Ordinary Gente

Taking in the view of the Eiffel Tower at 7AM has many advantages. The first is that on an August morning, there are very few people are on the Champ du Mars. A sprinkling of tourists, spaced far apart enjoyed the quiet of the morning. Secondly, the traffic swirling around the base of the Tower seemed to respect the quiet of the morning. And most importantly, Luis is happy to get unobstructed views of the famous tower in the diffused light. He took photos galore.

This little snapshot is from far away with my funky cell phone. Luis’ photos are sure to impress.

On the Champs du Mars, four buses suddenly disgorged hundred of Asian tourists and our focus changed to the other side of the park. It was then that we saw two city workers meticulously peering into each tree that lined the Champs, and open every water valve box. We first thought they were checking the rat traps. (There are signs everywhere saying to put your trash in the bin to reduce the rats. Ee-ew.) But as Luis went to snap pictures of the workers, they indicated not to. Apparently they were not looking for rats, but for bombs. We have seen serious military, national police and city police everywhere. They don’t like their picture taken.

We walked from the 7th arrondossiment (?) to the Notre Dame, taking in the exterior of beautiful buildings. It is the eve of the Feast of the Assumption and Notre Dame had special Masses. We attended one but it was hours long and had no less than 100 clergy in the procession including the bishop. Before the Mass I happened to be where they were taking photos of the organist and some clergy. I don’t know exactly what their roles were but the security, once again, was everywhere. For unknown reasons they let me stay swatted next to the official photographer and they cleared all others from the front of Notre Dame for a photo session.

Eventually we headed back to our apartment for a nap of epic proportions and then back to the Eiffel Tower at 8PM to see the sunset and for our timed tickets to the top. Thank goodness we had purchased skip the line tickets months ago because the lines to buy tickets were blocks long. The views are breathtaking and they made our long day worthwhile. (Tomorrow, a relatively relaxing hop on/hop off boat ride… but I don’t know how much hopping these tired feet can do).