Rendezvous-ing

Today started off with a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower (sorry, this will be the last pic of the E.T... maybe). The tower has a 1st and 2nd level, both somewhat in the center of the tower, and then there's the tippy top 3rd level. Turns out the 3rd was closed due to "mechanical problems." We begrudgingly took the elevator to the second level . The second level was very nice... Until Tiffany, aka "le hulk incredible" ripped out part of the chain link fence keeping us all safe and starting scaling the tower to the top. Luckily, I was able to talk her down with a croissant.

After spending an hour or so on the 2nd level, we "discovered" a staircase down to the first level. The walk down was scary but really neat, you kinda felt like you were walking down in just cobwebs of steel. At one point we saw some workers hanging from the webs, cue the sweaty palms and shaky knees!

After the Eiffel Tower, we did what all tourists do in France - we rendezvous-ed with friends for lunch! One of Tiffany's college roommates, Alicia, and her husband Craig, also are in Paris right now, a fact we figured out due to wonders of Facebook.

After lunch we headed to the Sacre-Coeur (sacred heart) basilica which is situated on top of a hill which is the highest point in Paris, so the views were great. The neighborhood it is in is called Montmartre, which was where all the artists rendezvous-ed, so it had a hipster-esque feel to it, kinda like the Wicker Park of Paris! The Moulin Rouge is in this area as well.

Next we headed to the Orangerie museum which we'd never been to. Monet had painted murals to go in this museum which were cool. No pics to post from that though since we weren't allowed to take any. After that we headed to the Louvre. Didn't get to go inside though as we got there at closing time, but that's okay. We've seen the Mona Lisa before and didn't need her creepy-cool eyes staring at us.

For dinner we rendezvous- ed with my French 'sister' who I lived with for a week when I was 15 on a high school trip to France. Her and her Fiancé, Xavier took us to a wonderfully french restaurant. The food was awesome. What really stood out were the au gratin potatoes and the chocolate mousse dessert. It was great to see Virginie again, and it was her birthday!! After dinner they were very kind enough to take us on a driving tour of Paris, which was really really cool. I've always wanted to drive through the crazy traffic Circle of the Arc du Triomphe!