In planning for this trip, we found out that it's a good idea to get tickets online in advance for the major sites like the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, etc. When we booked the trip in early March, all the Eiffel tower time slots were already sold out. They start selling them 60 days in advance and I guess we had already missed that window. There were tour group or "event pass" options but some of those that we read about said they basically just give you history and a tour up to the point where they drop you off in the line where you have to wait if you don't have a pre-assigned queuing time. I was checking the official site frequently and on the Friday before we left, I got a 5pm time slot for the following Friday which was good as the only other time slot that had freed up was 11:30pm on Thursday. This was probably a bit of good luck.
We started the day with touring around Les Invalides, though we couldn't figure out how to get in until we had walked all the way around the building. We saw the Rodin museum right next door and figured we had time to stop in there and check out some sculptures. It was a beautifully manicured garden with lots of sculptures - the most famous of which is The Thinker.
The museum and grounds were gorgeous - super well manicured trees and shrubbery and fine sculptures appointed throughout the grounds.
 |
| Another thinker - just less popular |
 |
| The Gates of Hell (aka Kaz Nejatian's office door) That was my direct boss at Shopify for a while |
 |
| Romantic |
Inside were more sculptures and some stunning rooms. He had quite a few of Balzac and Victor Hugo.
 |
| Victor Hugo is in front (I think) |
 |
| Pedo-ish - but no, he's just eating his children |
We were close to the Pont Alexandre III so we walked up to that past what appeared to be some cleanup in an area used for some event for the 2024 olympics. This was a rare sight - a non-super-well manicured garden in downtown Paris.
Hôtel des Invalides was next - but it's not a 5-start hotel, it's the army museum. Another magnificent building - we can see the top of it from our terrace and it looks close but it's 2 metro stops away.
Lots of military stuff and Napoleon's tomb was there but you had to pay and we weren't super keen on it (we see lots of other cool tombs later in our trip for free - see Day 6). All I could think of is that Trump would love all these monuments and honorariums that totalitarian leaders of the past had. From Wikipedia, this was a bit of Napoleon's legacy: "He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and jailed critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in France's colonies except for Haiti, banned the entry of blacks and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children in France, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility,[8][9][10] and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.[11]" - sound familiar? And then he gets an ornate tomb and we should pay later to see it - I vote no 😀.
We head back to our hotel, stopping at Le Campanella for coffee where our French is so bad we have to clarify we are not American but Canadian (we accidentally order an Americano coffee instead of café allongé) before realizing that the family sitting next to us was likely American. The waitress quickly dropped into English as Carrie ordered an apple tart but she was still nice. On the way back, we pick up some cheese at Marie-Anne Cantin fromagerie (here) and get some comté cheese. Best cheese ever - she cut it with a wire - it was soooo good.
After some time on the terrace with the cheese, wine and another cigar - we head out to the Eiffel tower for our scheduled time slot. We were a bit early so had some very inexpensive wine from a vendor below the tower. We queued up about 30 minutes before our scheduled time and they actually had us go up early and even with waiting for the elevator we still ended up on the second floor shortly before 5pm. The elevator operator lived up to the Paris stereotype of rudeness with a "this is the second floor - everyone get out" rather than a "Welcome to the Eiffel tower, this is the second floor, please disembark and enjoy your visit". It was notable - but on the way down the elevator operator was much nicer. There were 2 platforms on the 2nd floor and it wasn't as packed with people as we thought it would be. The views of Paris are beautiful from there and you can see some things from above that probably look better from that vantage point than they do on the ground (like the Champ de Mars). We saved our souvenir glasses and had another very inexpensive glass of rose up there (note the sarcasm, you can actually get 2 decent bottles of wine for the price of 2 glasses of wine - 3 or 4 bottles of wine if you get the cheaper stuff). It was worth it though - had a nice buzz going by that point and we could really enjoy some leisurely views of Paris and take our time.
The tower itself is just stunning to look at and is very photogenic. I have a lot of pictures of it in various settings - I just couldn't get enough of it. Carrie thought it was black but it is clearly more of a light muddy brown. Apparently it gets painted once every seven years by hand.
I struggle through a dinner reservation in french at a place down the street Le 7ème Vin bistro for 8pm. I get by and we arrive in the quaint bistro and 2 other couples are seated quite close to us. I get escargot for an appetizer and duck leg for my main course. The escargot were delish although a little tricky to fish out of the large shells (when I've had them here they are already pulled out of the shells). The duck was OK - but I guess I'm not a big duck person. When realizing our table neighbours are American , Carrie casually says "How are things where you are with all this craziness going on" (referring to tariffs and general policy pandemonium in the US). The couple beside the couple beside us were from California and very anti-Trump, while the couple beside us were (soft) Trump supporters. The gentleman from California was quite irate with the South Carolina couple due to their Trump support and it got a bit uncomfortable for a few moments until the lady from California told her husband to settle down. Awkwardness subsided and we chatted it up quite a bit with the South Carolinians - one of whom was a professional wine judge for competitions. We found out how crazy expensive it is for their healthcare and after some time, could at least see why in their minds they didn't feel like voting Democrat was going to make their lives any better and that Trump was the better option. They don't agree with everything and they hate they way he presents himself at times - but they made a somewhat difficult decision to support him. It was a bit enlightening or confirming what we believed was the case for many Trump supporters. They didn't like either choice but held their nose and voted for Trump because they didn't like what they saw with Harris and Trump's promises on immigration appealed to them. They weren't bigots or xenophobes but reasonable people, however, I still completely respectfully disagree with their choice. We told them how much we like many other Canadians despise the 51st state nonsense. We left with a hug - you can get better insight into how people think by just listening and not showing judgement and we were glad to have met and chatted with them even though we think their choice of a president could end the US as they know it.