Day five...Orsey and Eiffel

Today the sun was out, but still a chill in the air, but it was tolerable. The high was 54, but it did get down to 40 degrees. Soon, we would know how cold it was. As with every morning, we walked down to our favorite boulangerie, me my baguette that I have grown to love and Alx his croissant.

Headed down to Musee' d' Orsey. From the outside it looks huge so we allotted at least four hours to make sure we would be able to see all. It is big, however the amount of gallery space is not. Everything is on one side of the building on five floors. On the other side it is open space, but on the first floor, their are galleries on both sides. Filled with works from Renoir, Monet, Van Gough, Degas and many others, fell in love. These pieces you could just get lost in thought as you looked at each one. Well, of course until some tourist came and got right in front of you taking pictures and such. Ugh!!!! The Monet pieces were my absolute favorite. One of the really cool things inside was being behind one of the great big clocks. You do not really get a chance to see what the clocks look like from behind. I am sure that there are much more complex tower clocks to see.








We walked down towards the Eiffel Tower, as we neared the tower it becomes more and more crowded with rugby fans for each of their teams. Many tourist hear today are from other countries as the Rugby 2007 World Cup is here in Paris and the finals were today, Saturday. Behind the tower is a park that Paris has put up a big jumbo screen so that everyone can watch the games rather than at the actually stadium. It was a huge party, young people walking with cases of beer in hand heading down to the park to watch the game and party. It was pretty crazy to see from the top of the Eiffel as you could still hear them.

It was nearing the evening as the sun was beginning to set. The wait time to get up was about 45 minutes. There are elevator on each leg of the tower to take you up, and I actually thought that each lift took you up to the top, wrong. Each level has another elevator to take to the top. At the second level, we were outside and OMG it was cold. I am thinking there is no way I am going to be able to handle this. As we got on the elevator, signs everywhere watch for pickpocketing. Luckily we really had nothing on us so not a big deal. As the lift climbed to the top, of course you have to look down and out, though I am not scared of heights but I am scared of falling. The vertigo feeling set in, not to worry I say to myself and I am sure there are safety mechanisms all in place.

We get to the top and to doors open. I thought the second level was cold, oh no, level three is way below zero Fahrenheit. The view is magnificent and we made it time to catch the sunset. To see the city and all of crazy rue's and boulevards from so high up, WOW!!!! We lasted about fifteen minutes and sorry to say had to head back down. Once we reached ground level, the crowds are much more as the final between S. Africa and England is nearing the end of the game. Fans are drunk and falling all over, it was pretty crazy to see. At the end, S. Africa won which is good, had England won I could totally see problems arising.










Due to the continuation of the strike, we did walk back to our apartment. Of course not knowing what we can and can not take, and not yet being comfortable we chose to walk. Two hours later we arrived at our favorite restaurant La Pignata and had dinner. Afterward went to our home in Paris and crashed.