Day 9 - Monday

To see our photos from today, click here.

We were up early and out of the hotel by 8:00am to get to the Eiffel Tower when it opened. What a gray and drizzily day! First bit of bad weather we’ve had. Fortunately, it kept the crowds away from the Eiffel Tower. We were one of the first in line, and we took the elevator to the top instead of looking around on the first or second floor. It felt like we had the entire tower to ourselves! The views were stunning and it was great to be able to identify the places in Paris we had visited. Had coffee and a croissant in the little cafe on the second level, looked around, mailed a postcard to Adam from the post office within the Tower, and descended. Walked back to the hotel in the drizzle, dried off, and read in our room for a couple of hours .

The girls walked down to the store down the street and brought lunch (sandwiches and quiche) back to the hotel, where we ate.

We had briefly visited one department store (BHV) several days ago, but thought today would be a good day to visit another. Decided on Printemps, in the Montmarte area, which is one of the most well-known. We had fun looking around on each of the nine levels. After, we looked around in some of the other small shops in the Montmarte area, where Chelsea got Michelle a....(Michelle, you don’t really think I’d tell you, do you?). Lunched at Oh! Poivrier! which we found out is a chain in France with all-French menus (and waitstaff that only speak French). I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting when I ordered, but it was delicious!

On the way back to the hotel, we were inexplicably pulled in to the pastry shop by an unknown force - good thing we’ve been doing a lot of walking!