Paris - La Tour Eiffel, La Seine, Notre Dame

We were off to Paris on May 12th! I was full-on sick at this point, oh woe is me. But I was greatly cheered to see our first-class train car:
That nice gentleman took a picture of L and I:

If you ever have to get from London to Paris, I highly recommend the Eurostar train - holy smokes, it's fast! Only two hours, city to city! I sprung for first-class tickets - what the heck, we were on holiday (and I'd booked them months ago, so they were already paid off before we even left home).

We got fed a fabulous breakfast:

That's mine (you can see I've snagged L's yoghurt, heh heh). That's a salmon mousse omlette with potatoes and mushrooms - and real cutlery too!

Poor L went with the cheese breakfast:

Three measley grapes? Lame!

Because the trip was so fast, we were able to have the whole afternoon to explore! We stayed in the Trocadero area, only a couple of blocks from...

Wow, so amazing. All the plum/cherry trees were in bloom too. We decided not to go up the Eiffel Tower - too pricey.

We walked along the left bank of the Seine, thinking it was only a mile or two to reach Notre Dame Cathedral. But no...

That shot reminded me of the scene in "Les Miserables" where Javert throws himself into the river.

After over an hour, we arrived at Notre Dame:

See that crosspiece between the towers? and the top of the tower on the right? We went up there!

But first, we went inside:

It was gorgeous. I love old churches.

We waited in line for the tower tour for about 40 minutes. Was it worth it?

Heck, yeah!

Forgive me, I love gargoyles. I took a lot more pictures than these few. Here's a view from the very top of the tower:

You can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance on the left side. That red arrow is pointing to the "Place du Wipeout", which is where I tripped and fell in front of hundreds of people, skinning my knee and ripping my tights, and resulting in me having a bloody knee. Of course, I popped right back up: "I'm fine!" and suffered for the rest of the day. Gah, I'm so clumsy.

You can see that it was a pretty cold and hazy day. We did not have great weather while in Paris.

Here, I'm climbing into the top of that tower, where the bell is:

You can see a bit of my skinned knee. I'm also totally bundled up in my toque, scarf and gloves. I'm so glad I took them!

This is my favourite gargoyle:

Because I have a replica of him!

That's my "Smaug", and he was made locally - he's a limited edition casting. I got him about 17 years ago.

And now back to fashion!

I dyed my hair last night and it came out a lot darker than normal (ah well, it will fade). I also have bad hat-head because I got caught in the rain on the way to work. Enough of rainy spring! I want summer!

Check out the shoes! I got them in Paris, near Montmarte (near the Moulin Rouge). There were tons of cheesy prom gown stores and cheap shoe stores. I fell in love with these - only 29 Euros (less than $40), so I'm sure they won't last more than a year.

The stuff:

But they are gorgeous, aren't they? They smell (vinyl) and they make my feet sweat.

A close-up of the jewelry:

I've worn the pins before, but the ring is new - I got it at the Louvre gift shop (more on the Louvre tomorrow). It's inspired by the Russian exhibit they had on - we didn't view it, but that's the kind of souvenir I like to buy. It was 35 Euros, is gold plated and that's an enamelled "stone" on it. I like the thickness and the scrolly pattern on it.

Vest (Le Chateau, gift from Ruth), blouse (Vero Moda), skirt (Mexx), shoes (Belle Women), skinny pin (80s vintage), big pin (The Bay), ring (The Louvre Museum).