Day 11 - Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower & Udon

It was our first full day in Paris! We hustled to shower and get downstairs before free breakfast time was over. It felt like being back in a dorm - a tiny, international dorm with a sweet old french lady that brought the breakfast trays around. Small clusters of youngish kids sat at the other tables, some still in sweatpants, grazing on brekkie.

Monsieur motioned toward an open table near the window. We obediently sat down and watched Saturday morning strollers making their way along the sidewalk on the other side of our wall. Many (whose faces were within a foot of us) insisted on looking in, so I tried to get people to smile at me by flashing big all-teeth grins at anyone who happened by our porthole. Varying degrees of success with that one.

And this was our daily bread. For each - a baguette, a triangle of foil-wrapped spreadable cheese, a single serving of faux Nutella, a pat of butter, a single serving of strawberry preserve, canned fruit, and coffee with hot milk on the side! This became known as "Breakfast #1". A diabetic's nightmare, but it held us over at least til we found the next snack.

We passed by the open-air farmer's market that happens on Saturdays, not too far from the hotel. There were lots of meats and cheeses, and stuff like this being sold.

Then we walked over to Notre Dame.

Even though I'm not religious, that rose window terrorizes my heart! My eyes teared up.

Milled around for a while taking underexposed, blurry pictures, and emerged from the crowded church ready for lunch.

We wandered down an alley and found a falafel stand.

I was excited to eat some green things.

We walked along the Seine some more, passing book stands, the Louvre and the beautiful Musée d'Orsay.

Soon enough, the need for a coffee and a pit-stop brought us to this Eric Kayser.

Evan ordered us café, and got a little eclaire. I was still hungry, so I opted for a saaavory artichoke quiche.

We got on the Metro and headed west...

...to the Eiffel Tower.

Feeling strong (and seeing the line was shorter) we chose the walkers' pillar.

This is what the crowd below looked like from the first platform.

And this is what we looked like from the first platform.

We walked up to the next platform...




...and had to take the lift to the top. The wind was blowing pretty briskly.

On the way down, I lucked out and was one of the first people to get loaded into the elevator, so I got a great spot - smashed up right next to the glass.

We hopped back on the Metro, surfaced near the Louvre and found a café to warm up in across the street. Intending to follow through on Lee's suggestion of hot chocolates, Evan got a croque-monsieur and I got a hot tea - I think our sugar capacities had been reached. We sat and rested for a bit, staring at people on the street as the sun set.

Dinner time! Since we were close to Opéra, I dragged Evan over to a place my friend Kyle had raved about - Kunitoraya. He'd said it was a must if I liked udon! It was on Rue Ste-Anne, which seemed to be a Little Tokyo of sorts - lots of Japanese restaurants, travel agencies, etc. Lines for all the restaurants were forming up and down the street. We queued up and studied the menu in the window.

Eventually we were ushered down some stairs, into what looked like a catacomb-y cellar. A series of questions posed to the waiters in english/bad japanese yielded some delicious foods.

Evan got the more traditional ramen - the sauce was in another bowl. His was awesome!

I went for the stunt flavor - the curry udon. It was a bit thick and corn-starchy, which I guess helped it to stay steaming hot till the bitter end!

After all the eating, we opted out of any more public transportation and took a digestion-aiding stroll back to the hotel. Ahh - Paris on a Saturday night!

We managed to get back up the five flights of stairs, and powered down for the night in our warm, saffron toned wifi chamber.