I was feeling adventurous after a few glasses of wine, so I decided to order tartar. If you don't know what tartar is, it has nothing to do with fish. Imagine you have some ground beef, mixed with onions, herbs and spices and then skip the BBQ part. Raw beef in the shape of a hamburger patty. The first few bites were full of flavour, but eventually the texture overpowered the taste and I was left to savor the roasted potatoes that were seasoned to perfection.
A short walk back to Hotel Royal Bastille in a light and warm Paris rain made the experience unique.
The Metro in Paris is a lot like the TTC in Toronto. Being underground and the lack of willing competitors for a staring competition almost make it feel like being back in Canada. Oh yeah, except it's cleaner here and the passengers are generally better looking. I am really impressed with the fashion here. Men actually wear suits that fit them. Ever notice that most men wear suits that are at least one size to big for them back home? The cost to ride on the Metro is priced just right at €1.70 a trip.
Before boarding the Metro, we (I) thought we could grab a quick bite and coffee McDo (McDonalds). This is where we learned that even though McDonalds is an American company, the food portions are still dictated by the French. A breakfast at McDonalds in Canada has variety of sandwich + hash brown + coffee the size of your head. At McDo, only one breakfast sandwich option, no hash brown and a very small coffee. This French food culture could be a contributing factor as to why people are generally better looking. The small meal had enough fuel to scare off any hint of a hangover and get us on our way to today's destination, the Eiffel Tower.
On the way from the École Militaire Metro station to the tower, we saw some lucky pigeons. These guys must have felt like they hit the mother load with this bag of baguettes.
A statue had just as much fun as we did last night.
We read about these people who ask you to sign a petition for some deaf society. We forgot it was a scam until half way through filling out a petition with a clever fictional name and origin, that it asked for our donation amount. "Non mercie!" After seeing 3 more of these "deaf" people walking around the base of the tower, I thought it would be funny to see if they were actually deaf by saying "Je pense que vous êtes la grande pomplemousse!" (I think you are a big grapefruit) but my true love told me to be quiet. This and other normal conversations took place between us as we waited in line to get access to the tower. Side note: sometimes at home when we are sleeping, I will wake up to this strange SOS beeping noise coming from the alarm clock radio. Strange, I know. The exact same noise came from something at the base of the tower.
The tower was really awesome. There were two lines; the short line for those who wanted to use the stairs and a really long line for those who wanted to ride the elevator. We took the stairs.
The views from the tower were great and we retraced our travels from the last few days as we pointed out some of the places we had been. The Centre Pompidou was calling my name. There was a café on the first viewing level where we shared a ham and cheese baquette and café allongé. There was also a little art gallery who's walls were lined with pictures and interpretations of the tower. Most of them were really strange, as if to say the tower as it is is not good enough as is, so I need to warp it and cut it up and smear some paint in top of it.
We spent a lot of time at the tower and learned a few things about it's history. I made a few assumptions as we walked around. One thing I assumed is that they tried to develop a mini Eiffel Tower maker, but the invention couldn't quite get the details right. It now rests on a viewing level under a glass dome.
Having spent our last few euros at the tower, we decided to get back to Hotel Royal Bastille for a little rest. Perhaps we will stop for a glass of red and slice of bread later, toasted to perfection!
Sounds like another great day! How long did it take you to walk to the top of the Tower? How did you get down?
ReplyDeleteWe didn't go right to the very top of the tower, only the second viewing level. To go to the very top, I think you have to buy an extra ticket. It probably took about 15 minutes to walk to the second level. We did a lot of stopping along the way.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny cause it's not as big as I expected from seeing photos of Paris. In fact, you can't even see the tower from most places we've been.
It took much less time to descend the stairs back to the ground.