Friday, November 27, 2009

Tres

We got up in time to see the sunrise at the Eiffel Tower. However, the ticket office to get upstairs didn't open until 9:30. We sat around for awhile, and were again accosted by the "entrepreneurs" selling garbage to unsuspecting tourists. Since we are very suspecting, we decided to leave and skip going to the top for this time. We're just going to have to come back!


Trying to figure out what might be open at such an early hour, we settled upon the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise. Dead people generally do not keep regular hours. We walked through a large portion of the cemetery, and only later learned that if we had entered at the other end, it would have all been downhill!


We saw the grave of Oscar Wilde, which you are apparently supposed to kiss, so I did (Jeff will probably have a picture later):


Chopin, complete with Polish flags:


Jim Morrison, whom I knew was famous, but I had to ask Jeff for what:


The next stop was the Rodin Museum, an attraction which Camber, rather frequently and violently, demanded that we visit. We were surprised to learn upon our arrival that our Museum Passes had expired, and we had to wait in line with all the peons. Since they were only 2 day passes, and we had accidentally gone to the Louvre a day early, we were out of luck. From there, you can see the dome of Napoleon's Tomb, with a little bit of "The Thinker" in the foreground:



We tried to go to the Catacombs, but they were closed to the public due to vandalism. I was sorely disappointed, but we did enjoy a nice lunch in a quaint Italian cafe in the area. The panna cotta was miraculous!

The last stop of our time in Paris was the Arc de Triomphe. It was raining, so the same "entrepreneurs" appeared, this time selling umbrellas. I preferred to go for the Russian look:

For dinner that night, I insisted that Jeff try a crepe - he had never had one! This was the first sit-down crepe restaurant at which we dined. The French are geniuses to make crepes portable! Jeff had one with eggs, andouille sausage & cheese; I had chocolate & coconut. We called it an early night since we had to pack up and catch the train to the airport the next morning.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! All I can say is that you two really know how to plan a trip. If you had had some person with a bad knee/hip along, you would only have seen half as much.

Jeff Haupt said...

This is Devon---

Don't worry, Mother, we were pretty hobbled by this time. I don't think either of us was used to walking 8-10 miles a day!

Camber Carpenter said...

All I can say is you better start training for your trip to HK.