Day 2

The priority of day 2 was to buy a new Memory Stick since we left ours at home. Fortunately the words Memory Stick was understood even though I spoke no French. We bought one at BHV, the huge department store closeby.

Next priority was to buy Louvre and Versailles tix in advance, from an electronic store called FNAC, BTW, not all FNAC sells them. We got them at a large (4 floors) FNAC, underground, near the Chatalet metro station. Louvre tix allows you to get in through Richlieu passage, which saves you from the long long line at the glass pyramid, i.e., the front door, where most tourists went through. And Versailles tix allows you to get in thru Entry B2, again, no long line! (Side note: later on we found out directions at those places were very unclear about who could get in from which entrance as they sell many different type of tix. I guess that's typical French chaotic way >:)

In the evening, the plan was to take a cruise on the famous Seine river that run through the city of Paris. So we took Metro and exited near Grand Palais/Petit Palais/Champs Elysees. According to the tour guide book and map, Pont Alexander III is minutes away and we should be able to get on board a cruise boat. Well, while the former is true, the latter is not quite. We ended up spending another 15 minutes to get to Pont d'Alma, where we missed the boat that departed at 7pm but finally able to get on the one for 7:30pm. This delay had an adverse effect which was not known at that point. Anyway, the hour-long cruise costed 7 euro and I highly recommend it 'coz it showed and explained all the landmarks along Seine. Madeline had a ton of fun walking up and down the boat and annoyed the hell out of an old lady who scolded her in French. Well, Madeline ne comprend pas le Français.

The final stop of the day was Eiffel Tower. And that's where we had dinner: very fine French cuisine at Atitude 95, a restaurant on the 1st floor. The dinner started around 10pm, which is considered late in US but very normal in Europe. We didn't get home until 12:30am!

Eiffel