7.7.09

Paris: Cinquieme Jour

Finally blue skies! On friday we arose a little later so we didnt do as much on this day... mostly eating and wondering. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower which was a marvelous site to behold. The structure itself is so impressive and such an icon and once above the mess that it rests on, one felt they could breathe. Waiting in line for the tower (we walked up) took a while, but the location.. the park around and the plaza directly below was swarming with african swindlers, selling cheap trinkets.. shaking their mini eiffel towers on the metal ring to which they were attached. I also noticed a number of people attempting to pickpocket.. whether they would "find" a ring on the ground or some other feeble attempt to distract you. I had my fair share of this traveling so by this point i was completely sick of it.. because it was so obvious what they were after and all the more disgusting. My brother and my mom ascended the metal behemoth one trembling step at a time. As a person who would prefer to have my feet firmly planted on the ground, this journey was a tedious one.



After climbing to the first lookout point, we stayed momentarily, and then moved onto the second leaving my mother (whose fear of heights is worse than mine) sitting with a bottle of coke (her staple). The second viewing platform was as far as i was wanting to go..my stomach already starting to quiver.. but what a beautiful view of paris! It was blue skies all around, the wind whipping around fluidly and the sun baking the ground below us.


i like to call this "andrew plots." I feel like his inner monologue goes as follows: " hhahah.. must figure out how to make my own eiffel tower.. or perhaps steal this one."



We climbed down after about an hour up on top and continued on, walking towards the siene.. taking a break on the shore for a few minutes. We moved on to a pivotal plaza in Paris.. the name which is escaping me now.. and then onto our dinner at the La Crypte Polska. Having had our share of french food at this point, we decided to try something a little different, Polish. Located in the Crypte of a church, this lovely little restaurant had delicious pierogies and tasty beer! After dinner we decided to walk down the Champs Elysees snacking on a crepe along the way. Thus, our day ended with a relaxing stroll.





3 comments:

Allison said...

I love Paris... I love the gears, I love the lifts, I love the Eiffel Tower!
But really, awesome pictures.

Ryan said...

Thats all i could think of when i was posting these was THE GEARSSS

Staci Kay said...

No Al, it's I LOVE ORVIETO! Haha. I'm so glad I was at that crit. And once again I love the photos of your brothers and mom. So great.