I published yesterdays post around 2 - 2:30 am and was getting ready for bed when I heard a knock at my back door. I knew it had to be one of my neighbors, so I opened up the door and Michel (one of my neighbors) was inviting me over to his place for some wine.I said "No, thank you, I'm getting ready for bed." But he insisted that I come over and hang out for a little while. I thought about it real quick and gave in. I mean how often do I get invited to a party at 2:30am in France?
When I walked into his place, it was a cloud of smoke and they had a poker table setup with a few drunk french guys sitting around yelling over the music. Which, by the way was George Strait blaring on the stereo. I loved it! I'd seen some of the people in there from around here, but there were some I'd not met before. Amazingly, one of the guys was from Montana of all places and he was a Blackfoot Indian. He was extremely drunk and I had a harder time understanding him then I did the French people there. I hung out for about 20 minutes, then came back to my apartment with even more wine in my system now. I thought it was very cool that Michel came over to invite me to his place. I had a great time!! I forgot to take my camera, so no pics... I came back and chatted with Jennifer for a while longer, and then fell esleep until around 5am!!
I woke up around 10:30 am and worked at the table with Bob until around 1pm. Then we all headed into downtown Paris for a fun filled evening on the town. We started at St. Michel and the first stop was the Notre Dame. One of the guys that is here on business with Bob's other (full time) job is a Purdue alumni and he was able to "pay his respects" to the beautiful cathedral that shares the same name with his arch rival back in the states. ;) From there we walked past the Hotel de Ville and Pont Neuf over to the Louvre and then we slowly strolled down the Champs Elysees. We snapped lots of pictures and just took our time enjoying the perfect weather. It was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit today and the sun was shining brightly; simply perfect for a relaxing stroll through Paris. I was able to grab a chocolate banana crepe at a little crepe stand and it was absolutely delicious. I wish I had known about these banana ones earlier in my trip, I'd have had one every day. Maybe it's best I didn't know about them actually...
A little further down the Champs Elysees we came upon the Jardin des Tuileries. The weather was so nice that it was very crowded with people today. The whole city seemed to be thriving with tourists and locals. It was so cool to see so many people just lounging around in the grass drinking wine and just having little picnics. I sooo can't wait to bring Jennifer back here and have a day or two to kill here in Paris. This place was just as beautiful (if not more beautiful) today than it was when Dariush and I came here two weeks ago. The leaves were already starting to fall and I bet it is absolutely gorgeous in Paris during the fall season.
From the Tuilerie gardens, we actually made a pit stop at the Haagen Dazs on the Champs Elysees and sat on a bench to enjoy our ice cream and coffee. The sidewalks were still bumping with people and the traffic was chaotic (as usual). After our ice cream, we headed up just a little further to the Arc de Triomphe. It was very cool to see tonight because the sun was on it's way down and it looked more majestic with the lighting hitting it from such a low angle.
After snapping a few photos of the Arc de Triumph, we walked down past Place du Trocadero. This allowed us to see the Eiffel Tower with no obstructions in our way from quite a distance. The Eiffel Tower looks amazing from this angle. It's hard to take a bad picture of the Eiffel Tower, but especially from la Place du Trocadero. The water fountains and beautiful greens leading up to the Eiffel Tower mixed in with the setting sun perfectly and it made for a very nice evening to be killing time in downtown Paris. We didn't go up the tower because the lines were over a 1 hr wait at every corner. Sorry Kathy and Madam Waite, I didn't get to enjoy that glass of wine from the first deck like you suggested. Maybe next time! :)
We hung out around the Eiffel tower for quite a while and actually got to see a really fancy light show around 8pm. I took a movie to show you what it looks like:
After killing a lot of time by the Eiffel Tower, we decided to take the metro back to St. Michel so we could do some shopping and drink some wine at a corner restaurant out on the sidewalk. We ended up sitting down at a place called Latin St. Germain. If you go to Paris, you should definitely check this place out. It was exquisite and the prices were hard to match. I had a keash along with the fish and rice. It was amazing!
Day 17 in the bag. T minus 2 days til I see my girls.
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