La Tour Eiffel

Today was a good day. For starters, we found an excellent wine shop just around the corner from our hotel. Very, very close to our hotel – and they speak English. This could be good or this could go down bad.

Today we found irrefutable proof that we were – in fact – in Paris. To me there’s only one way to do that which is get a view of the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel is in the Marais near the Place de la Bastille, so we started walking in that direction, wound down to the Seine, crossed to the left bank over the Pont de Sully and fell upon the vibrant gardens of the Jardin des Plantes.

Along the way I noticed that everyone was bundled up like it was winter. What’s up with that? Yes it’s May and it is cool and overcast, but I didn’t see snow anywhere (certainly not 3 feet of it) so I didn’t really get what everyone was all freaking out about. But all the women had really cool scarves – some of the men too – so…

I’m practically a Parisian, non?

Continuing our meandering through the 5th arrondisement, we strolled the Arènes de Lutèce (remains of a Roman Arena in Paris) and then over to the Place du Panthéon. Pretty Cool.

Along the way we started to gather provisions – things that go with wine.

I just followed that blue pack with the lovely baguette popping out, knowing there was cheese and some lovely salami-type thing keeping that bread company. 

Finally, it was time to cut to the chase so we got on the Métro and zipped over to where the Eiffel Tower is supposed to be.

Et Violà! There it was. This fantastic city must really be Paris.

It was there – along with something like 1 Billion tourists waiting in line to go up the tower. Everything I’ve heard is that going up in the tour is a pretty over-rated so we just walked underneath through the crowds

and out onto the Parc du Champ-de-Mars (the park in front of the tour).

Oh and Boneless Rabbit made it too.

Ok, now the fun can truly begin. By that I mean…Picnic Time.

After that we got back on the metro and came back to the hotel for a break. Later we went back out and back down to the Seine where we unknowingly crashed an antique show (didn’t know there was an entrance fee - oops) and wandered around for awhile.

That evening it was finally time to meet our Tour Group. Introductions were made and we picked our Buddies – mine is Kathleen and Ted’s is Betsy – two really cool ladies who are old friends traveling together. They have great potential as Comrades in Trouble and especially Tour Drinking Buddies. An excellent find for sure.

















The group went for a little orientation walk into the Marais and including the Place des Vosges. Then we had our first group dinner at Café des Musées not too far from our hotel, which was pretty good food but not that memorable. It might have been that we were a big group and the meal was picked ahead of time. What was memorable from that first meal was the fellowship – we sat with Kathleen and Betsy, plus Carol – an energetic Lady of the First Order - and Gloria who is very nice.

After we all walked back to our hotel – Ted and I made one last trip out to Le Baron Rouge, a Cave (wine bar) that we had read about in the Washington Post. Got there just before they closed and had a nice glass of wine. It was a cool little hole in the wall with an interesting crowd so we have to get back there again before this is over.

Ok – we are definitely in Paris and definitely getting into the groove.

Next up, definitely need to exercise more to counteract large quantities of French Bread and French Wine.

Bonne nuit.
C