More Notre Dame

GARGOYLES! (not only descriptive, but a Wife Swap reference, for those who are fanatics, like my boyfriend)

The backside, and famed 'flying buttresses'.

After walking the entire perimeter, we continued our walk along the River Seine, and came across even more pretty sights.

A random pretty street. So Parisian, with balconies and window shutters.

After we tired of walking, we headed back to the hotel to rest up before Night 2 of our Bistonomy tour de Paris. Our restaurant of choice was Chez L'Ami Jean, located between the Eiffel Tower and Invalides. The chef, Jared later informed me, is from the Basque region of France (the mountains between Spain and France), and the food was pretty heavy "man's man" food, which, although I enjoyed, was a little bit heavier than I would have liked, after the light summery menu of the day before. Also, every single savory course (4 of them! excluding dessert) contained pork. I definitely think I made the most of my time outside a Muslim country... We ordered the 7-course prix fixe (again, easier when you can't read the menu). Our first course was a seafood chowder with crispy bacon bits. Next came two different white fish courses (I didn't take notes on this meal since it I didn't fancy it as much), so the details escape me now, but I know that they both had a big ole piece of bacon on top. And the main course was a giant pork medallion. Nothing green came with this meal, and really a minimal amount of starch. It might have actually worked well for someone on the Adkin's Diet... Good quality food, cooked to perfection, but a bit heavy. An American man sitting next to us with his 8 year old daughter ordered a beef dish and ended up with a 5 pound rare roast for he and his daughter to share, if that gives you any idea. For dessert we had rice pudding (in a big bowl, enough for probably 8 people to share) and a couple other little parfaits that I wasn't too excited about. Jared loved this meal. It was his favorite of the week. Once again we stumbled back to our hotel in a food and wine induced coma and passed out.

On Thursday, 7/29, we woke up for our last full day in Paris. The one other major 'touristy' thing that I wanted to do was go up the Eiffel Tour. We had seen the Tower a number of times, but going up it is something that I always wanted to do, and something I always wanted to do with Jared (how romantic). So after our yummy hotel breakfast, we walked to the Tour Eiffel. Well, my romantic notions soon dissipated as we got into the line of hundreds of people snaking around the base of the tower. The round trip took 3 and a half hours, and after Jared had a run-in with Austrian tourists who seemed to be cutting the queue, all romanticism went out the window. Fantastic views though...

Jared with the Tower.

On the way up, another attempt at being artsy.