After spending an afternoon in the vicinity of the Sacré Coeur, we headed on over to Paris' Latin Quarter for some dinner. The dinners throughout the trip were not exactly five star, and this night was no exception, but the sights and sounds of this seemingly trendy neighborhood of eateries and gathering places definitely whetted my appetite to want to come to Paris again. At one point on the walk to our restaurant, we passed an outdoor food fair and oh man, so much scrumptiousness!
After dinner, it was off to the one place that is most iconic in this city, the Eiffel Tower. I tell ya, this was the one site I had looked forward to seeing, and for some stupid reason, I expected it to be much like the replicas found in two amusement parks I've been to, King's Island and King's Dominion, but those replicas in no way prepared me for the real thing. We arrived at the iconic monument via subway, and man, it was huge!
We were probably about a quarter of a mile away from it when we came out of the station and I couldn't take my eyes off it. The tower is magnificent sight to behold, standing there at more than 1,000 feet tall in all its golden splendor. As we walked towards the monument, I was reminded of that other famous iconic structure in New York, a gift from France as a matter of fact, just by the throngs of people waiting to climb.
The lines were two to three hours long, depending on which observatory you wanted to ascend to. I probably should have gone up, but I wanted to check out the area, and besides, just like in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank House, it was either wait the two hours to climb or use the precious time to explore, and I don't regret my decision. The tower was spectacular and so were the many views I had of it from exploring the surrounding areas with a couple of my fellow chaperones.
The area surrounding the Eiffel Tower is as cool as the tower itself. Directly across from the structure sits the hilltop area of the city known as Trocadéro, home to the beautiful Palais de Chaillot. This was our destination as most of the kids waited to climb the tower with Joanne and Audrey. Ivan, Steve, Francesca and I, headed up and across the Seine to this trendy neighborhood of eateries and shops to grab a quick bite to eat and walk around a bit.
On the way up the hill, we stopped at the big traffic circle in between the tower and the Trocadéro to admire some cars. Oofah, there at the circle sat not one, not two, but five Lamborghini's, all of a different color and their owners were offering drives around the city for the bargain price of just 80 Euro for twenty minutes. Ivan and I thought about it for a hot second, but since we'd have to do one at a time and each pay that amount, we just posed for a couple of pictures of the wicked wicked vehicles.
For the next couple of hours after that, we casually dined on some meats and cheeses in the restaurant of a hotel. It was cozy and comfortable, and to make matters even better, our server was beautiful...and kinda flirty. Once the time neared to meet the rest of the crew at the tower, we paid the check and headed back. By then it was nightfall and with some good fortune, there was a full moon out that frame the tower perfectly. That, coupled with the twinkling of a gazillion lights every hour on the hour, gave the whole evening a extra sense of wonder. The views didn't capture good on camera, but it was a magical sight nonetheless that I won't ever forget...
Check out my other posts on my Europe trip, as well as a few more photos below, and stay tuned for more...
We were probably about a quarter of a mile away from it when we came out of the station and I couldn't take my eyes off it. The tower is magnificent sight to behold, standing there at more than 1,000 feet tall in all its golden splendor. As we walked towards the monument, I was reminded of that other famous iconic structure in New York, a gift from France as a matter of fact, just by the throngs of people waiting to climb.
The area surrounding the Eiffel Tower is as cool as the tower itself. Directly across from the structure sits the hilltop area of the city known as Trocadéro, home to the beautiful Palais de Chaillot. This was our destination as most of the kids waited to climb the tower with Joanne and Audrey. Ivan, Steve, Francesca and I, headed up and across the Seine to this trendy neighborhood of eateries and shops to grab a quick bite to eat and walk around a bit.
On the way up the hill, we stopped at the big traffic circle in between the tower and the Trocadéro to admire some cars. Oofah, there at the circle sat not one, not two, but five Lamborghini's, all of a different color and their owners were offering drives around the city for the bargain price of just 80 Euro for twenty minutes. Ivan and I thought about it for a hot second, but since we'd have to do one at a time and each pay that amount, we just posed for a couple of pictures of the wicked wicked vehicles.
For the next couple of hours after that, we casually dined on some meats and cheeses in the restaurant of a hotel. It was cozy and comfortable, and to make matters even better, our server was beautiful...and kinda flirty. Once the time neared to meet the rest of the crew at the tower, we paid the check and headed back. By then it was nightfall and with some good fortune, there was a full moon out that frame the tower perfectly. That, coupled with the twinkling of a gazillion lights every hour on the hour, gave the whole evening a extra sense of wonder. The views didn't capture good on camera, but it was a magical sight nonetheless that I won't ever forget...
Check out my other posts on my Europe trip, as well as a few more photos below, and stay tuned for more...
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