An old favourite

DDW's May Challenge: Treasured

This morning Erica and I awoke at 7 to fulfil a requirement of Paris - go up the Eiffel Tower. It was early, but we were ready and up-and-at-em to go and face the day. And it was a pretty good day. We got to the tower a bit before 9, then had to wait until 9:30 for things to open. By that time the queues were very long, and we were feeling pretty smug about our position. I went to find us croissants for second breakfast, and waited for what felt like hours while the guys in the booth took their time with every order. I did manage to order in French, and was rewarded with speedy service. By the time I made it back the lines had started to move, and by 10am we were starting our upward journey.

After a bit of investigation we'd discovered it was possible to climb the steps up to the 2nd level then buy a ticket and go on the lift up to the top. After some discussion and comparison of the queues we decided (Erica was told) to go up the steps. Well there are 669 steps, and we walked every one of them, up and down. And it was totally worth it. We got to see the little man sitting underneath the elevator, and read the information boards placed at convenient intervals. We could stop and stare into the latticed steel for as long as we liked without interruption, pause for photos, and just outright pause for breath, without worrying about crowds pushing around. And it was cheaper. There were still quite a few people going up the stairs, but nothing like the numbers fitting into the lifts. It was quite magnificent to ascend among such tangible engineering genius.

Well we got to the very very top after a wait for the lifts (during which Erica and I played word games, and probably entertained those around us), wandered around, marvelled at the views, took some selfies, took lots of other photos, plus a few for other randoms - people seem to trust me to take a photo of them because I have a big camera. Such pressure. It was a fabulous view, but I just didn't feel like I was very high. Erica told me to try to concentrate on how small the people were, but it just all felt a little too solid. Probably not really a bad thing, and it was spectacular! The day was overcast, but visibility was reasonable and we could see quite far (although we weren't sure how far we were actually seeing...) It was surprisingly warm at the top, especially in the sunshine, and not as windy as one might expect. It was fun to look down and see the people taking photos up at the tower. After a little while we found our way back down to the second floor where we enjoyed a well earned hot drink, and got a little too excited about going to the loo on (in?) the Eiffel Tower. We wended our way back down all the stairs, still pausing for shots like this (spotted by Erica), and by the time we reached the bottom our legs should have been shaking all over the place, but they weren't. Woohoo!

It was very definitely lunchtime by then, and Erica's dad had sponsored us to go to a particular restaurant near Bastille that has become a bit of a family tradition. We went and ordered off the French menu, fairly certain we knew what we would be getting - beef for Erica and duck for me, with crème brûlée to finish it off. We weren't offered an English menu and didn't ask for one, but thought it would be ok. Another couple were seated next to us shortly after we'd ordered, and they were given an English menu. Cheekily I asked to have a quick squiz to check what we'd actually ordered, and we had understood it all correctly (I say we, Erica did most of the translation). Then, in typical Australian-meets-Australian-on-travels manner, we got talking to them. They were retirees from the Great Ocean Road, travelling around Europe for five weeks, and they were very happy to chat. There's always something nice about meeting other Aussies or New Zealanders on travels - conversation almost always goes deeper than the passing of time, and picks up when interrupted. So the company was good and the food was DELICIOUS!

We ended our final day in Paris with a long wait for a toilet back at the Eiffel Tower, trying a few different ones before finally queuing for half an hour at the only one operating. We'd intended on spending a few hours lying on the grass writing postcards, but had about half an hour instead. Still a half hour well spent, as we stared up at the tower, wrote our postcards, and enjoyed the last of Paris.

Erica and I have been blessed with a wonderful show of hospitality in Paris, being offered accommodation with an old friend of my sister's. He and his wife were away for the first few days, but came home very early this morning. Somehow I managed to sleep through them coming in with two small children and various suitcases, my earplugs are apparently even better than I've given them credit for. It meant that we only met our hosts today, however, so we spent the evening chatting, eating dinner, and packing up our stuff. And now it's 11:10 and we have to be out of the house by 7:30 at the absolute latest in the morning. Should probably go to sleep about now.