August 6. 2010
Hated getting up at 7:00 am again, even told Jarom to see if we can do the morning tour later, or just not go, but finally got up, got ready, and left at 8:30. We made it to the west leg of the Eiffel Tower, to meet our tour guide on a segway. We walked, while he rode back to the Fat Tire Tour office(not fair), and we were taught the in’s and out’s of the segway, practiced on our own, and got to know our group as we headed out for our segway tour of Paris. Luckily for us, we learned so much in our previous tours, we felt like the kids at the front of the class raising our hands with the answers, because we had learned so much in the previous days. We made our way around Paris, even passing but not getting to see a movie being filmed. Darnit! our guide said he even saw Leonardo and Johnny Depp just days before, but we couldn’t take the darn segways over there. I say leave the segway! We had a nice lunch at a cute little bistro out on the grounds of the Louvre in the gardens, and then headed back. We ended about 2:30, finished up a little more shopping, and went back to the apartment for a little rest and snacks. We wanted to eat dinner late, since our tour of the Eiffel Tower was at 10:30pm. We enjoyed a little nap, visited with the owners who live next door for a long while, and ran out the door hoping to not miss our tour. Jarom loved his yummy nutella crepe as we ran the distance, and reached what would be our first of many lines to make it up that beautiful but overly-crowded work of art. Here goes my description: First line, not bad because we had reservations and bought our tickets online. Met a couple of Russians, so Jarom really enjoyed conversing and freshening up on that amazing language. We then are let through, to head to another line to get in the elevator. We finally make it, squish in like cattle, and are let out at the second level, to get in another line for the next elevator. The symmetry and artwork of this masterpiece in my opinion is absolutely astonishing. To originally be built for the World Fair, and expected to be taken down after that and looked upon as an eye sore, and was fought for to keep it’s position in the city was a wonderful happenstance, or wonderful unplanned event for sure. We finally are in the second elevator chatting with a couple we met in our first line from Scotland, and we get out at the very top. We walk around the whole top, admiring the city and sites at night, and it’s absolutely beautiful! We pass and hear a couple who just got engaged that very second, and we all clap and congratulate them-they’re from England. So it gets better…we go get in line to go down, and after who knows how long, we make it to the first elevator…make our way down, and I refuse to stand in another line to go the distance to ground level. Jarom and I decide to take the stairs, which was totally a blast, as we got to enjoy the inner architecture of the Eiffel. We made it down eventually, three lined on the metro back home, walked up the hill, and fell into bed at 2:00am. Let’s just say, 5:30am came very quickly!