Très chic

Our second day in Paris was just as lovely, if not more, than the day before, despite another brief rain shower. It's such a great city to just wander and enjoy the architecture, food, and culture and it's my favorite stop in the Eurotrip. 

We set out a little earlier than yesterday and got a quick café at the local shop (double for Leah who consumes quite a lot of coffee).  Our first activity was to buy the things for and have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower. I know, that sounds extremely cliché but it was also a lot of fun and one of my favorite parts of the trip. We made several stops along Rue Cler following the advice of Rick Steves. Here's a basic list of things you need for an authentic French picnic. 

1. Stop at a fruit market and pick up some fruit. 

2. Get one or two cheeses from a fromagerie. 

3. Pick up a baguette and any other sweets from a boulangerie patisserie. 

4. Choose a bottle of wine from a wine store and have them uncork it for you. 

5. Stop at the butcher and have him slice some charcuterie. 

6. Lastly, pick up some utensils and anything else you might need, like cups or jams, at a mini supermarket. 

We had a lot of fun stopping in the different stores to assemble our picnic. It was a nice experience to go from place to place and choose from a wide variety of products. The shop owners were very friendly and helpful as well. Afterwards, we headed towards the huge green lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower and set up the spread. A few other people were doing it as well but our spread was much better, minus the old poncho we are using for a blanket. 

As we were eating, the clouds began to roll in and we packed up the leftovers (not too much) and sat on a bench to finish our wine. Just as we were doing this is began to rain heavily so we had made it just in time. 

Not going to complain about the rain because it is cool outside!

We wanted better views of the tower and also possibly to ride up to the top so we started heading towards it and were able to take some great pictures. 

During the rain:

After the rain:

The lines to ride to the top were so huge we couldn't even figure out where they began. Since we had a few other things we wanted to do that afternoon, we decided to skip that and try our luck later on at night...which turned out to be completely worth it (more on that later).

Our next stop was brief as we attempted to go to a store that sells vintage Hermes and Chanel accessories (Leah's pick). She was like a kid on Christmas on the way over there. Unfortunately, the shop was closed either for vacation or forever, we couldn't tell. So that was a bummer for her but probably a blessing in disguise for her credit card. 

After that disappointment, we headed to the Musee D'Orsay, which we had picked as the one museum to go to while here. (Not really feeling any more museums at this point). It houses a large collection of Impressionist paintings from Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pisarro, Degas, and a few Van Gogh. There are also some very impressive sculptures in the museum. It was a nice one to visit and we spent about 1.5 hours looking at the things we wanted to see. 

Giant see-through clock at the museum

View of the city from the museum:

For dinner, we picked a restaurant near the Eiffel Towel that Rick Steve's had also recommended. I was able to check some more foods off of the "to-eat" list but the entire meal was delicious. We ordered two appetizers, one entree to split, and two desserts. French food is so delicious I could cry. 

*I must research and find all of the French restaurants at home and also try out some new recipes. 

Before dinner:

First course - cantaloupe and Serrano ham and escargot. My favorite course of the night!

Second course - filet in a pepper sauce with frites

Third course - tarte tatin (which did NOT look like Ina's) and creme brûlée (phenomenal)

Post dinner with full bellies

At the end of dinner, we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night as it was lit up and also try our luck with the long lines to go up to the top. The tower at night is even more beautiful than during the day. It's hard to describe how magnificent it is except to say that was my fourth time laying eyes on it and I was still enthralled. We were also able to get in line for the elevators and only had to wait 20 minutes instead of three hours for tickets. I guess the key is to go at night when it's almost about to close. We were pushing it as they stop selling tickets around 11:00 and we got in line at 10:35. But we made the cutoff with five minutes to spare. However, the lines to actually ride the elevators up and down were long.  We spent about 1 hour waiting to ride, riding, and seeing the view from the top. It's a neat experience to go at night. When we were getting off of the last elevator at the ground, the tower started to sparkle and it was a perfect end to the day. 

Really excited because we made it in time - the guy behind us, not so much

Panorama of the city

View of the Seine:

I'm already missing Paris and we haven't even left yet but we head back to London this evening by train to fly home tomorrow. We still have a few more things to do today to finish up our Parisian vacation!