Une journee congelee!

To say that it is cold here right now is an understatement.  I came dressed for the usual Parisian winter of an average high of 45 degrees.  It's been about 25-30 with around 10 mile an hour wind...making it feel like 15 degrees or less.  It got so cold yesterday that we decided not to walk.  That's right, even Colin agreed to take the Metro and he doesn't normal like to go down into the tunnels because they tend to be a little stuffy, with a hint of urine in the air. 

We took the 9 to the 11 and got off at Hotel de Ville where we caught one of those double decker tour buses.  Since it was super sunny, we sat on the top level, which had an open roof, but the first couple of rows have a cover on three sides.  Seemed like a good idea...at first.  As we approached the first picture worthy monument, I pulled out my camera, aimed, focused, push the button and saw a familiar line flash across the screen, "No memory card".  Dammit!  So, no pictures...sorry.  I'll have to borrow my Dad's memory card and add some photos later today!

The bus started at Hotel de Ville, then went to the ancient Opera Garnier, now the home of the Paris Ballet.  Next it wound around to the Champs Elysees and went straight to the Arc de Triomphe.  Here we finally found the rest of the tourists.  My dad was amazed at the amount of Paris we hadn't seen yet!  

 We passed the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais and went around the Place de Concorde a few times.  This is where you can find the oldest thing in Paris, an obelisk from Egypt dating to more than 3300 years ago!  Amazing!  It replaced the giant guillotine, which took the heads of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and thousands more.

We next headed towards the Trocadero.  At this point, I realized that I could no longer feel my feet.  Since we have the right to "Hop on, Hop off" the bus, I asked everyone if we could exercise this right.  They all agreed.  This is also the best place to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower since it's expansive square is elevated and just across the Seine from the famous Tour.  

As I stepped off of the bus, I realized that the bottoms of my feet were completely numb.  It felt like I was walking on stumps!  AH!  We hurried over to the Trocadero where I knew we would find several places to buy some chocolat chaud.  I ordered my hot chocolate and ran to go stand in the sun, letting Colin finish the transaction.  He brought my my cup and I was shaking so hard that I spilled my precious drink all over my gloves prompting the need to now remove them!  Not awesome, but funny in retrospect.

We next headed up La Tour Eiffel.  Since it's February, the line was relatively short, but man, it felt like an eternity!  It was so cold and dangerous on the top floor that they had it closed off to the public.  But, the second floor is of course, very high up and offers a magnificent view of the city as it stretched out as far as the eye can see!  But I was still soo cold!  I stayed on the less windy/sunnier side of the tower and let everyone else go around and take in all sides of the tower!  

 Check out the video my dad took while we were on the elevator up to the top.

After the Eiffel tower, he headed straight home, where I was NEVER so happy to have chosen an apartment with a bathtub!  I soaked for a good 2 hours and then got into my bed for another hour while Colin cooked us an amazing lentil soup!  SO GOOD!!!  Hooray for Colin and his miracle soup because today, I feel great and raring to go!  On the agenda today is a visit to the Louvre and then off to the department stores for a bit of shopping!