Eiffel Tower

Impressions... brown, not black.  Impressive – tall, timeless monument, monumental.  The snaking lines of eager tourists are way too long to go to the top, at least at midday.  Plus it costs d'argent, sweet money for other things.  There is an elevator on the side - with even longer lines, and more money to spend...  Nice park - Parc Du Champ de Mars.  Good place for lunch.  Maybe we will go back and pay to scale the monster.  It is a magnificent sight up close and from the skyline.  You can see it well off, although it has been both appreciated and ridiculed.  The touters hawking the miniature towers give you a sense of this, but still...

With this trip we also learned how to ride the bus in Paris, that was kind of an adventure in and of itself.  We walked to the Place de la Concorde, which will be described in another entry.  Jacob threw raging fits after we got there because he was tired.  Some Italian tourists thought he was cute.  Fools.  After a second they realized that he wasn't to be trifled with.  Soon after that it started to rain.  A light rain, but what do you expect in Paris in March.  So we had a couple umbrellas.  No big deal.  Anyway after walking there - we took a cab home.  The subway was nearby, but the map looked like a labyrinth - which I could have detangled, but why bother?  Plus the young one was seething...  So we elected for a cab.  20 Euros.  Ouch.  This time, the bus, which isn't cheap for 6 either - just under 10.  Still, well worth it for a chance to say ooh...

Also this time, the young one was as cool as they come... as you can see below.