December 01, 2004
11-23-04The gentleman behind the counter announced that breakfast was now being served and thus we walked up one flight of stairs to the cozy breakfast room. Enough places were set to accommodate four times the amount of people that we saw for our first meal and each setting contained a brown tray with a croissant, a sweet roll and hard baguette along with butter and a choice of marmalade. An extremely courteous gentleman server seated us and asked if we would like a cafe, tea or chocolat. I specified that John would like a cafe ole (coffee with milk) and that I would like one chocolat, s'il vous plat. A waitress brought us our drinks and a small piece of paper to which she pointed and began speaking in French. I finally realized that she had inquired as to which room we were staying in and gestured to the corresponding number on her little card. I smiled over our breakfast and John poured himself a bowl of cereal from the serving area. Our plates were refilled as well as our drinks and thus my first breakfast in Europe. I said, "Merci," to our kind servers and they replied with "Au revoir" and soon we were once again out in the streets of Paris.
John took over leading us northwest down Avenue de Suffren and after a couple of miles, we were facing the Eiffel Tower. The beautiful and perfectly symmetrical parks that surrounded the tower amazed me. It was still considered very early in the morning and we saw a variety of joggers, dog walkers and homeless people gathered in the park. Pedelers began their route before we entered the grounds with their small replications of the tower. We shook our heads and kept walking. The monument would not open until 9:30 a.m., as well as most places in Paris, and thus we sat on the outskirts of the tower on a bench. Armed guards with machine guns and surrounded the square and many of the local people seemed to use this landmark as a place to meet.
Joining a line of about 50 Chinese visitors, John purchased tickets to go all the way to the top and we made our way into the first elevator (excuse me, 'lift').
"John, we do not have to go all the way to the top."
"Yes we do."
"Have I mentioned before that I am afraid of heights?"
"You are?"
And this is all I remember being said as we were jam packed into that lift. John poked at me with manical jokes of how many times the Eiffel caught fire or how many times the lift had broken and I simply held on to whatever was available to hold onto. We ascended to 324 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) to the top of this 10,000 ton tower of metal. The windows in the lift showed our climb and the patrons next to us made their "Ooohhhhs," and "Ahhhhhhs," as I became dizzy and had to shuffle my feet hard against the ground to make them move. I'm sure all of this amused John, but I could barely breathe. He grabbed my arm to take me to the edge, but I insisted that we try this a bit slower. He led me to set a of stairs and I looked up with question.
"You want me to go higher?"
"Just a little."
And there we were. Outside, surrounded by Paris and able to see nearly the whole of it - well just 42 miles of it. I wanted to drop to my knees rather than stand at the edge of that damned circle, but John insisted and led me out to the fenced in open air. He took my picture as proof and I clambered back to the center. I was able to take some pictures, but felt obligated to get back downstairs as more people entered this apogee and would surely make it 'fall over' if they all moved to one side. I could feel a false sway as I made my descent and gripped John's arm whenever possible. We looked out over Paris and then took an elevator down to the second level. This was high enough and yet I was able to explore the outer edge with more confidence. I visited the gift shop and bought a hot chocolate while John waited for me outside.
At the bottom, John saw one of those tour busses with the seats open on the top and ran toward it. Although that one passed, another arrived shortly and he paid a pretty price for us to take the tour. It was absolutely magnificent. From the top of that bus, we saw the Hotel Des Invalides, The Louvre, crossed the Pont Neuf, Notre Dam, The Saint -Michel, Musee D'Orsay, The Opera and The Grand Palais. I followed the map and took a few pictures before we decided to hop off when the bus looped back around The Louvre. We made our way through the beautiful arches of one of the entrances of The Louvre and I was taken aback. The sheer size is simply overwhelming and although the place was closed, we had a grand time sitting and enjoying the scenery. A gentleman inquired if I would take his picture and I ended up taking two to which he adorned me with many a thanks. I had only one picture left in my own camera and used it on the little dummy 'drummer boy' which sat high up on the wall by one of the entrances, beating his drums. The tambour could be heard from quite a distance and I could barely remove my eyes from this strange sight.
We exited the area and headed toward the Seine which was filled with wonderful little shops along its bank. We were dazzled by the array of flowers, herbs and trees, we strolled into a pet shop to see the tiny puppies bounded up and down in their cages and walked even more slowly as we passed the open markets filled with fruits and vegetables. The smells that wafted throughout the streets became distant as we crossed the Pont Neuf and I regretted having left the rest of my film at the hotel. There was a man at the end of bridge who was roasting chestnuts on a barrel of fire just as it began to grow dark. We entered one of the small cafes and ordered a jambon et fromage sandwich, taking turns munching on this delicious delight and properly advertising the cafe for all of the passersby. Before we left, many other people pointed to their preferred meals and made their orders.
On the way back, I would duck into a cafe here and there to use the toilette, but not before requesting un coca-cola light (as opposed to diet) as many places were strict against the use of their bathrooms without first ordering something. I managed to bring us all the way down to The Latin Quarter and we ended up in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Here we rested on a bench beneath some trees where groups of older men were playing a game with large metallic type balls. The idea of the game seemed to be to toss your ball closest a 'marker' a few yards away or knock out your opponents ball by moving it ahead of the marker. It was a very interesting game and played by many in that quaint little park. Onlookers stopped on their way home to eat their long loaves of newly purchased French bread and I was not sure which to watch; the onlookers or the players. We walked across the gardens and I brought us to Montparnasse where John stated that he would take over. Soon we realized that we were somewhat mixed up and had to refer to quite a maps.
We were lost.
We were turned around and had been given bad directions and growing extremely tired. Over two hours of wandering the streets in vain and I finally stopped to refer to a map and carefully mark our way back to the hotel. Luckily, we were successful on this turn and John decided to stop into the 'Sports Cafe' right next to our hotel. 'Bonsoirs' were repeated between myself and the lovely female bartender and I requested a glass of rhum et coca-cola. John ordered a hard drink as well.
"Je voudrais une verre de rhum et coca-cola et un verre de l'eau, s'il vous plait."
"Oui, madam."
Then I had to explain that I wanted a glass of tap water since they will charge you for a glass of 'sparkling' bottled water and she ended up forgetting the coke and rum. This was not a problem with this as I was very tired and John had been so silent for most of the day. We were both aggravated at having been lost for so long and quite weary of foot. I did not want to extend our time together as we might become somewhat hostile and thus I apologized and pardoned myself to return to the hotel. I began to write and found myself so incredibly drowsy that I retreated to bed with visions of the Eiffel Tower dancing in my head.