Day Five: Paris

Today our wake up call was for 3:30 am. Wow-zers. We had scheduled for a taxi to pick us up at 4:15 to take us to Heathrow airport. As soon as we got off the elevators the Marriott guy took our bags and told us our car was waiting. The taxi was parked out front, the driver catching up on his reading, waiting for us. The driver hauled ass to Heathrow and got us there earlier than expected. We couldn't print our boarding passes at the kiosk (long story, don't ask) so we had to wait until the ticket counters opened. It was a very "Amazing Race"-like moment. Our flight left London at 6:15 am for Paris. It was a quick 40 minute flight, but we lost an hour because Paris is an hour ahead of London. When we got to the airport, we went through passport control (No stamp! Boo!) and got our baggage. This whole time looking for a bathroom. There is a McDonalds in the airport, no bathroom. No wonder French people stink, they are forced to pee their pants looking for a stupid bathroom! Anyway, we eventually found one. Next we found out that the trains from the airport are on strike (apparently this happens a lot) and we have to take the bus. There was a lot of traffic, so the bus took a while, but we made it to the Champs-Elysees in about 45 minutes. We walked to our hotel because it is right on the Champs-Elysees, and got to walk around the Arc de Triomphe. That thing is BIG! Our room wasn't ready yet, so we went up the street and grabbed some lunch from a bistro with a very rude french waiter. After that we walked back to the Marriott where they told us our room was ready, and oh by the way, they upgraded it for us. The hotel lady escorts us to our room, it's 3 floors! The bathroom is on the first floor, then there are 8 steps up to the second floor, the bedroom with windows overlooking the Champs-Elysees, and then another set of stairs going to the third floor, the sitting room. It is pretty cool! We paid with points, but Chadd looked online and this room would be $956.48 a night otherwise, Yikes! Anyway, we were so tired because we had gotten up so early, that we took a short rest before exploring Paris. About 2 pm, we headed toward the Louvre. We decided to walk because it didn't look that far, we made it, but we really should have taken the Metro! We did what I like to call the :"Cliff Notes" version of the Louvre. We darted through and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus di Milo, and the headless winged lady statue (name? anyone?). When we were taking a picture of the Mona Lisa my camera informed me, "One or more of your subjects may not have smiled", ironic. After the Louvre, we went to Notre Dame. We walked through the joint, but there wasn't any sign of Quasimoto or talking Gargoyles. They had very pretty stained glass windows though! Next we went to take some pictures of the Arc de Triomphe, then proceeded to the Metro station in order to get over to the Eiffel Tower! We took some pictures of the outside then bought our tickets for the top. There are three levels, the first elevator, GLASS elevator that is, takes you up to floors one and two. Then you wait in another line to get a second glass elevator up to the tippy top. We timed it so when we got up there it was shortly before sunset, so we watched the sunset from the top of the Eiffel Tower. After that we hung out until it got a little darker and the city lights were on, it was very pretty! By the time we got down the tower was all lit up blue, and at the top of every hour, it twinkles! It was 8:45 pm, so we walked to the end of the Champ de Mars (like The Mall in Washington D. C.) to watch it twinkle at 9:00 pm. I thought it would be a subtle twinkling, but it really reallly twinkled!! It was my favorite part of the day! Our last stop of the day was the Paris Hard Rock Cafe so we could get Chadd a shot glass. We decided to just eat dinner there as well. Wouldn't you know it, the ONE Hard Rock Cafe that would run out of shot glasses? Paris. The french never plan ahead.