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Paris, France

Today was our last day in Paris and the national holiday. Our thoughts turned to home where our Lili would also be celebrating, singing French songs for her French former employers who have a lovely French cafe – deli in Whakatane. We shared a video or two of her singing with our charming and friendly reception person Justin who became an instant fan and very complimentary on her accent and singing. He felt she would be very popular in France.

We popped up to the supermarket for the last time to get our lunch, savouring the tastes of cheese and foie gras which are our favourites along with some Spanish Jamon which in our opinion is the best cured pork in the world. We did a final clear up and chuck out of anything not necessary to take home and did a pre pack ready for a speedy exit in the morning before braving the busy subways for our appointment with the gargoyles of Notre Dame.

There was a long line waiting to go up and only one and a half hours till closing time at 4 pm, so I was a little anxious that we may not make it up in time. Vernon was also keen to see the plane display scheduled for 3 pm so he ditched the queue to walk to a bridge in the hope of seeing some of the action, it meant that he may miss out on the tower climb but he was willing to risk it. So I waited and waited and finally after an hour and with only 30 minutes left before closing I got to begin my solo ascent up the narrow winding and steep 300 steps without my husband.

After being joined at the hip for 3 months it felt weird doing an event without my other half and I felt like a solo traveller which was not as much fun as sharing the experience with someone else, the flip side of that is the experience was all mine!

The level where the famous gargoyles are is very small and narrow with high wires to stop jumpers or accidents so I can see why the line was so long as they can only let about 20 up at a time. It was great to finally see the Gargoyles close up and the views from the cathedral over the old part of the city are lovely. Because of the very tight squeeze and limited time up there it was hard to get carried away with thoughts of the “Hunch-back of Notre Dame” but still worth the climb. It was quite hard to get a good photo but I was pleased with my efforts and a friendly irish family asked if I would like my photo taken and of course I returned the favour.

After your short time up there you can go up a further 100 steps to a panoramic platform on top of one of the towers, but I did not feel that enthusiastic just to get a view of the other side of the city so I descended wondering where I would find my husband as we had omitted to discuss that detail when we parted. Thinking bush sense, I returned to the entry line where we left eachother hoping to see him waiting patiently in the shade. Nope, no husband there, so I did a walk around with no luck and then went back to the line to wait.

I didn’t have to wait too long and he appeared with a cheery did you see me from up the top? No, but I did actually wave from the top like the Queen Marsha to the people on the big viewing seating area below in case he was there and apparently he had been waving up to me LOL.
Regarding the planes Vernon didn’t see any and then found out that the fly over was at 10am in the morning! Just goes to prove that internet information is not always accurate (again). By the time he made it back to the tower line I was just disappearing up the tower!

Rejoined at the hip we went home for a rest and dinner before making our way out to the fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower scheduled for 11pm. We had dinner at the only place open locally which was the unimpressive corner bistro. We ordered a regional sausage with something like chitterlings in it and it was filled with offal and unknown bits. Even for me it was a bit much unless I smothered it in mustard, the other dish was supposedly a rib roast on a board, but it was a boot sole of a steak … Ah well, should have got extra picnic at lunch when the supermarket was open.

By the time we actually got our meal and then waited about half an hour for the bill to arrive (even after asking for it which is typically French) we had just enough time to walk the 2 km to the tower. To be precise we didn’t make it all the way due to crowds of people like I have never seen before, a little scary thinking of crowd crush etc. We got as far as a Military building on the edge of a park and managed to get a line of sight through some trees.

The crowd hushed just before the fireworks started and then everyone wowed, cheered and clapped as the spectacle begun. It was an amazing 40 minutes of music, laser, changing colours and lights on the tower, and fireworks of every shape and colour. We have never seen anything like it before and the atmosphere of hundreds of thousands of people celebrating around the iconic tower was unforgettable.

Walking home was another experience in itself, we just got moved along in the tide of people …… I must look up how many they estimate attend the fireworks. Not many hours to sleep before our big travel day, but the big night out was so worth it!

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