Places we went to the top of

I spent my last few days in France in Paris. But, before I get ahead of myself.....Christmas itself was fun. Much different than Christmas at home though--for one thing, no snow! Also, sending off fireworks from the front yard, and screaming for Pere Noel so he could find the house, was a new (and welcome) addition to Christmas traditions. The meals were amazing, and very long! Christmas lunch itself lasted over 5 hours! And both Christmas Eve dinner and lunch on Christmas day began with a course of fresh oysters. I had brought some dried fruit and some chocolate from Israel--and for some reason the chocolate was a bigger hit. I'd brought it for the children--it has little candies inside the chocolate bars that explode in your mouth when you eat it (kind of like putting pop rocks inside chocolate) (was quite proud of myself when I explained this in French)--but it was so odd that everyone wanted to try it.

We drove to Paris from Alex's Aunt's house, where we had spent Christmas, and dropped the rental car off in the city (I think we were both surprised when we actually found the rental office.....although it wasn't the office we were intending to go to.....there was a lot more construction areas, unlaned and unmarked streets than we were expecting, but we arrived safe and sound).

We went to many of the top 'tourist places' in Paris, and went to the top of some of them as well (hence the title of the post). Here is one place that we went to the top of, the Arc de Triumphe.



Although they tell you the number of stairs it takes to get to the top, it actually seemed much fewer. Although it's possible to get a little dizzy--the stairs go around, and around and around.....and......around.


From the top there is a good view of the Champs de Mars--a street in Paris that is famous for it's shopping. The Christmas lights were very pretty from the top.



We went to the Eglise de Notres Dames, although we didn't go to the top of this.


The doorways are all full of carvings of different Saints and people from the bible. You could spend a long time looking at them, and still see all kinds of new details.



We went by the Louvre. That's right......went by it. I am one of the few tourists who went to Paris, but didn't go inside the Louvre (although Sara and I did get some 'free art' through the windows....suckers who pay to go inside!). When you only have 2 days, you have to be discriminating, and the Louvre just didn't make the cut : ) We did go to a smaller museum dedicated to Salvador Dali--his work is a lot more diverse than I ever knew (both in medium and in....well, if you've seen any Dali, I think you'd agree that it's 'diverse').
Here's most of what we saw of the Louvre (minus the free window art).


This is Montmarte Sacre-Coeur. We did go to the top of this....ok, not to the top of the building, but at least to the top of the stairs the building is on. Trying to keep consistent here! Sara tells me that the stairs in front are where the scene from Amelie is filmed where she spots the motorcycle guy with the binoculars and then runs down the stairs chasing him. We could have re-enacted the scene...but who wants to pay a euro to look through binoculars?



Another view of Montmarte Sacre-Coeur.


Finally, the last place we went to the top of, the Eiffel tower. Despite how cliche every says it is, going to the top is worth the (long long) time in line--great views of Paris, especially at night. Just as a reminder, this is the Eiffel tower : )


After going to the top, of course we had to get cotton candy.......it's a French tradition! So, as promised, another repeating theme--Jennie and Sara with Cotton Candy (bigger than both our heads put together).

You'll notice that the shot of the tower was taken during the day, and when we came down it is night. That's not because we spent the day in line (although sometimes it feels like it). This was also a trend for us (scroll back to the Arc de Triumphe pictures)....I was going to label this post "Places in Paris we visited multiple times". If you only have a few days to see things in Paris, you may as well see those things really really well?

That was it for Paris. Except for the hours in the airport my final morning trying to get back into Israel. I was lucky I'd left lots of time to get on the plane, because I sure needed all of it! Apparently, I'm quite suspicious. I was interviewed by security more than any one else on my flight--for over 2 hours. They even went and talked to Sara for a while! But obviously, I convinced them that it was safe to let me into Israel, and I got on the plane. I wonder what would have been more suspicious: When the asked me for my paystubs from UBC (which I didn't have) proving I was on scholarship (?!?), does it look better to not have them and not be able to prove anything, or, for some reason, to have brought all my paystubs with me, not only to Israel from Canada, but also on vacation? The joys of living in Israel......a little spoiler here......I know realize that this was only training for future trips, and future adventures with airport security!