From Paris with love

What a day! My senses applaud me tonight, yet my feet and knees entirely loathe me. In what has become the resounding theme of this entire trip, we walked a lot today. I can imagine there are a few of you reading this that have made the trip to Paris so let me break it down for you. First a walk to our train in Beauvais (roughly 50 minutes). Then in Paris, we walked, essentially, from the Gare Du Nord to Notre Dame and from there, Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. Its so funny how things look a lot more manageable on a map…Nevertheless our day is complete and we are indeed satisfied with the results.

Before we could take in the City of Lights, we had to get there. The hotel gave us very funny looks about walking but our friend, Google Maps, assured us it was only a 45 minute walk. We allowed ourselves an hour and 45. And thank goodness we did. What should have taken 45, took us closer to an hour, and our “destination” brought us, literally, to the wrong side of the tracks. In true lazy fashion, we could imagine Google Maps saying (yes saying) “What? I got you to the train station didn’t I?” Right, GM, we had no interest in riding the train, just looking. Come on!! Another 20 minutes or so was spent circling a long way around, in increasing panic, until we found the road to advance to the right side. Crisis averted. Next stop, Paris!

We learned very quickly that the French do not care nearly as much about easing you along with English in every marked corner like much of the rest of the world we have seen does. It matters not. Using our 1 month refined and savvy skills, Tina and I found our hotel, checked in and set out on our odyssey. Clearing a couple of arrondisments and the Seine, we reached our first goal, Notre Dame. This cathedral is bigger than you think, regardless of what you think. I did my very best to mentally prep for it, but it failed to live up to the real thing. It may very well be that the Church spent far too much of its time concerned with many of the wrong things as it pertains to a faith in God, but their reverence to Him through these churches has really provided the masses with a real treat. All I can say is its worth visiting. Not just for the biggest sanctuary I’ve yet seen but for the added-cost trip to go up to the top, taking in a view of the city rivaled only by the Eiffel Tower. (Though that view does not include the Eiffel Tower, so in that way this view is better.)

Notre Dame checked off the list, we began our next trek to the ET. This trek was long, tiring and worth every single step. The Eiffel Tower is one of those monuments where every step you get closer, you think you can get a better picture then the step before. Suffice it to say, editing pictures of the ET was a lengthy process and we still have roughly 70 pics. *sigh* I feel no shame, and you should feel no shame for me. We did everything a tourist should do. We made our way up, took in the massive view, drank hot chocolate and waited until dark for the lights to make their grand appearance.

Now here is where things get interesting for me. Based on what we thought was good advice by fellow tourists, that then became crappy advice, before we found out it was good advice afterall, we prepped ourselves for the lighting of the Eiffel Tower being available only for 10 minutes on the hour, every hour. So at 7:54 Kris and I made an elaborate plan to attack from both sides. So Kris would stay up top to catch the lighting from there and I would run like murder down a thousand steps, across the Seine, all the way to the far lookout on the other side to snag the lighting from there. On the advice, I figured the lights would turn off at 8:10. This was not the case. In fact, they didn’t turn on at 8. So after exhausting myself in a dead run to get there in time, I waited around for 20 minutes to no avail. Thinking maybe Kris was down the tower by then not wanting to wait until 9, when I figured they would light them, I made my back to our meeting point under the Tower. It was now 8:30 and she was not there. I couldn’t be sure it she decided to wait or not so I wasn’t sure what to do. Do I go back, and hope she stayed up top? Or stay and wait? Well in the midst of my ponderings, the lights came on. CRAAAAAP! I dropped all questions and ran even faster the 500 yards and 75 steps back to my spot, thinking I had just made it in time for the lighting. I took more pictures then I can count while literally dripping sweat all the over the place. Its at this point, I can imagine everybody thought I had real issues. After a slow saunter back to the tower, I met up with Tina to review our plan and compare pictures and video. We figured the info we had been given was entirely bad advice. It was clear the ET was going to stay lit. At this very moment, the LIGHTS came on! The twinkling, sparkling, fantasic lights. Me: “Should I run??” Kris: (dramatically) “Yes, do it!” Another murderous 5 minute sprint later, I was on the other side, taking more and more and more pictures. Kris got video just in time to catch the lights, the very bright and awe-inducing lights, the very lights that indeed came on for 10 minutes on the hour every hour, go out.

We felt very satifisfied with our experience and our feet were totally ready to jump ship. So we found the nearest metro, got back to our neighbornood, ate like fiends, and crashed at our hotel. A long day, a tourist day, a walking day, a GREAT day!