EuroX Trip: Day 9

More and more I get the feeling that Paris is a city for lovers. Particularly this time of year, where the cold encourages snuggling on the street. Never a bad thing, snuggling.

Today, we went to ... The Eiffel Tower!!! That's right, that iconic of French attractions. It was really, really windy today, not to mention wet. The climb up was tiring, and looooong. There are many steps, and I am glad that I had training climbing the stairs at St Paul's Cathedral to get to the Stone Gallery at the top.

We returned back to our hotel, where there was a minor crisis! I had lost the key to my luggage, so I had to call the handyman, who kindly sawed the lock open. He was Vietnamese, and there was much rejoicing, for I could finally hold a proper conversation in a language I was (semi-)fluent in. I asked him about a good place for pho, to which he pointed me to this place near the Tolbiac station, called Pho 14. Maan, what is it with pho places giving themselves random numbers? I know there is a Pho 75 in Adelaid, and there were other ones in Saigon.

After this disaster was averted, we headed for Notre Dame cathedral, for a guided tour. The woman giving the tour was not very good - she kept forgetting things and would trail off into irrelevant anecdotes. It lasted TWO hours, and not as good as the tour we had at Westminster.

Dinner ... was absolutely divine. After navigating our way to Tolbiac station (we ran into some trouble along the way when we discovered one route was closed for maintenance, and saw three French military dudes patrolling the Place d'Italie station carrying FAMAS guns), dinner reminded me of home. I suppose the japanese saying about the taste of your mother's cooking is true ... it can never be replicated, but things that come damn close can remind you of it.

Dinner done, we went to Montparnasse Tower, a huge skyscraper that goes up to 210m. Coming up, the Paris nightscape was lit up, and the Eiffel Tower was very visible. The way it lit up makes you want to embrace someone and enjoy their company. This will be one thing I will do should I ever return to Paris with a lover.