Day two in Paris started at the Galleries Lafayette where, amazingly, the only thing we bought was breakfast at the cafe on the top floor! We then headed to Ile de la Cite, the oldest part of Paris. We crossed the Pont Neuf at the top of the island and walked past the Palace of Justice on our way to Notre Dame. I must admit, we discussed The Hunchback of Notre Dame as we saw the sights (yes, the Disney version). We even managed to be there to hear the bells ring. There were no sightings of Quasimodo!
After returning to the top of the island again, we boarded one of the tour boats for our trip along the Seine. 
We learned that there are 37 bridges that cross the Seine in Paris (compared to the 7 that cross the Duna in Budapest!). We saw the Musee d’Orsay which used to be a train station, the American Church which is a national treasure as it is decorated with Tiffany stained glass windows, and then this large towering thing that gave us arguably the best picture of Emily yet! It was our first close encounter with the Eiffel Tower and she was over the moon!
After our return to Ile de la Cite, we hopped the Metro to Charles de Gaulle Etoile where we found the Arc de Triomphe.
Conveniently located at the far end of the Champ d’Elysees, it gave us another wonderful place to stroll. We checked out the Arc and then headed back towards the Place de la Concorde. But since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and dinner was at 7 o’clock, we thought an afternoon tea break at a cafe was called for. The kids had crepes, MaryAnn had ice cream and Mike and I shared a cheese plate. Everyone was very happy.
That evening brought us to one of the highlights of our trip to Paris – dinner at Altitude 95 on the first platform of the Eiffel Tower. It was a very nice meal and we had a great table overlooking the right bank. Afterwards, we were able to wander around the platform and check out the view. It was great as the sun was setting and all of the lights were coming on in the city.
It was really spectacular.
I just have to point out that I have appeared in 2 pictures in this entry – It was very nice to have MaryAnn around to take some family shots!
After the sun was down, we left the viewing platform and headed down the Champ de Mars toward the Ecole Militaire which also houses the French Riding School. I only mention this because we were at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and Emily thought it was a sign! We kept walking backwards because the Eiffel Tower was so beautiful all lit in blue that we couldn’t take our eyes off of it! Good thing, too, because at 10:00 they turned the blue lights off and covered the tower in sparkling white lights! They flickered and flashed for 10 minutes before the tower went blue again. C’est Magnifique!
