Paris!

We were up at 6:15 a.m. so we had time to visit that delicious Westin breakfast buffet at 7:00 before we left for the Malta airport. We were flying out of the only airport on the island of Malta, and it was an easy trip through security. Then it was a short flight to our next destination: Paris!

We took two ubers to get our group of eight to our apartments in Paris--with views of the top of the Eifel Tower from our windows.

We also had a view of the local church steeple out another window.

Even though all of Paris is touristy, this section has real people living and working here. We took a walk through our new neighborhood after we got unpacked.

Just a couple blocks away was the charming shopping area of Ru Cler. This street is lined with shops and restaurants, and this hungry group ate lunch at an Italian/French place for pasta with a French twist. But unlike some more touristy area, these shops and restaurants were actually used by the residents of this big city. We found our first creperie, right down the street from a hardware store and laundromat.  

We also found a produce market with lovely fruits and vegetables, 

and an Aldi grocery store where the fruits and vegetables were a bit cheaper (and we could buy the fresh-squeezed orange juice that we have come to adore). 

We found a flower shop,

 barber shop,

and a French pastry shop. Those are all places where Parisians do business, and we felt a little less like a tourist here in residential Paris.

We ate some of those "almost too pretty to eat" pastries standing right there on the streets of Paris.

While not nearly as pretty (but not nearly as expensive), we also ate baguettes right there on the streets of Paris.

We could always see the tower, and our destination that day was the most famous landmark of France. We found that the upcoming Olympics meant that there were more fences and some detours around the Eifel Tower. But we finally wove our way through the maze to walk right beside it.

We needed to be at the tower at 7:00 p.m. for our 7:30 tour to the top. It was crowded and touristy, and we wondered if we had been scammed when our tour guides were late. But they finally arrived and chaperoned us through the security check-point at the gate. Then we were really face-to-face with this icon of engineering.

We were glad to be here with our nephew (who is an iconic engineer himself) and family. We took a picture of Camden, Cooper and Brian at the base of the statue of Mr. Eiffel.

Once inside the gate, we were told that we wouldn't be able to go to the very top of the tower as promised. They were no longer allowing people to go all the way to the top level because it was overcrowded up there. No time limits are placed on visitors to the top, and if people stay too long they can't allow more people up the final elevator until it clears out. The office estimated that it would be an hour before they would let us up to the top, or we could go to the first level only if we didn't want to wait. Well, we came for the views from the top, so we would just have to entertain ourselves at the base for a while.

We took all the iconic Eiffel Tower pictures we could dream up. The city was getting ready for the Olympics, and the tower was sporting a new set of five rings.

We were not so good at taking selfies, so Brian was trying to give us selfie-lessons with the tower.

Our French guides were making fun of the French system that couldn't manage the crowds at the Eiffel Tower better. They also made fun of the French work ethic that couldn't get the tower painted in time for the beginning of the Olympics. It was close to 8:30 p.m. when we were finally allowed up into the elevators that whisked us to the first level . . .

for views of the River Seine.

Then we went on the very fast and very tall elevator to the very top. We finally got to see the views all the way to the horizon!

 

The sky was starting to color as the sun began to set over Paris.

Before we were allowed to start our tour, our tour guide was trying stall tactics to keep our fidgety group together. He asked us questions like, "How long did it take to build the Eiffel Tower?" and "What was the original color?" and "How many rivets are there in the Eiffel Tower?" The answers were, "two years, two months and 5 days" and "Venetian Red" and "2.5 million" respectively. We tried to verify that number of rivets as we looked up and down the tower.

Everywhere we looked, we saw new sporting venues that were temporarily in place for the Olympics. We knew that they'd be playing beach volleyball in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in a couple weeks.

For a different view. we decided to walk the stairs on the way down. We could only walk the stairs from the second floor to the bottom, and that was 674 steps.

We stopped in at the first floor to see the museum displays on our way down. By the time we got to the bottom, it was getting dark.

The lights came on the tower as the sky darkened. Even though these lights are impressive, they are not to be confused with the twinkling lights that start at 11:00 p.m. As much as we would like to stay right here and wait for that, we were all tired from being on our feet for hours.

Instead of the five-colored rings that show during the day-time, the night-time Olympic rings are lit up in white.

What a blessing to be here! We took a picture just to prove that we saw it for ourselves.

We walked the streets of Paris after dark, feeling quite safe as so many people were still eating outside at sidewalk cafes. Kudos to 6-year-old Cooper, who walked almost nine miles today, and was still in a hardy mood for that long walk back at 10:00 p.m. We arrived back at our apartment a little before 11:00, and got to witness the twinkling Eiffel Tower. That's Denisa hanging out of one of our apartment windows while Mark took the picture while hanging out even further from another window.

A photo can't do it justice, but it was magical to see something so big twinkling like a diamond. The hourly show lasts ten minutes, and we were glad we got to experience it from our apartment window. It was a great day in Paris!