Time to Rally

We had breakfast at the hotel -- it's continental, but better than just a couple of rolls and coffee.  There's good yogurt, great croissants, excellent cheeses, and solid breakfast meats. 

Then, we sat in the lobby to wait for the 8:30 arrival of our tour guide.  At 8:45, when no one had shown up, I went to the front desk, and they said that our travel agent had never confirmed the tour. 

Now, I know what you are thinking?  What does the great Iron Tourist need with a tour guide?  (Okay, you may not have included the word "great" in your thought process, but you should have!).  Well, the thinking was that it is Paris in August, and the tour guide would be able to get us around the lines and show us parts of the city that wouldn't occur to us.

So, now we had lost some time and we had to improvise on the fly.  We walked down to the Louvre
but the line was too long, so we resolved to save that till Tuesday (foreshadowing).  Cursing our travel agent's inability to send one final email confirming the tour, we grabbed a cab and headed to the Eiffel Tower.  The line was crazy long, and since we didn't have advance purchased tickets (the guide was going to handle that), we had to wait in the line. 

Eventually we made it up -- and it was worth the trip to go all the way to the top.  Fabulous views all around, and you can't shake the feeling that you are part of something amazing from the time of Jules Verne and the turn of the previous century (no, daughters, I wasn't alive then).  Stunning feeling, and I never had the uncomfortable feeling I get at steep heights. 

From there we walked to the Arc d'Triomphe to have lunch on the Champs d'Elysee.  The bummer is that the day was half gone and we'd only covered the Eiffel Tour.  The other observation is that August is tough time to come to Paris.  Unfortunately, off-year Augusts are the only time we can travel overseas for an extended length. 

And, I know, having lunch in the shadow (figuratively, not literally) of the Arc d'Triomphe is not a smart way to eat an affordable meal.  But, at least the food was pretty good.