Day 18 – Eiffle Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Eifle Tower.

Last time I went to Paris, I wasn’t able to get to the very top of the Eiffle Tower due to bad weathering or whatever. This time, we went to it in the morning. Nice view. Neato. Day 18 was supposed to be a day full of events, but as usual, things don’t go exactly as planned. The visit to the eifle tower took longer than expected. Once again, I was plagued with a bunch of wandering black merchants who were trying to peddle some trinkets. Honestly, I think I’ve only seen like three non-black guys doing the exact same thing they’re doing. They just go to tourists with a bunch of items and try to sell it. I guess they’re the newer form of the gypsy types who give a card to English speaking tourists looking for donations. As a policy, I don’t give money to anyone.
By the time we were done the eifle tower, people were hungry. Went to a semi-fancy restaurant near Notre Dame. Medium tastiness. I bought a Crème-Boulez which was fantastic. Went inside Notre Dame for a little while and became separated with one of our people. Naturally, I don’t believe in leaving people behind, but other people don’t seem to care. We lost the person inside the Notre Dame and there were really two options. Either we continue to wait inside, or leave. In a situation like this, and assuming the person wants to be found, there’s not much choice. The lostee can either stay inside the Notre Dame or wait outside. The problem for us is that if someone goes outside, they can’t get back in without waiting for a 20 minute long line. Utlimately, I made the decision to wait inside for a dozen minutes or so before going outside. Everything went fine.
The Louvre is an extremely huge place with way too many pieces of art to appreciate. I think that a visit to the louvre shouldn’t be longer than 2 hours because the mind is simply not capable of assimilating anything more than that. It becomes a “oh look, that’s neat, lets’ go now” situation.
Had an extremely expensive meal at Champ Elyse. Wasn’t a big fan of it, but it was necessary since it is supposed to be the last night there. Wholly unremarkable. Went to the Ark and then went back to the Eifle for the light show which occurs every hour. We tried to go to the one at 9:00, but we missed it by a minute or so. Waited for the 10 o clock one. I didn’t think it was anything special. When we got back, I asked about the itinerary
Wine and drinks before bed.