Another monster of a day! We used the second day of our hop on hop off to get over to the Champs-Élysées, where we had a stroll and window shopped and K got to check off a visit to Tiffany’s in Paris. We stopped in at a cafe where the waiters were wearing very french striped long sleeve shirts and funny little sailors caps. We ordered aperol spritzes (mainly just to use the bathroom) that came out topped with a bonbon and marshmallow, which was an unexpected treat!

place-de-concorde

arc

Hopped back on the bus for a few stops to get a bit closer to the meetup spot for our Eiffel Tower tour (thank you to SVP of Event Planning, K). We met up at a little wine cellar for champagne and light bites; it was nice to be able to chat in English with the handful of people in our group. The tour guide was also super nice and will likely be looking after our kitties when we’re back in December!

The tower itself was great - after a minor wait for the initial elevator we zipped right up to the second floor.

Walked over - up close and personal!

eiffel1

Here we go! eiffelup

East(ish)

eiffel-first-level

Look! eiffel-first-level-up

Southeast lawn eiffel-first-level-lawn

Southwest (there’s a statue of liberty at the very end of that island!) eiffel-west-river

It was awe inspiring going even further up - so high!! We skipped out on 18 Euro flutes of champagne at the top… though a mother and daughter in our group bought a flute and were loaning it out so that people could take pictures with it (lol).

Southeast lawn, but higher

eiffel-top-lawn

Views out over Trocadéro Square trocadero1

trocadero2

The trip back down took an eternity - there was a ginormous line at the very top for the 1 or 2 (of 6) elevators running??? A little annoying but still an undeniably amazing experience :)

Back on the ground, we ubered to a très chic hotel bar, “Jacques” (pronounced “jax”, wha?!), where we had a super delicious cocktail, chatted with the super friendly bartender, and took turns cleaning up before our dinner reservation.

jax

Dinner was right next door where we had a great table at the very back of the restaurant with a view into the kitchen! The six course menu felt more like ~20 courses, as each course featured the same ingredients prepared three different ways. The wine pairing was great, food was great, wait staff was so incredibly nice and attentive, and the head chef even came out near the end of the meal and talked to every single table in the place which was pretty dang cool. We ended up closing the place out (by just a few minutes) - one of the best meals I’ve ever had!

Some context, which I think is pretty fun - as far as I can tell the name is a reference to a collection of 16th century novels, “Gargantua and Pantagruel”. The novels present the comic and satiric story of the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, and various companions, whose travels and adventures are a vehicle for ridicule of the follies and superstitions of the times.

No pictures of dinner, but here is a fun piece of art they had up

pantagruel

Full and (very) toasty, we had a lovely hour long walk back home, even though both of our feet were barking at us.

notre-dame-night