Our second day wasn't much different than the first. We picked up bikes and headed out to see more sites. This time we headed towards Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Once we got to the area we had in mind we ditched the bikes and continued to walk. We eventually grew tired of walking and decided to find some lunch. After walking in circles we ended up at a small deli type place where we could at least see the items so we'd know what we were getting ourselves into.
After lunch we decided to make our way out of the city to see a cemetery that my dad had asked us to stop by. He's a huge history buff and wanted us to see a World War I American Cemetery. I had actually found one right outside of Paris so we jumped on a train and headed out to Sureness. 
It was neat to see Paris from a different angle, being so far away, and we just happened to be on a higher elevation so we could just see it all laid out before us. The cemetery was very somber, and we even found a few markers for soldiers from Louisiana, but we are glad we went. Being there really made us think about how lucky we are to be living the way we do. It also made me angry that human beings can be so evil, but that's a whole other subject.
Once we were back in Paris we were ready to finally see the Eiffel tower. We had waited until later in the day because we wanted to also see it at night. All I have to say is that I am not one to be overly amazed by structures, but being in front of the Eiffel tower was worth the trip. It's just as magical as one would expect it to be. We spent a lot of time taking picture after picture....a picture from this angle, a picture with both of us, a picture with the flash on, etc,etc. After a while of that the hunger grew upon us again and we went looking for dinner.
Like usual we circled block after block trying to decide on somewhere to eat, when we realized we just weren't going to find the "perfect" place and we just decided on a restaurant called Cafe Le Dome. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, we didn't actually end up eating here. This is where we ran into our first...and I think only...rude Parisian. It started out with us deciding to sit inside because of the massive amount of Europeans that smoke.
We deliberately picked a table that was away from the windows and both sat on the booth side of the table because of the extreme lack of people inside the restaurant. This is when a waiter approached us and asked us if we were eating or just getting drinks. When we said eating he told us that we could only take one table, meaning that we couldn't both sit on the booth side. As Jeremy was getting up to move the waiter grab our menus and put them on another table and rudely told us to sit there and walked off. He had moved us right next to the patio, which is completely open so basically we were sitting on the patio, in the smoke. We were both pissed and I said let's get out of here. We left and moved along to a much nicer waiter at a different restaurant. 
The sun was finally going down once we left the restaurant so we headed back to the Eiffel Tower. At first it was still a little light out and it wasn't really lit up, but after we waited a little while the lights finally came on and I thought "wow this can't get any better". I figured we were now going to head back to the hotel, but Jeremy suggested we go sit in the grass. I'm glad that he did because we were eventually treated to a light show that just topped our night off.
It eventually started to rain and we still stayed out for a while under the umbrella, but after it seemed like it wasn't going to stop we made our way underneath the tower to keep dry. Luckily the rain didn't last much longer and we hopped on our bikes and rode to the hotel. Goodnight Paris....we're going home.
The following morning we jumped on the subway to the main train station where we got aboard the Euro Star. This train brought us through the Chunnel to London. From London we got on another train back to Edinburgh. We stayed one more night in Edinburgh and then flew home in the morning. And that pretty much brings us to where we are now. The End!
No comments:
Post a Comment