French 75 ~ adventures in life

Introduction to Paris
I'm going to post this a little late. As soon as Grace and I got to Paris we got very busy with little time for going online.
Our flight from LAX went smoothly and we were able to sleep a few hours in our cramped Premium Economy seats. After our London to Paris connecting flight, we caught the RER train into Paris. I knew the stop we were supposed to use was Saint Michel, but the Notre Dame station looked closer to our hotel so we got off there. Yikes! The station was underground in a dark, tile-lined tunnel. The only way out seemed to be a flight of stairs. Up we went, dragging our 40 lb. suitcases and small carry-ons with us. There was an old man coming down the stairs. He had few teeth, a 4-day beard stubble, a long, red woolen coat and some large packages. He began yelling at us in French and pointing to our bags. In my sleep deprived state the only word I could make out was "Madam". After climbing the very, very long and steep stairs, we erupted onto Quai de la Tournelle, one of the busiest streets in Paris. It was night and the street corner was a mass of zooming cars and fast walking people, reminiscent of Back to the Future. We felt like we'd been dropped off in a different time. We looked around to see if we could hail a taxi, but soon recognized that that was impossible. Finally, we saw a line of taxis about a block away. Once we dropped our bags at the Hotel Des Deux on Ile Saint Louis, we walked to the end of the street to the closest bistro for some nourishment.
Le Saint Regis was the perfect ending to our day. We ordered beer, cheeseburgers and fries. The beers came quickly and the burgers followed right behind.

The following day we were up and about early as we had a 2 o'clock tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours at the Eiffel Tower. Our first full view of the Eiffel Tower was from the park just below.

After Victor, our tour director gave us the history of the Eiffel Tower, we took the elevator to the first level to begin our tour. The view was amazing and we were fortunate that it was a sunny day.

After the tour, Grace and I took the elevator to the 3rd and highest level. The fast ascending elevator is open framed so you see the city rapidly falling away.