nous sommes à paris...

eileen and i are in paris.

will post pics later, when i'm back. am quickly remembering how wonky the french keyboard is -- i keep hitting "q" when i want to hit "a."

we got in at around 2:30pm yesterday. we quickly freshened up and ran around.

of course, we had to get something to eat. grabbed a bite at le comptoir de relais st. germain. eileen had a delicious looking veal with buttery pasta, artichokes, and carrots. the veal had been rolled then roasted to a golden brown with crisp, fatty edges. i had the house charcuterie plate -- blood sausages, some head-cheesy looking sausage, some sopressata, paté, and some fatty duck lardons. the charcuterie was made in house. killer plate; can't wait to post the pics.

walked around st. germain. made our way to the river seine and we walked a little before crossing over to the right bank. made our way to the entrance of the louvre. it was getting close to around 4:30, so we didn't go in. i really hate the glass pyramid.

made our way to the carousel de louvre and from there, to the jardins tuileries. we could see the eiffel tower in the distance. of course, it looks deceptively close, but we decided to make our way there anyway.

we crossed the seine yet again. we walked along the quai d'orsay, passing the beautiful pont alexandre iii. someone told me that there is a restaurant or bar built into the bridge. need to find it. we made our way through the little residential streets, passing the quatar and south african embassies until we finally made our way to the tower.

if it weren't for eileen, i probably would not have gone up -- i may never ever make my way up the tower ever again. don't get me wrong. it's worth doing. but after a 45 minute wait in line just to get a ticket plus 15 minutes more waiting to get into the elevator to the 2nd level plus yet another 45 minutes to get to the summit, that's a lot of time.