La Tour Eiffel is sparkling outside my hotel window. Seriously. I heard somebody say that when we were walking up the stairs of the tower (“You should see it at night – it sparkles!”) and I thought they were just being effusive. But now it’s dusk and it is twinkling with lights. Nice touch Paree. If I were a better person I would get my butt outside and take a picture. You’ll have to live with my description. Oh wait, now the lights are just on – that must be the intro for the night or something.
Another day, another couple hundred Euros. How do people afford to live here? Drinks in restaurants are 5-6 dollars. That’s just soda or water, not wine or anything fancy. We’re turning into cheapskates. Which means I washed my underwear in the sink last night because I didn’t want to pay $25 for the hotel to do it. I know, classy. Nonetheless, it was an absolutely GORgeous day in Paris. Lovely of the weather to be so accommodating.
Weirdness of the day: We walked through a high end department store and noticed from the escalator that there was a cafe on the bottom floor. The walls were lined with Vitamin Water. Turns out it’s a Vitamin Water Café. Huh. Never seen (or heard) of one of those. That’s not the weirdness. The weirdness was a girl in her spandex in the middle of the cafe, in a full glass enclosure, working out on some bowflex machine. She was the live entertainment for the people eating. Again with the huh? Perhaps they should have filled up the glass enclosure with vitamin water and had her swim and do tricks. Now that’s something I would like to watch while chewing on my sandwich.
I miss my kids terribly. There, I said it. When I’m with them I dream of a vacation. Anything. Just something away. When I’m away, I think of their tiny little faces and hands. Heaven knows I hate it when they’re clingy, but I sure could use a wee hug, some silly dancing, and adoring from those twinkly eyes.
When I’ve got more energy let’s talk pants, French men, and restaurant know how.
Bonsoir Friends.
Eiffel tower update – the lights! they’re twinkling again. Where’s the button my french friends? Who gets to decide when they’re sparkly? What a great trick. I bet there’s a line of tourists that pay to push the Sparkle Power button. I would totally pay for sparkle power.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Would love to hear how you liked the sketch of you. My parents got one done and my dad’s looked liked an OLDer gentleman that we knew in our ward. I’m sure when people came over, they wondered why we had a drawing of Brother So-and-So in our house!
Not only did we think of your parents’ sketches, we did the exact same thing and got one of each of us facing each other. We are total copycats and the sketches look similar to the style your parents had done.
Last time I was in Paris, I was traveling with a bunch of kids, and one – in particular – was pretty funny. He was the type who – at the tender age of 11 – would sit with us in the Luxembourg Gardens, drinking sugary, milky coffee and reading the New York Times (he was over there for a 6 mo. stay with his parents and needed to stay up to date
. Anyway – he used to get irritated at La Tour Eiffel – every night – lighting up and twinkling – would say…. Look at it – “Regardez-moi. Je suis La Tour Eiffel. Je suis grande. Je suis jolie.” No humility, LTE – no humility 
. It didn’t used to do that – not sure when that started. I kinda like it.
Is that Cal pretending to be Quasimodo? Are those Laduree macaroons? (I’m not sure if we were supposed to be playing the game here- those are very serious questions.)
Okay, finally somebody noticed that Mb doesn’t look quite right. Yes, I totally made him be the hunchback with his backpack because I’m an American tourist. I knew I could count on you to spot the Laduree macaroons. 4 more points for you.
1. Where does Quasimodo live?
2. What is the one dessert that I should have tried, but didn’t when I went to Paris? …can you believe I didn’t have a Macaroon? I can’t!
3. What is Angry Baker like to do when she is hanging out in the Montmartre district?
4. What is Sacre Couer?
Hey, way to go. All right, plus a bit sassy, so 8 points for you.