When you have a pose that works, you keep it.
You keep it and you work it.
Our "hotel" was all the way up, in the penthouse apartment of this building.
It may look whimsical but it was a rough few days in this medieval overnight location. Times have definitely changed, in many ways for the better.
You can actually rent these old apartments monthly for just a few hundred dollars. If you wanted to...
In the morning, we walked to the Colmar train station, ready for Paris.
Our first stop after checking into our hotel was lunch. Restaurants in Paris are pricey, but these sandwich shops (found all over the city), that have no seating, are a great value.
Next, we walked.
We walked for twelve miles, to be exact.
Notre Dame hasn't changed at all since I saw it last. The only difference really is that you can now book tickets online to climb the bell tower (when I started traveling online existed but it wasn't really "on").
The bell tower was closed today but we are ending the day with a spectacular view, so we weren't disappointed.
Construction began in 12th century, but it took over two hundred years to complete as it was built in sections. It is one of the largest religious buildings in the world, and so attracts over 13 million visitors a year. Some of these visitors were waiting in line upon our arrival, a line that looked to be an hour or more long. But there were two lines, one of which had no one waiting, so we walked through the other line and were in, in about two minutes.
Follow the flock of Chinese to the relics of the Chinese martyr, Saint Paul Chen.
Gargoyle is a Latin word, which means drain.
The boardwalk along the canal was packed with little bars, and people working out.
It sure is great for people watching.
The Louvre pyramid is an iconic landmark of Paris.
It sits in the middle of what used to be a royal palace, and is now the biggest museum in the world.
He has had better days.
From there, we walked along the ritzy Avenue des Champs Elysées, which leads to the famous Arc de Triomphe.
You would think that the troops behind us, protecting the Arc de Triomphe, would get sick of posing for pictures, but apparently not.
We have tickets to go the the summit, the very top.
At 1063 feet tall, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris.
It is also the most visited paid monument in the world, so without a reservation, going to the top is not likely an option.
This video shows all three segments of the trip up. I put it to music since Eric said it sounded like I was doing Lamaze (no one wants to hear me trying to act/breath normal), and because we were singing this particular song much of the time.
I was surprised I could handle the height, especially considering it was built in the late 1800s, as the tallest building in the world, for a World's Fair. We all have a lot of faith in Gustave Eiffel!
We actually got really lucky with our reservation. For some reason the Eiffel Tower website wasn't taking reservations for July until just weeks before, even though they should be available three months before. My tenacity paid off; by the time they finally posted July I had my pick of time slots. We chose 30 minutes before sunset, and it couldn't have been more ideal.
If I wasn't touching a surface with my hands, it felt too high, for some reason.
Eric said it looked like I was playing hide-and-go-seek with something.
I still think I did REALLY good.
Fears schmears.
Ahh, Paris!
