Paris Day 1 Part 2

Throughout the day we had fun finding views of the Eiffel Tower from different parts of the city. Shockingly enough Hollywood is wrong, you cannot see the Eiffel Tower from every window in Paris and it is not the center of the city.

We hopped back on the metro (something I feel I became quite familiar with during my 30 or so hours in the city) to go to the Champs élysée  and the Arc de Triumphe. The Arc is ridiculous. The sculptures look so cool but it seemed like a funny monument to me. Much too tall for how wide it is. We arrived at a cool time though. We saw them doing a ceremony putting out the flame which they do every night.

From the Arc we went to what Abby says is her favorite restaurant in Paris that serves more classic French cuisine. A place she eats at every time she is in the city, a place where she also orders the same thing, Bistro Henri. 

It’s a little whole in the wall restaurant that didn’t seem like it could comfortable seat more than 15 to 20 people at a time. Abby ordered her usual, a duck with honey sauce and potatoes gratin. I ordered a pork loin in a mustard based sauce that was also served with a bit of pasta. Both were amazing.

From the Bistro we headed to the Eiffel Tower. At this point it was about 9pm and I hadn’t slept in a bed since 4am California time but I was determined to stay up till at least 10pm France time. All day it had been on the cool side, overcast and on the brink of rain. By the time we made it to the Eiffel Tower it was spitting a bit. Abby said that it was the least crowded she had ever seen it. Like the Notre Dame we considered going up the tower, but my eyes were starting to roll back into my head so we decided to skip it.

Back at the hotel Abby and I were so ready to climb into bed. After a minor panic attack over some silly school emails (which seemed to quickly resolve itself over the next day or so) I finally went to sleep around midnight Parisian time.