This was the day Mabel had been waiting for--she was tremendously excited to visit the Eiffle Tower and, specifically, to go all the way to the top! A height neither Bill or I had previously ascended to, nor perhaps would we ever have done were it not for the crystal clear vision of a certain small child. And so we got there early early in the morning to beat the crowds and did this thing, and it was quite glorious. From such a great height the view truly changes--the landscape itself flattens and hills become not-hills because you are seeing them from above rather than from the side. Magical. Then we came down, and rode the carousel, and had lunch at a super charming little garden cafe hidden in the park nearby. We went home for a rest and then ventured back out--stopping along the river to lounge in some lounge chairs we'd spotted a couple of days before from the boat--past the Hotel de Ville, and to the neighborhood on the edge of the Marais where Bill and I stayed on our honeymoon ten years ago. We were very excited to show Mabel the hotel where we stayed, to have a snack in the cafe right outside it--she was perhaps less excited by these things, but went along gamely enough. Then we took a long leisurely stroll through the Marais, passing through the ridiculous beauty that is the Place des Vosges, stopping for one more ride on one more carousel (this one very modern with crazy big-eyed french children air-brushed all over it) before dinner at a restaurant that caught our eye because of the mountain of cauliflowers mounded up in the front window as decor--and it was delicious, one of the best meals we had the whole time we were there.
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