Darcy's Paris Blog

Lazy day for Mike's last day in Paris

On Sunday we were very lazy. We’d decided we weren’t going to pack too much in today, and we took advantage of it. We slept in, and eventually I went out for breakfast – we made good use of the new high-grade olive oil with fresh garlic, crushed pepper, and a hot baguette from next door. About 2:00 we decided we’d head out, but we sat down on the couch and ended up sleeping there for two hours. We finally left the house for good just after 4:00, prompted by the 4:30 organ recital in Notre Dame that I told Mike we had to go to. That, of course, was amazing – luckily we caught about 15-20 minutes of it as we walked around the church. After touring the insides and outsides of the church, we sat in the square just in front for a while and watched people walk by and hand-feed the birds. We tried to take a boat taxi to the Eiffel Tower, but it was much more expensive than I remembered, so we took the RER instead. When we got there, we found two impromptu concerts – one live concert band playing Star Wars across the lawn, and a techno house party just across the river at Trocadero to celebrate the European Champions League final here in Paris on Wednesday. (That’s basically the European football championship – it’s like their Super Bowl, and people go nuts.) Depending on where you stood, you could hear at least one and probably both of the music sources. We walked over to the Star Wars stage; it ended, of course, just as we got there, but we got some great pictures of the tower. We walked back, got ice cream, stood in line for tickets to go up, and listened to the techno. We got tickets all the way to the top – Mike’s point was that if you come all the way to Paris, you gotta go all the way. Good point – although in my four previous trips to Paris I’d only made it up to the second level, which frankly was high enough for me. Nonetheless, we went up to the 2nd level and hung out there for just a few minutes before heading all the way up. I was pretty nervous in the elevator on the way up there, but it wasn’t too bad – when you get off, it’s all glassed in, so it actually feels safer to me than the 2nd level….that is, until you take the half-flight of stairs up to the outside part. Lemme tell you, that is a long way up there. I was sufficiently nervous to stay pretty close to the inside walls, while Mike, naturally, just laughed. We hung out there and took pictures, then walked across the river as the tower was being lit up and waited for the top of the hour (10:00) when the tower lights twinkle for 10 minutes. Some people might think it’s tacky, but I think it’s fantastic. Mike thought so, too. After deciding it was Italian over French for dinner, Mike suggested we actually go back to La Rughetta. That makes three trips to the same restaurant for him this trip, but at least he can’t blame me for this one – it was his idea – and I have to admit it’s one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in the city. After a very good but very quick dinner – the service tonight was also the fastest I’ve seen here – we came home, watched more TV, drank more wine, and crashed.

posted by Darcy @ 10:48 PM