Day 11 - Paris

I have to admit that I was somewhat pensive about visiting Paris. Of course, I was looking forward to seeing all the wonderful art and architecture, experience the history, and enjoy the sights. But abundant comments stereotyping the not-so-nice Parisians and my complete inexperience and unfamiliarity with the language had me hesitant to get too excited about our visit. But our arrival in the city went smooth as can be. We rolled into town on the high speed Thalys from Brussels. We bought 20 metro tickets from a self-service machine. Hopped a train, transferred to another, and disembarked within a block or our hotel. We were checked-in to our room in less than 20 minutes within arriving in this sprawling city! I can highly recommend the Hotel Sevigne. Everyone was extremely pleasant (even forgiving of my butchered French - though my wife's is fairly good), and this went a long way towards dispelling my misgivings regarding the attitudes of Parisians. We really enjoyed the fresh croissants, pressed coffee, hot chocolate, and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast each morning. Our 5th floor room looked right out onto St. Paul's Cathedral. What a view!

After settling in, we took the metro up to the Jardin Des Tuileries. We strolled through the park to the Place De La Concorde. We looked for, but never found the tourist information center that is supposedly located nearby (though we didn't venture to inquire with any locals). So, we continued walking towards the Eiffel Tower. My wife had won free tickets by scoring 100% on a quiz at the Eiffel Tower's Website. The weather completely cleared as we rode the elevator to the top viewing platform. Our views of the city were incredible. Many of the platforms have panoramic photographs of the city with landmarks labeled. Our view of the various buildings was clearer than what was shown on the photos! We enjoyed our time atop the tower and had an expensive snack in the cafe. Then we descended by way of the stairs. This was fun and less crowded than riding the claustrophobic elevator! We walked the long Parc du Champ de Mars and admired the views of the tower.

We took some time wandering around the area of the Eiffel Tower trying to decide where to eat. We ended up at Le Bosquet, which turned out to be a wonderful choice. We both had extremely good meals, succinctly proving the well deserved French reputation for fine food. Our waiter was delightful. He did not speak a word of English for the duration of our meal, though I'm sure he was perfectly capable. And he was patient as he encouraged us to attempt our broken French. And he gently corrected our pronunciation. It was one of the best language experiences we had our entire trip. Only after seeing another American couple in the restaurant with the guide book, we discovered that Rick Steve's recommends this restaurant. Well so do we!

We stopped by a cash machine on our way to the river. The timing was perfect for an evening cruise on the River Seine. The sun was just going down as we walked up to the ticket window at Pont De L'Alma and purchased tickets for the next cruise. Such good luck! The next boat was currently boarding and scheduled to leave in less than 10 minutes. We took our seats on the roof among a large group of Japanese tourists. The sights and lit buildings at twilight were inspiring and romantic. The cruise toured up -river past Notre Dame and then all the way back down past the Eiffel Tower, which is magnificently lit up at night. It was a very picturesque evening with just a hint of a crescent moon. After returning to shore we jumped the metro back to our hotel and called it a day.