"Jump with the moon and move it, Jump back and forth, It feels like you would let yourself work it out"
-DARE, Gorillaz

Day 2: Monday, November 28th, 2005:

Today Rusty and I went on one of those hop on/hop off tour buses of the city that I love and do in almost every major city I go to (twice in London, Ottawa, New York City, Barcelona, twice in Paris, etc.) as part of a cure for jet lag (like the time I fell asleep on the top of a double decker one in London while filming Westminster Abbey) and they make for a good orientation of the city.

We picked up the bus from the Louvre and winded its way onto Ile de la Cite and around Notre Dame, along the Seine and the Latin Quarter, past the Musee D’Orsay, Place de la Concorde, down the Champs Elysees the famous shopping district, and around the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower. Rusty and I walked up to the second floor of the tower and took the lift the rest of the way up. It was soooo cold and windy. Quite a difference from the last time I was there in April. And it is much harder to stomp up the stairs when you are wearing 3 sweaters and a winter coat. Getting into the lift is always fun as people just shove into a little glass box as hard and fast as they can. Not for the claustrophobic.

It was partly cloudy, but we still had some great views of the Arc, the Champs de Mars, the Ecole Militaire, and all the way onto the hill of Montmartre where Sacre Coeur basilica was visible. Here is a nice view of the Trocadero from the top of the tower.

We had lunch at a café on the second level of the Eiffel Tower which consisted of a really nasty sandwich (no Kate, not THE sandwich of which you spoke so highly of and I was so disappointed of…that comes later) and Rusty had “Sausage and Fries” which was a cup of French fries with two really undercooked looking hotdog things. You have to eat it with a fork and ketchup (or catsup if you are Mr. Burns) costs .30 euros extra. I just shuddered thinking about it, just like the worst sandwich I ever had in Quebec City on our grade 9 trip…there goes my appetite.

We walked down the steps of the tower to the Champs de Mars to take pictures, then it was back on the bus, past Hotel des Invalides where Napoleon is buried (boring!) and back to the Opera Garnier area.

We went into Galeries Lafayette, a really fancy department store filled with things you can’t afford (although cheaper than Harrod’s in London from what I recall). They did have some fantastic Christmas decorations (take that The Bay!). We had dinner at Chez Clement, this chain restaurant in Paris. I actually ate at the exact location last time I was there, but they had crème brulee, my favourite dessert so I couldn’t resist.

I had booked a tour for us before we left Canada for a tour of the city’s monuments at night and a cruise on the Seine. The bus drove by all the major sites that were illuminated at night. Our cruise went from the Eiffel Tower along the Seine to Notre Dame and then back. Very cold but nice.

The Eiffel Tower does this really tacky thing at night where it gets all sparkly like the Las Vegas skyline for about 10 minutes on the hour. Not to mention the revolving spotlights that are at the top of it. So tacky. Great big sparkling montrosity. Reminds me of being home in Niagara Falls…

We took the metro back to our hotel. The metro in Paris has this awesome sign that tells you exactly how many minutes until the next train comes, which is something we need here in Toronto.

In other “news,” we have to do this stupid seminar at work on Friday (the day after our Xmas party nonetheless) and we had to fill out a questionnaire that took 30 minutes in prep for it in order to find our character strengths. My strengths are humour and playfulness, love of learning, creativity and originality, interest in the world, and- here’s what shocked me- ability to love and be loved. You had to answer questions according to “That’s not like me at all” to “That describes me perfectly.” My favourite question was “I do not hold grudges.” I’m holding several right now. We’ll see how the seminar goes on Friday with the quack who doesn’t even seem to know what it is we do here. Our last training session was on customer service. About 4 out of 65 of us actually deal with the outside public. Morons.

OVERRATED: Coffee. Just in general. I didn’t have any at any Parisian cafes. I’m a hardcore tea drinker all the way and can count on one hand the number of coffees I have ever had in my life (2, not counting sugary espressos I had during the month I spent in Italy for high school Art credit, because there was more sugar than espresso)
UNDERRATED: Croissants. I had my fill of them in Paris, but that didn’t stop me from eating a free one today at work.

"That's what you do, baby"