We took a morning walking tour around the city. Our guide was from New Zealand giving her last tour before she returned home after living here for about a year. She was animated easy to understand and entertaining. We saw Saint Michael’s fountain river, Notre Dame, Opera House, first bridge, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and a few other touristic sites. She did a good job of giving background explanation and fun facts at each location. King Henry’s Bridge was the first bridge to extend across the river through the island. This one had a funny story our guide related well to what life is like today. The bridge has different faces carved all along the side of it similar to the 100 fountains at Villa D’Este in Tivoli but in bridge form. The funny part was the faces carved along side it were the King’s friends drunk at a party had about the same time. Since they did not have digital cameras or facebook to share with others the hilarious state he found his friends in he had an artist sketch. From those sketches he had a sculpture put it in stone to add to his new bridge so all could see his silly friends. This king was the most loved, yet he had the most assassination attempts, 20 plus. The main reason was because he was not catholic in a mostly Catholic country. I learned so much on our tour it would take up pages, so I will keep it to a few. The Louvre was hard for me to spot without seeing the famous transparent triangles. It was gigantic compared to what I had always imagined. There were of course vendors selling water among other things to the flocks of tourists, but the surprising thing was as we entered on one side I could hear a female opera singer singing a beautiful song. On our way out I found the source, the artist was selling her CD in one of the archway openings. There were a couple different kinds of artist sharing their talent. I thought the violinist was the best. Walking around the whole day was torturous. The sun was extremely hot and there was little shade or green spaces to cool us down. Notre Dame was Beautiful but difficult to see with all the trees on the side. If I had not studied it in school I never would have been able to pick out the flying buttresses. The Eiffel Tower was the last thing we did. We got there in the late afternoon, confused by all the people, activities and lines going on around and under the tower. Eventually we figured out which line was the one to walk up and waited. That is when I got hit by the birds from above for the first time this whole trip to Europe. I laughed so hard I was crying. Further up in the line we realized that the same bird had also gotten my friend, and then I began balling I was laughing so hard. Everyone around us thought we were crazy but I did not care I was completely happy except for the pain in my cheeks. We walked up to the first level. The view through the diagonal metal fencing was amazing. We continued to walk around it and travel up the next flight of stairs in awe of what we were on and looking at. I saw the sun set from the Eiffel tower then rode the elevator down as they turned on the lights for night. It was beyond what I had expected and well worth every minute. I have so many things I want to do here when I come back. Thinking about being home the next day gave me the strength to get all the way back to our Hostel that night.
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