Botobus! Fast as a Speeding Hippopotamus

Today we chose to go to the Eiffel Tower on the Batobus. It was fine, but a little slow for me.

Got to the Tower and saw a very long line to buy ticket to ride the elevator up. We saw a shorter line by the south leg of the tower, so we went over there and discovered you can walk up to the first two levels.

So we did. Ella counted the stairs for a while. She got to 300 before deciding it was too boring to continue counting.

The view was great, but it was very crowded. Lots of students of various nationalities running around. 

Ella looking down the wrong end of a telescope

Ella stand on a garbage can to take in the view

 Not sure how the modernization of the Tower affects our genes, but I accept their apology!

Didn't have des tickets for the ride all the way to the top, so we climbed back down and took some photos.

I had to lie on my back to get this shot!

By this time it was 1pm and we were starving, so we headed down to the Batobus and off to the d'Orsay stop. Don't worry! We didn't actually go into the museum, instead we went to a hole in the wall restaurant: an asian operated Panini shop. The food wasn't great,  but we continued our streak of avoiding anything remotely French.

Ella was a champ though all this. She ran up and down the tower, twirled all over Paris, and then played like a maniac at a playground in the Tuileries. Then she hopped on this carousel for a spin in a tea-cup style thingy. It made me nauseous just to watch.

But a little while later, when we stopped to eyeball the pyramid at the Louve (don't worry! we didn't go in) she hit the wall. As you can see here, her energy was at a low ebb.

Uh oh! This doesn't look good.

Back to the Batobus for the ride back to our apartment and then inside to rest for a while. Arrived in our neighborhood to find exactly 756,000 police lined up and a big mob scene outside the Cathedral. We went up to our apartment and turned on the news. It was a memorial service for the victims of the Brazil-Paris Air France crash. The Sarkozy's were in attendance! 

Crappy photo, I know. TV shows news coverage of what's happening out the window. You can see a little piece of Notre Dame there outside.

Later . . . starving . . .

Dinner. Oh, we had such big, wonderful, idealistic plans. Cross the bridge to Ile St. Louis, find some quaint Brasserrie, dine on simple (but delicious) french food, then stop for some Berthillon ice cream.

Of course, none of that happened. Instead we walked through the Ile but didn't stop at any restaurants because they all seemed . . . too much. 

Ended up dragging a decreasingly friendly child on a huge, fruitless loop. But wait! We went to a cafe: L'institut and had . . .  duh, duh, duh, duh (<-- dramatic music): french food!!! (crowd noise!)

I was the big bad wolf and had the roasted piglet, while JJ had steak of some sort. 

Ella played Peggle on my iPhone and gnawed at some bread.

Not satisfied to end without my Berthillon, I sent JJ and Ella home while I headed back to get a 1/2 litre of it. Just as I turned the corner, slam, they closed the door in my face. Oh well, at least I still have the peanut butter I brought from home!

So that was it. My pedometer says we walked over 17,000 steps today. Amazingly, Ella walked almost all of them too. Tonight she fell asleep as if somebody flipped her light switch off.

Did I mention I went to Starbucks this morning? Je veux un mocha, s'il vous plaît! Why sit outside a cafè and watch the people go by while savoring a delcious cafè au lait, when you can get a corporate mocha, to go, in a paper cup?