Paris: Jour 2
Graduation Day
We began dernier jour with a great breakfast at the hotel after a comfortable nights sleep. We met the group and headed to the Louvre where Dimitri provided an orientation. The night before we were advised to download Rick Steves’ walking tour of the Louvre as there would be no guide. At first I was disapointed especially since, due to a security issue, we rerouted to another entrance of the Denon wing which made figuring out the tour difficult. I thought a local guide would have been better especially due to the vastness of the Louvre. But then again, we are now travelers who know how to go with the flow and have been taught the skills of efficient and effective traveling. So after some time we figured out where we were and were able to use the walking tour on tape to find our way around the fantastic artwork in the Louvre. Listening to Rick, who seemed like an old friend, we learned all about the major works in the Louvre from Delacroix’s Liberte to Venus de Milo.
Le Tour Eiffel
We had the afternoon free so we had scheduled a tour of the Eiffel Tower with Fat Tire Tours before we left the United States. All the reservations for the day were booked months in advance. The tour was reasonable and the guide was very friendly and informative and the tour allowed us to bypass the line which saved us valuable travel time. We were cutting it close so we first found the meeting place and then ate lunch nearby so we wouldn’t miss the tour. Again, the tour was very informative and the young American-born Paris-raised guide was friendly and funny as he provided the history of the tower.
Back to the engagement, after not being able to do the set-up at Sacre Couer, I decided the Eiffel Tower would be the next best option. The first time we went to the tower it was too foggy and the upper deck was obscured. So Veronica reluctantly agreed to go by the Eiffel Tower again. It was winter and a bit cold as we stepped out on the upper observation deck and positioned ourselves to overlook Sacre Couer. It was there that I asked Veronica to marry be and she said yes! So we took a moment at the scene of the crime for a quick kiss. We then made our way back down to the base of the tower and said goodbye to our delightful guide. This gave us time to get back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.
The Last Supper
We met in the hotel lobby and took the metro to Ecole Militare (Military School) and made our way to the upper floor of Le Terrasse du 7eme. We had most of the floor to ourselves. We had a great dinner reminiscing about all the places we had been and the wonders we had seen. Not to mention the friendships we had forged. At the end of the dinner Dimitri distributed a chapeau to each of us. The chapeau could have easily been a mortar board (graduation cap) as we were about to graduate from the Best of Europe in 21 Days tour in a spectacular celebration at the Eiffel Tower.
