670, 671, 672!

Hello!  I am a few days behind, but the last 2 days went very fast and did not leave a lot of time to blog.

Our last day in Paris started just like all of the other days.  At about 11 am.  I am not kidding!  The nights are so late there, and we Browns need our beauty sleep.  We started out trying to do a little shopping...with every other Parisian and traveller.  We found an great jacket for Makenna, but they did not have her size, and this is not Nordstroms.  (We Americans do some things very well - Nordstrom)  So, no jacket.  Bummer.  I was already planning on borrowing it.  :(  After about an hour of feeling completely overwhelmed, we went to the Musee Rodin.  Seriously, the busiest of museums is a reprieve compared to shopping.  Not to mention that I am still sick of shopping.  Even in Paris.

At the Musee Rodin, we saw "The Thinker," "The Kiss" and "The Unfinished Gates of Hell."  The kids were ready to leave after seeing "The Thinker."  All of his original pieces were out, right there in front of us!  No ropes, no cases.  Just out!  It was amazing to us to be able to be that close, and actually get to touch the pieces that his very own hands worked on!  (I am not sure if we were supposed to touch them, and, and so we only touched a few so say that we did)  Rodin's works were very, well, ahem, erotic in nature.  So, after Soren took a few pictures of pieces that we will certainly have to delete, we left.  Much to do this day!

From here we went to see "Rue Cler."  One of Rick Steve's favorite streets.  We were not disappointed.  What a charming street, with wonderful food.  Again.  Good thing we are walking!  We wasted no time in getting a little "pick me up" as Makenna says.  Gelato for the kids (minus several licks for the parents) and cappacinno for the parents (minus a few sips from Makenna).  One of the things that we love about these cafe's is how all of the tables and chairs face out.  People still face eachother for lively conversation, but always seem to be open to the presence of all that is around them.

We then collected our dinner from the boulangerie, the fromagerie, and the other place that had meat.  Not sure what that was called.  It is easy to find the first two, as the boulangerie almost always has a line out the door, and you can smell the fromagerie from several blocks away!

We walked from there to the Eiffel Tower.  Wow.  We came down a street, looked up, and there it was! Amazing!  The park just before it was filled with people.  Once again, having picnics, drinking wine, playing football (soccer).  Enjoying life.  We feel that the French way is going to seep it's way into us.  In fact, we are inviting it in!  We just love this lifestyle!

We wanted to be on the Eiffel tower at sunset.  Here, that means 10:30 pm.  (See why we have been sleeping in?  And we had not even had dinner yet!)  So, we decided that we would have our picnic on the Eiffel tower.  As we approached this massive structure, we see two lines.  One to the gauche and one to the droit.  One was much much longer than the other.  Yep.  One was for the lift, and one was for the dreaded stairs.  672 of them.  Gulp.  Don't let Jeff know that there is a difference.  "I am going to go find out what the difference is in the lines."  Crud.  But of course we will take the stairs!  I just kept telling myself, "chocolate croissant, chocolate gelato, cheese, bread..."  The truth is that it wasn't bad, and the kids love that they get to say that the walked up.  (It was cheaper to do it this way too!  More croissants!)

We did have our picnic on the Eiffel tower, and watched the sunset.  It had been raining, pouring actually, on and off all day.  When we arrived at the Eiffel tower, the rain had stopped, and the clouds had cleared!  It was beautiful, and a perfect view of the entire city!  After the sunset, the entire structure came to life with light.  Awesome!  We climbed down and went across the street to the Trocadero to see if from afar and to take some great night pictures.  Just as we got there, the whole Eiffel tower started to twinkle.  Pinch me.  Is this real?

Now that it was 11:30, we decided to take a taxi for the first time, and not walk.  It was quite cold now, and the kids were understandably tired.  Ahem.  So were we!  We went by the Arc de Triomphe, and then back by the Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre.  Then home.  C'est complet.  We conquered all that we hoped to in Paris.  We loved it, but are now looking forward to relaxing in the country.  We will definately be back some day!