Paris Day Five

Has it only been five whole days?  I am very comfortable with the city.  One doesn't tire of marveling with every view and thinking, "I wonder what monument or pretty building I see down that street?"  Today we decided to not make it a really long day, and yet I am tired tonight. 

First, we had to figure out how to do laundry in a machine that is a washer and dryer in one.  We do have clean laundry, but we still aren't sure how it happened.....  and the laundry isn't really dry.

When we did leave the apartment, we headed toward the Tour Eiffel.  We have seen the Tour Eiffel from afar, but had not walked to and around it yet.   We did notice this morning that Paris was a busy place.  Tomorrow, May 1 is Labor Day here and so many people from around France have come here for a four day holiday. To top it off, it was a nice day with blue sky on and off.  Only a little bit of rain and wind this afternoon.  They have been getting a lot of rain so as soon as it stops, the sidewalks,parks, and cafes fill up.

We decided to walk through the Jardin Des Tuileries on our way.  This garden is beautiful.  You can't tell in the picture below, but the flowers are beautiful.

To give you a feel for our walk toward the tour, you can see the progression as we got closer below.

Walking, walking, walking....:The Tour Eiffel was built in 1889 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.  It is 324 meters tall and welcomes seven (7) million visitors per year.

Here we are across the Seine, about one block away from crossing the river.

Walking around under the Tour Eiffel it was hard to think about how massive it was, because we were struck by the people -- everywhere!  The lines for the elevator to get to the top were everywhere.  Right now, one of the elevators is broken and it is a 2 1/2 hour line.  We will come back after the holiday and probably walk to the second level.

After getting here, we decided food was in order, so we headed down from the park to find picnic food.  We found a nice Boulangerie a couple blocks off the park and for 7 euro's we got a sandwich, a dessert, and a drink.  I had the below lovely sandwich of chicken and mustard on a poppy seed baguette, a slice of walnut apple cake, and a bottle of water.

We grabbed a park bench and even had entertainment.  The parks were packed today with people lounging and playing games.  We got to watch groups of men playing Boci ball.

Below is our view during lunch.  The Tour Eiffel was clearer from the bench on which Kim is sitting.

After lunch we walked through the rest of the parks and enjoyed the flowers.  Common flowers I am seeing include, tulips, iris, pansies, rhododendron, and azaleas.

The Tour Eiffel from the other end of the park filled with people.

In addition to all of this, we checked out the Bon Marche to see what a department store is like in Paris.... big and fancy!  I believe I read that Bon Marche is the first department store in the world.

Dinner tonight was at the little restaurant called Nomad, in the same building as our apartment.  It was very good.  My first course was a Rabbit Terrine (pate) with toasts, pickles and pickled onions.  Perfect!

My second course was a Grilled Swordfish with Ratatouille vegetables.  Yum!  The pictures are a little blurry, as we take them in a hurry hoping no one will notice!  :)

Tomorrow we will find out what happens on a holiday in Paris.  What does everyone do when most of the monuments are closed?  I can tell you for us tomorrow includes a late night show at Moulin Rouge!