about the upcoming elections in Paris for President and wanted opinions. I laughed and said I did not even know who was running, that I was just visiting for a few days. They laughed too and thanked me for my time. The heat of the afternoon was approaching and so I decided to take a quick rest back at the hotel. I climbed aboard the RAR train line, once again a little nervous that I was not going in the right direction, and eventually got back to my room.

Paris Cemetery
After the quick rest at the hotel, I struck out to Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. I had read in multiple guidebooks that cemetery visiting was not an uncommon pasttime. I traveled the Metro and after walking a few blocks, I found the main entrance to the cemetery. I could see looming over the old rock walls a huge domed building which I found to be a crematorium. The cemetery was absolutely beautiful; tree-lined avenues, huge family masoleums, intricate sculptures and artwork, it took me by complete suprise. I entered the main gate and proceeded to stoll along the avenues in a random fashion. I saw a gorgeous tree-lined steep cobbled avenue and so up I went. The only thing I would change about the whole experience was the bugs that swarmed in little patches and stuck in my hair so I wanted more than anything to go back to my room and wash those stupid gnat things out.

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