What to do? Gear up, put on the rain coat, grab the umbrella and head out.
Our first activity for today was a leisurely stroll down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The Champs-Élysées is arguably the most famous street—and one of the most expensive strips of real estate—in the world.
Well our walk ended up not being leisurely, nor a stroll because it did indeed start raining. But I would rather be in Paris in the rain than at work any day of the week. So we dodged in and out of stores and stopped at a cafe for breakfast.
We made our way down to this. The Arc de Triomphe.
Our original plan was to just admire it from the outside. But since it was raining (off and on at this point) we decided to pay the admission, go inside and climb the stairs (284 spiral stairs) to the top.
And it was at this moment our vacation was about to be ruined. My camera, as my mom would say, "went on the fritz". I pulled it out to take photo number 662 and the automatic lens opener/closer/cover (not sure what it is called) jammed. I was getting a sliver of image on the display.
So what went through my mind? "I have 3 more days to take pictures", "I am going to have to buy a camera in Paris", "Why do these this happen to me"???
So we found a seat to examine the situation. I was seriously ready to just rip the cover off in order to be able to take photos. But in jumps level-headed Lauren who says "it looks like it is just out of alignment, let me see". And it was. And we were able to get it back on track and the vacation was saved. Whew.
The views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe were spectacular despite the weather. Here we are looking down the Champs-Élysées.
Our next stop was The Eiffel Tower. I had explored the various ticket options and we ended up booking the "Skip the Line" tour in which we had a tour guide, tickets to the second level and we could continue to the top of the tower if we chose. The instructions were to "meet at the entrance of the Trocadero Metro station at 3pm".
Well we got there about 1:30 to scope it out. What if there were more than one entrance? We had some time until we met the guide so we ducked into the Théâtre National de Chaillot and we snacked in their "snackeria" (a word coined by me on this trip) on macarons until it was time to meet.
The guide was easy to find at the appointed time. We were given audio headsets and started our tour on the Trocadero with some history about the tower. It wasn't raining at this moment so we were able to do this part of the tour keeping relatively dry.
A few facts about the tower. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. It was built for the 1889 World's Fair and was supposed to be torn down after 20 years. The addition of radio transmitters enabled it to stay standing for communication purposes.
We made our way to the second level of the tower where the guide pointed out many of the sites that could be seen around the perimeter. And that was pretty much the tour. It was supposed to be a 2 hour tour but it was raining pretty hard at this point so we ended about an hour and fifteen minutes later. Our tickets allowed us to continue to the top on our own. The line for that was long. It was raining and it felt like it was about 40 degrees out. We were freezing. So we opted out of going to the top.
Our last stop for the day was the Louvre. We took the metro to the "Louvre" stop and we got out into this shopping mall type area with a lovely food court. Since it was also dinnertime we decided scope it out and we ended up eating at.....McDonald's. Neither of us had been to one of these in years. But it was fast and we could order at a kiosk so speaking was not necessary.
We got our museum tickets and floor plan and ventured into the museum. The main reason to be here is the Mona Lisa. It wasn't too hard to find. There were hundreds of people in front of it all scrambling to get a photo of it or a photo with them in front of it. The painting was enclosed in glass so a good photo was impossible to get and all the pushing and crowds. I didn't get it. But I took the obligatory photo anyway.
We then wandered around looking for the Venus de Milo. The other reason to go to the Louvre. The place was huge, it was very easy to get lost. And we did get lost a few times. You would need a few days to effectively see everything in the museum.
Another long day. Our feet were not happy with us once again. Back to the hotel to collapse and rest up for tomorrow.
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