Traveling is tiring so we got up relatively early, (about 8), but it took us time to get moving. Our host Tristan was home so we talked and laughed some more with him. By the time we got out in the city it was 11:30am. It was time to head to the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to look up how to get
there, but Rachael just wanted to "walk around and find it". We lost a
lot of time "looking" and eventually we used Google maps to get there.
From far away, it doesn't look that nice. In fact, Rachael's first
reaction was "that's it, ?-- We came all the way here for this ?". I
must admit I was thinking the same until we got closer.
We were going to go up into the restaurant, but since I didn't plan ahead, reservations were out of the question. In this part of the city we met MANY Americans on vacation. We also saw a lot of Chinese tourists. There were a lot of beggars on the trains and metro as well. Every large city has its poor. 😟
After the Eiffel Tower Rachael and I decided to try to find the Tourist Information center where I hoped to get a city map and list of attractions to better plan our time in Paris.
We found the French Equivalent of our Museum of Natural History, the building was beautiful, but we decided not to pay the admission as we had been to several of these type museums in the states and felt that nothing could compare with the Smithsonian in DC. Rachael's persistent arguing about "planning everything" caused us to abandon our plan for the Tourist Info center so instead we headed for the Louvre. On our way there, we were told that one of the metro stops was closed due to a LGBTQ parade going on. We decided then that we would join the march if we encountered it and march in support of our friends at home for a bit. When we arrived at the Louvre, I have to say, I was amazed at the buildings. The whole complex is HUGE and encompasses several city blocks ! I spent over an hour just looking at the buildings which are a work of art themselves ! Rachael and I split up because she wanted to see other things and couldn't understand why I wanted to just look at buildings. Here are some pictures, but they do not do it justice.
After about an hour I got a call from Rachael, she had found some marchers and was snacking with them in the garden at the Louvre. She told me where she was and I went to meet her new friends.
We decided to join them in the march for a few blocks. There were THOUSANDS of people from all over France, Germany, and Belgium.
After a few blocks we found a cafe where we could have a snack, drink some wine, and watch the parade. It was VERY HOT today.
We lingered quite a while in the cafe talking with people. It was a great day !
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