After Notre Dame, we worked our way around the city, mostly on foot, but on the subway as well (wow did my feet hurt by the end of the day!). We marked all kinds of things in the guidebook that we wanted to see, but I was waiting for one thing - The Eiffel Tower. When Wayne told me we were going to Paris, one of the first things I asked was - Can we see the Eiffel Tower from our room?? He quickly informed me that they charge 3x the regular amount for such things and this time the answer would have to be no. Not that it mattered to me much at all.
As we made our way across the city, I took photograph after photograph of random things. I found the city to be just amazing and it took until the next morning for it to feel real. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was actually in Paris. It looked more like a movie with scenes of this place I'd seen on screen a million times before, but would never see for myself because that's just not my life. it's someone else's life - the kind you see in movies.
After walking a while, we took the subway to get to a building we saw in the guidebook and wanted to see for ourselves. As we walked up to street level from the station, Wayne said, 'Are you ready, we'll be able to see it from the street'. My breath got caught in my throat with anticipation, but when we reached the top, it wasn't there. Wayne looked around and said he must have read the map wrong. Then he turned me around and it was there behind the buildings. There it was in all it's glory - the Eiffel Tower! I screeched with delight and hugged Wayne trying to keep from jumping up and down and looking like a silly American tourist - but I fear it was probably too late for that!
We made our way to the building we were looking for and down every street, I looked for the tower and with every glimpse, like a child seeing their favorite toy in a store window, I'd make some sound of excitement. We found the building, took a bunch of pictures and made our way to the tower. I must of taken 50 pictures of it before we even got close to it.
On my first trip to London, when I saw Big Ben for the first time, I fell in love. I took photos of it from the first peek of it over buildings (blocks and blocks away) you can see the time on the clock spanning over an our and about 60 pictures. To this day, every time I see Big Ben I get excited. I just love it, but I have to admit that the Eiffel Tower is just amazing and out-does Big Ben. I told Wayne, 'I feel like I'm cheating on ol' Big Ben.' he laughed and I said, 'At least it will always be my first love. You don't forget your first' My love affair with Paris, much to my surprise - out-shined London.
Like with big Ben, I dragged Wayne back at night to see it lit-up (this time it was about 30 degrees colder, but it had to be done). We took a different route and walked along the water. The Tower at night took my breath away. Walking along the water with Wayne and looking up at the tower on my birthday, was one of those perfect moments that you just know you'll never forget. I have to admit, it got the best of me and I cried. I realized at that moment that I had everything I ever wanted and more than I could have dreamed of. I was overcome with emotion and couldn't help but cry.
I think it made it all worth while for Wayne. It was really cold, he had the flu, was up since before 4AM and walked mile after mile around Paris for hours on end (putting up with the language barrier and some pretty rude French people along the way). I told him he did a really good thing, but I think he already knew that.
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