France, day 12 - Paris

Today we got up a little early to see if we could climb the Eiffel Tower without reservations.  When I'd tried to book a reservation over a month before leaving, there were none available.  I wasn't too hopeful about being able to after the things I'd read online, but we went for it anyway.  We got off the Metro at Trocadero where you have that amazing view of the tower, took a few photos, of course, and headed for the  tower.  We decided to climb it, which wasn't bad for any us, except Mark who had Goose on his shoulders and the backpack on.  We reached the first and second levels and enjoyed the great view, then Mark got in line for the elevator to the top.  The rest of us were still on the observation deck a level below.  Suddenly a recording goes off several times about calmly proceeding down the tower for safety.  I was not super excited about vacating the Eiffel Tower via stairs with all the girls, separated from Mark. Just as we went down the first few flights of stairs, Mark sent a text saying he'd overheard a women working there saying it was just a drill.  Strange...but we were able to take the elevator to the top, and enjoy another great view.  It was fun to be able to do that with the girls.

As we sat on the grass at the bottom, we got a text from Annie saying she was almost to where we were!  Then we spotted her - so cute to see the girls run to hug her.  It's so fun to have her with us, and to have another visitor on the trip.  We decided to make our way to Montmartre where we saw Sacre Coeur. I remember the big mosaic being more visually stunning because they had it lit from below.  They don't do that now, and it's not nearly as memorable inside.  It's a newer church, built in the 1800's, and very memorable from the outside.  We wandered around place du tertre next with all the artists and cafes, and decided to get lunch at "chez Eugene."  We did a little souvenir shopping afterwards, and Lu and Abby got little pictures to hang in there rooms.

That evening, we had our usual dinner of fruit, yogurt, bread with chevre and jam, and then went to get crepes from the happy Lebanese guy working around the corner from our apartment.  He knows we will show up pretty much every night now.  It was a great day, and so fun to have Annie here with us!