Paris - Day 1

At 06.30, Nan and I were at Eindhoven so that the tour bus could pick us up for our 4-day trip to Paris.  I had booked for a pick-up at Breda but it appears we were the only ones from that area so it wouldn't have been worth their time or diesel to pass by.  The driver who was supposed to pick us up got engine trouble with his car, so another driver had to do it, but he was good.  We then went to Roermond and Urmond for more passengers, and then further on to Paris.  The 'peripherique' wasn't as stuffed with traffic as it normally was, so the trip didn't end badly.

We went directly to the Seine, where the other driver was waiting for us.  He drove directly to Paris after his car got fixed and was able to buy the boat tickets ahead of time.  Nan was thrilled, but the best part was when she saw the Arch de Triomph and the Eiffel for the first time -- that look on her face was priceless.  The boat ride took about 40 minutes and when it was done we were given three hours to do as we liked, with the pick-up time set at 20.00.  Nan wanted to go to the Eiffel, so that's where this shot was taken -- while we were waiting 'forever' for the tickets to go up.  As it turned out, the lift doesn't pick you up on the ground floor.  Instead, you are supposed to climb all the way to the second floor, which is really the second floor and not the first, although the first floor feels like the 10th and the second floor feels like the 19th.  We did not count the steps, but I think we easily passed 400.  However, the queue to buy the tickets had already taken 1.5 hours, so there wasn't much time left.  The actual climbing took about 40 minutes, including frequent stops for breath.  By the time we reached the second floor, we were hoping to grab the lift soon so that we could also go down soon and return to the bus.  Instead, there was a queue waiting for the lift to go up.  We looked at each other and knew we were not going to make it, so we quit the queue and instead lined up with those who were going to take the lift down.  That wait wasn't so long and we didn't have to run to the pick-up point.  On the way back to the bus, we looked back at the tower and saw how far we'd come.  We'd done our best and that was enough.  But what aching muscles we had!  And a good laugh!

A haul of 222 pictures today, of which only 181 turned out good, but that's fine.  There's a traditional shot in the extra, plus one of moi.