Shock and Awe Part 6

Turkey Day is coming up!!! and yes, i will be having Thanksgiving here, along with some 15 or so other Americans. and some foreigners who are hungry for more culture.

ALSO........................

the night came and went, and before our eyes was the sun soaring through the sky. and we, the 100+ Rotary exchange students, still occupied France. it was a sad day in our lives. we all knew it in our minds, but would not speak a word about leaving. we had our breakfast, packed our things and loaded the bus. we said our good byes to the hotel, and got on the bus.
(for this part, imagine a fireside chat. (the fireside chat setting- me, in a big comfy chair next to a roaring fire with a mantel piece strewn with random items, and filled book shelves in the background.) (oh and i'm probably drinking something out of a wine glass))
hi. i'm Mr. Exchange Student. and the mood that i just set in that last paragraph was dull, sad, not optimistic. well, i hope you don't take that seriously, because it was joke. thank you for your time reading this nonsense that i decided to put into this blog.
NOW..........
we were on our way to spend a good portion of our last day with the Eiffel Tower!
we approached the complex the same as we did the night before. they again gave us the "don't do stupid things" lecture. then, we were free to go as we please. first thing i obviously wanted to do, was to climb to the top of the Tower. i went with other people who had the same state of mind as i did. thankfully we had one of the two french exchange students with us. instead of spending 45 min to an hour in line, we asked one of the security guys where a better entrance would be. and we got a great answer. he told us to go to the south gate i think. when you are underneath, which is very cool by the way, and you are looking to the park beyond, it is the far left pillar. i'm still not sure. but we only waited 20 min in line, and the ticket was in the vicinity of 15 euros. i will next show pictures instead of describing the way up in words.

Making our way toward the Tower

View from the bottom up

The way to the top, and yes
that man is plastic

View from inside the elevator

They definitely used Google Translate

and then my friends, we made it. to the second floor:

We have that much left
to go.

The view

after our roundabout tour, we boarded another elevator that brought us the the third floor!

TO THE TOP

it was even better than the second floor! (more pictures!!!)

I give you, the city of Paris 

A loooooooong way
down (river side)

More Paris

Even more Pairs

A loooooooong way down
(park side)

It keeps going, and going, and going

If you look really closely, you
can see the statue of liberty

the Arc

it was like being back in the White Mountains of New Hampshire again, seeing forever the hills and other mountains, but here it was houses, buildings, parks, streets, alleys, restaurants, churches, cathedrals, towers; it seemed to go into oblivion. my friends and i stayed up at the top for a while, admiring Paris. then the wind started up so it got very cold. we made our decent soon after another round of the top. 

after we reached ground level, we made our way to the park where we were going to meet the rest of our group. 

Shot from the park (one of my best)

when we all grouped back together, we went on our way toward Notre Dame. 

(next post. i would like to incorporate Notre Dame with this post, but its too late, and i want to post this one now.)

here is one of my favorite pictures i took from the top. 

Telescope lens Notre Dame shot. Oh yeah, that
just went down

(to be continued..................)