Day Fourteen France - Paris (10/9/2011)

Today is Sunday, October 9, 2011.  This is our last full day in France, Paris and our entire vacation.  We've accomplished most of our agenda for Paris and it should be an easy day.  It's raining lightly in Paris this morning.  In all of our years of traveling, Mary and I have not dealt with much rain.  In Venice, we had a 15 minute downpour.  Same on this trip in Paris.  After the heavy cloudbursts, it always clears up.  We have never had to use umbrellas.  Today looks different although it's supposed to let up slightly this afternoon.  So, we stayed in the room until noon before venturing out. 

We wanted to see two things today.  1) the Eiffel Tower and, 2) Nortre Dame.  We've been close to them during our last 3 days but not close enough for a good visit.  Off we go to the Eiffel Tower.  Mary and I have both been to the top before but it was a good time to do it again. 

Once there, we decided to pay the 13.40 Euro and go to the top.  I believe the Eiffel Tower is covered by the Paris Museum Pass (at least the top is but not the two lower levels) but our pass expired yesterday.   We encounted long lines at 4 different places.  1) the main ticket line, 2) the 2nd level as you transfer elevators to go to the top, 3) at the top to come down and, 4) again at the 2nd level to change elevators and come down.  About 90 minutes worth of lines.   The weather was overcast but it wasn't raining.  Here are several pictures of our Eiffel Tower journey today.

After coming down, it was 4:30pm.  It was getting late and we decided to forego the metro to Notre Dame.  Instead we returned to the Hotel.  At 6:15pm, we had our last free meal in the Hilton Executive Club for this trip. 

It's now 8:00pm and we are now beginning to back for our 6:30am departure tomorrow morning to the airport (CDG).  Our flight isn't until 11:00 am but we want to take a taxi to avoid the multiple metro and RER changes. 

There will be a summary to these trip reports.  I want to wait first to see the credit card and Schwab bills to finalize the costs.  Also, I will be updating a separate spreadsheet that I keep that lists all of our expenses.  That's it for the trip reports.