Tour de la Eiffel and Last Day...

View from the top toward the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe.

View toward the Louvre and des Tuileries.

Self-take at the top. Somehow we were still smiling despite the long wait. I think we were just glad we made it to the 'sommet'.

Another picnic, underneath the Tour Eiffel.

So, by the time we finished our 3.5 hour extravaganza up the Eiffel Tower, we were quite famished. So, we headed back to the gourmet cheese shop off Boulevard Grenelle that was closed earlier in the week, to buy a picnic lunch to enjoy in the Parc du Champ de Mars. So, two types of cheese and a baguette and we plopped ourselves at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and had lunch. Just lovely.

After we filled our bellies, we decided to meander back toward the hotel, but try a different route along the Seine on the Left Bank. In the process I was hoping to find Julia Child's apartment when she lived in Paris in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Having read her autobiography a couple months ago, I remembered the street name, "Rue de L'Universite," which Julia and her husband Paul nicknamed "Roo de Loo." I didn't remember the number though, so Jared handily looked it up on the blackberry and off we went down Rue de L'Universite. Well, Rue de L'Universite is a very long street, and the odd and even numbers don't match up, so we missed it the first time, but finally, found it...

81 Rue de L'Universite, Julia Child's apartment in Paris.

Roo de Loo.

Self-take at the Place de la Concorde.

So after my Julia Child photo-ops, we continued our walk through the Place de la Corcorde and back to the hotel for another rest before dinner. For Night 3 of our Bistronomy tour we had reservations at Le Chateaubriand for another prix fixe dinner. After our Basque feast of the night before, I really didn't think I could stomach another 7-course meal (and certainly my waist-line couldn't with a dress to fit into for a wedding to attend in 2 days). So, I convinced Jared that instead of another prix fixe, we should get some traditional French steak frites for dinner. Afterall, steak and frites are probably my favorite meal in the world, and at the rate we were going with prix fixes, it didn't seem that would be on the menu, rather white fish and pork, pork, and more pork. So Jared did some quick research and found a "best of" steak frites in Paris list, and we made a booking for Charbon Rouge near the FDR Stop off the Champs. That was more what I had in mind... Crab cakes with guacamole to start, a delicious filet grilled to perfect with Bearnaise sauce, and homemade frites. It tied with L'Agrume for my favorite meal in Paris! Then a walk down the Champs Elysees after dinner, and our last night in Paris was perfection.

Then we woke up bright and early on Friday, 7/30, for a quick 25 minute run through the des Tuileries, before a last breakfast at the hotel, and packing up to go to the airport. Leaving Paris was bittersweet, as we had such a lovely time, but I was super excited to go home. Oh well, as Jared said best, we will definitely be back to Paris!