Paris: Day Two

We woke up around 8 and headed down for the included breakfast at about 9 AM. The breakfast was basic, but quite nice. Bread, cheeses, ham, juice, coffee, yogurt, and more. Not bad for free.

We made a list of things we want to do over the course of the next three days during breakfast. Sheila decided we should start at a “Chocolate Museum” before heading to the Eiffel Tower. We did the chocolate museum and learned a bunch about the economic and cultural history around the cacao plant and cocoa bean. We attended a chocolate making demonstration and got to try pieces of chocolate. All in all fun, though not something I would have been super excited to pay a bunch of money to experience.

We then took a metro to the Trocadero station and got our first view of the Eiffel Tower. It looks good. We decided to first take a cruise on the Seine, which was relaxing and a lot of fun. It was a warm and sunny day (although our definition of “warm” has changed a bit after the Delhi experience) and it was a nice tour down the Seine. When we got back, we found there were long lines for the Eiffel tour (which, by the way, is not included in the Paris Pass attractions). We decided to return first thing in the morning tomorrow for the lift to the top of the tower. After taking a bunch of pictures, we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Again, there were impossibly long lines to get in and the line for climbing the towers was so long that they had closed them down for the day. By this time it was getting to be evening and things were shutting down. We managed to do a tour of the archeological crypts under the Ile de Cite which was interesting, but again not something I may have been super happy about paying a lot of money for. The remnants under the cite dating back to AD 300 were quite amazing, if nothing else for their incredible breadth of history. We walked to the Saint Chapelle and found it had closed.

We walked over to the Boulevard Saint Michel and enjoyed the beautiful streets and square in that area and even stopped for crepes. We then headed to a small café that had excellent reviews (L’Ecluse) and enjoyed an expensive assortment of cheeses (the Beaufort and Brie were great) and some wine (Graves). While browsing through our guidebook, we noticed that on Fridays, the Louvre is open until 9:45 PM and so we headed there. The complex is HUGE and the sheer size of the collection is a little overwhelming. We did the obligatory viewing of the Mona Lisa (which, as everyone says, is underwhelming) and just were floored at the spectacular beauty of the galleries and several paintings. Just the massive size of some pieces of art are breathtaking. I wanted to see some Vermeers, but by this time (we had wandered the halls for an hour and a half already) the place was closing down and they had closed access to the upper floors. I’m sorta glad we had limited time. Otherwise, we would easily have ended up spending an entire day walking around the place.

We got out at the main entrance (by I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid), took some photos and headed back to the hotel. It was after midnight before we got to bed, determined to wake up early and be at the Eiffel tower before it opens at 9 AM.