we had talked about going to versailles on thursday, but i just couldn't do any more. i had to give my feet a rest. we've got more than a week left here -- must recover. so i spent a quiet afternoon catching up on this blog. the picture above is of the obelisk at the place de la concorde, taken wednesday. it marks the center of paris, very little of which i saw today.
the squirrel went to notre dame and ile de la cite, and she brought back many riches. including my very own notre dame votive candle. and some postcards. une baguette, some white wine, some lovely little cookie things called macarons, and ... more foie gras! we ate this feast on the terrace of our room while some new (american, maybe also canadian) hotel guests boisterously chatted and laughed on the terrace down below. they were older, probably in their late 50s-early 60s. they seemed to be having fun. at one point mdme orsenne came around, and othello bounded up the steps to try to wheedle some foie gras out of us. no dice.
we wanted to go to the eiffel tower and see paris at night (and test my feet). so we went inside to prep. presently we heard a wine glass break. "party's over!" i said. indeed, less than five minutes later, all was quiet on the terrace.
we got on the metro and the RER train to the tower, which was sort of silly since it's so close. while on the metro, we were sitting in these two jump seats facing the middle of one of the cars, by the door. i noticed this guy standing nearby with his back to us, conversing with a seated passenger. standing guy wore a dark green nylon jacket, greenish-grey trousers, and black shoes. he held a clipboard and seemed to be checking the ID of the seated guy. i noticed another dude by the door of the car, similarly dressed. the train stopped, the two green-jacketed dudes got off, and i realized they had to be cops of some sort. indeed, they joined a group of their own on the platform. why do you suppose they were checking up on seated passenger dude, who just looked like a college student or young worker with his gym bag and ipod? was it just randomness? he WAS black, but i thought the whole suspicion about people existing-while-black was more of an american thing.
after we got off the metro and went to the RER, we had to pass through a line of these same type of cops (male and female, of various ethnicities), who glanced at our cartes oranges and waved us through. just beyond them was a guy in the corner to the right, holding the leash of a muzzled german shepherd. we wondered what it was all about but knew it was best not to ask.
we arrived at the eiffel tower, but a little rain was sprinkling here and there, and the top deck was closed, probably b/c there were only 45 minutes till the last elevator went up. we decided it was cutting it too close and bailed. it had gotten warmer, probably due to heavier cloud cover, and so we decided to walk back. i stood under the tower and snapped a shot of it looking up with my cellphone. it's kind of a cool, kaleidoscope-looking thing. but i didn't send it to myself yet. oh, well.
the walk back took no time. one of my toes still feels kind of iffy, but i think i'll be ok tomorrow. hope so, b/c it's supposed to be rainy and even colder. so it's gonna be another massive museum day.
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