5 days until we return

For our second full day in Paris we had grand hopes of working through the last of our "must see" list. We started the day early at the Eiffel Tower. Tim decided he would wait for us since he had been up a few times to the top already. We would meet him about an hour and a half later.

So it was us and about a million of our closest friends. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that early (9:45) and maybe it wasn't a million people, but we did wait in line for an hour to get to just the ticket counter. Once there we were told that the top was closed and we could only get tickets to the second platform. When we talked to the ticket agent he said we could by tickets to the top when we reached the second platform. Oh goodie, another line! Once our tickets were purchased we waited in another line for another hour to get into the car that takes you to the second platform. In this line we were serenaded by a young boy (around Alexanders age) who was having a monumental tantrum while he, his mom and his brother were in line. And he did not stop screaming for the entire hour of this second line. On one hand we felt bad for the mom, it is a hard situation being in line for something like this with a child who is melting down. But my goodness was it the most horrible hour to hear him screaming all around us. We were hoping and praying that he would not be in the same little car as us when we went up to the top. Thankfully he wasn't!

Once at the second platform we headed right over to the line for tickets to the top. Unfortunately that line had closed about 5 minutes ago and wasn't going to open for another 30-45 minutes. So we waited again, in a 3rd line. At that point the time to meet Tim had passed by 30 minutes so Michelle stayed until the ticket counter opened up and then headed down to the bottom. Brenda and Greg bought tickets to the top. We were to meet up in another hour.

When Michelle got to the bottom she found Tim and they opted to grab a quick lunch at a small cafe. We enjoyed sandwiches on french baguettes and watched the locals and tourists go by. One group of 3 Romany girls caught the attention of a number of people. They were walking past our cafe when someone walking by on the sidewalk next to them bumped on girl with his shoulder. She turned to yell at him and our maitre'd came flying out of the back part of the restaurant yelling at them and physically blocking them from the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. He did not push them but used his body to steer them into the street along the restaurant, then continued to follow them all the way down to the corner, past 4-5 other shops. We detest discrimination, but for people who prey on the innocent like they seem to do it is hard to argue with the reflexive defensive state that people seem to be in when they are around.

Once finished with lunch we met up with Brenda and Greg and walked around the base of the Eiffel Tower. Rick Steves had an interesting 20 minute podcast about the  history of the tower. We had known that it was built for the worlds fair and that the French hated it, but we didn't know that after winning a contest to design a building for the fair Eiffel ended up having to finance 80% of it (4 million dollars) when the French government backed out on their promise to pay for the construction. The government ended up financing around 1 million.

Originally, when the French were going to pay for the construction the tower was going to be removed a few months after the fair. When Eiffel had to finance it he negotiated for it to remain up for 20 years so that he could have a chance to recoup his money. The government agreed. Once it was finished it took Eiffel only 6 months to recoup his initial investment. But with the agreement with the government he was able to keep it up for another 19.5 years. That is a great investment! With that timeframe Eiffel began to think about how he could get it to stay up permanently. He rented space to scientists for various explorations and created a restaurant on top complete with a grand piano. But what saved it was the radio. The French installed a radio tower at the top, and during WWII it intercepted a number of German radio transmissions from the troops just outside of Paris. These interceptions allowed the French to move their positions and defend the city. And the tower stayed.

We had our second lunch with the Smiths in the 4th district near some shopping that Michelle wanted to do. There is a french store called Le Kilo (now 4 different locations) that sells vintage clothes by the kilo. You make your selections and the price you pay is based on the weight. It sounded like a fun quirky place. Michelle found a skirt and a scarf that she liked. She would have bought a bubble gum pink leather jacket if it had been real leather. It wasn't, so she didn't make the splurge. But it was tempting!

Back at the hotel the men opted to rest while the ladies went to the train station to buy train tickets to Brussels. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Le Chemise. It was on the expensive side but we were meeting one of Tim's former clients for dinner since they were in town to watch a french open match. Michelle had pork wrapped in philo dough with an amazing mushroom sauce and Tim had a filet mignon with an onion sauce. The menu had 20 items and 6 were desserts. My kinda place! Everything was delicious and the company was great. A perfect final evening in Paris.

Back at the room we facetimed with a very sleepy Alexander and selected a hotel room for Brussels. It didn't seem like we did all that much when compared to our first full day in Paris, but we were all pretty tired. A semi early night for us, in bed by 11pm! Au demain!