Our open-air bus tour takes us to many of the city’s sights, but we stay on the bus to get familiar with the locations before we decide what to visit. Good grief- we just passed up the Louvre! There are four bus routes; this is the green line. There’s not enough time to see all there is to see here. We agree this is a good reason to return.
Off the bus and on to a table at a sidewalk café for dinner. Sidewalk cafes are just that - they can take up the entire sidewalk, so pedestrians brush your table or walk in the street. No sooner are we seated than a basket of bread appears on the table, followed by two more equally full baskets before the end of the meal.
We time our arrival at the boat dock near the Champs du Mars and the Eiffel Tower to make our cruise after dark. We want to see the lights of Paris at night.
In the ticket line we realize we are in the midst of a large contingent of Polish manufacturing representatives attending a convention in Paris. They’re all wearing name tags.
No need to worry about standing out as tourists. Once we’re all on board, dozens of cameras come out, all pointed at the Eiffel Tower, clicking away. Everyone wants to capture the famous symbol of Paris, and I picture them all e-mailing home saying, “Look - I was there!” Mmm, wonder how many images of the Eiffel Tower are floating through cyberspace at any given moment?
We float along the Seine as night falls. All along its banks people sit and stroll. A café with a dance floor is filled with couples. We pass several other cruise boats; some are dinner cruises, and one has been rented by a wedding party - there’s the bride and groom and guests dressed in wedding finery.
The guide points out the residences of writers and artists, the French National Assembly, historical buildings. We pass under brightly lit bridges with magnificent statues at each end.
All too soon we are at the Ile de Cite, and Notre Dame is on our left. Again, everyone stands up and begins clicking away. The thousand-year-old cathedral is magnificent and we have a great view of the famous flying buttresses from the river.
On our return trip, the crowds along the Seine have grown. We’re beginning to feel the pulse of Paris at night.
Then we see it - the Eiffel Tower at night - swathed in thousands of lights. The daytime view is nothing compared with this. As our boat approaches the dock the lights on the tower begin twinkling - a merry little bit of Parisian sauciness.
We disembark and move under the tower. As we enter, Bernie calls my name. I stop. He takes my arm. I did not see the soldier with the machine gun that I was about to bump into. I turn to him now, less than a foot away, both hands on the machine gun.
There are hundreds of people here, with long lines at all four elevators waiting to go up. We’re too tired and it’s too late, though. If we’d not had such a long day ….
On the walk back to our hotel, I decide I’m in the mood for ice cream. All the cafes have stopped serving food, however - drinks only. The groceries on Rue Cler are closed, too. But there is another tiny grocery store just around the corner. We buy cheese, crackers, wine, and Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream (yeah, I know - it wouldn’t cost as much in Ohio, but who knew they shipped it in from Vermont?) along with some plastic spoons.
On the elevator in the hotel is a new sign - no eating in the rooms, it reminds us (darn, how could they read our minds?). Again, we ask about this. No problem, the night clerk tells us. That’s just for people who carry pizzas and all kinds of stuff up to their rooms and make messes.
You can be sure all signs of our food are neatly tied up in a plastic bag But I did have to eat the entire pint of Ben and Jerry‘s..
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