Late reporting

Alright, so it's actually day four, but by the time we were in last night and settled down and done drinking Orangina and getting the laughs over silly things, it was late, and we were tired, so I just went ahead and went to bed, realizing that you all are between six and nine hours behind us, so I can be a little late and, since only like two people in the world are reading this anyway, things will not all fall apart.
Yesterday was our day to exhibit a cavalier disregard for cliché and go to the Champs Elysée, l'Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower all in one day. Lindsey and Kirsten slept in really late, and I couldn't, so I got up, left a note, and went around the corner to the pastry shop and the grocery store for some vittles. I got three eclairs at the pastry shop and the fixings for a few omelettes then came back here and made breakfast in bed for Kirsten and Lindsey. They actually got up by the time the eggs were ready (Lindsey thought the eclairs were breakfast), so I had to herd them (can you "herd" two people?) back into bed so the whole thing would have the effect it was supposed to.
After we ate and got ready to go, we stepped out into a really, really pleasant day and made our way over to the metro station to make the trip and the one transfer over to the Charles de Gaulle Etoile station, where the Arc is located. I know the thing is really big, and I wasn't sure which direction it would be from the escalator out of the station (though I really should have thought about it more, since I do know which was built first), so I was actually turned the wrong direction on a bad hunch when we came out. I heard people gasp, turned around the right way, and was pretty much blown away. The Arc de Triomphe is really really big, yes, but it's also just really beautiful. I wasn't expecting a big pile of cinderblocks or anything, but the level of detail and the styling of all the sculpture on the arc are really fantastic. It was not a letdown. There is a HUGE roundabout round about the arc, and I was sort of wondering about how in the world we'd dodge the hodge-podge assortment of cars (there are no lanes on Parisian streets, just people doing their best to avoid hitting each other) when Kirsten saved my life by pointing out a pedestrian tunnel that goes underneath the whole thing. We went through, took a bunch of pictures, horsed around, and before we left, asserted our dominance by licking the Arc de Triomphe. Kirsten figured it would be a good idea, and it sounded 100% logical to me, so we conquered our first monument of the day with a Léchez de Triomphe. On to l'Avenue des Champs Elysée.
You can see some pictures when we get back, but I'll sum up this road with one word: overpriced. You have not seen exorbitance until you've been to the flagship Louis Vuitton store and seen a twenty-eight thousand-euro suitcase. All of the employees have those cool earpieces with the spirally phone cord-looking wire, like secret service agents, and there are security guards outnumbering the clerks and sales staff by about three to one. This is because there is a vast array of items that could easily fit in a handbag (especially if it's as big as some of the monstrosities actually on sale in this store) and sell on the black market for the GDP of a small country. Unreal.
We did manage to visit one of the places of the Champs Elysée that wasn't too insanely priced: le Quick. It's France's answer to McDonald's, basically. Lindsey really really wanted to go and get a "le Magic Box," France's answer to the Happy Meal (and Kirsten and I secretly wanted to live vicariously through her and be there when she ordered her le Magic Box), so we ducked in for a moment. Normal fast food. Nothing to report.
We spotted the very top of the Eiffel Tower from the roundabout, so we set off in search of the thing. We were going around corners and zig-zagging and crossing streets (Pretty much every street in Paris is completely straight, but no intersection is square; all of the roads go at angles to each and make a bunch of triangles where they come together. It's crazy.), and after about twenty minutes of walking, we came around the end of a really tall apartment building, and *BOOM* there it was. Like the arc, this monument was not overrated at all. It's not the highest monument in the whole world, but the view from the top, mostly due to Paris's nearly flat profile, is absolutely incredible, especially at night. We were there for sunset and then stayed to watch the light completely fade and the lights start turning on. It was eleven euros to go to the top, and worth every cent. I've included pictures.
After we finished up in the tower, we headed down to the plaza underneath it (HUGE!), and Kirsten and I managed to lose Lindsey for about 25 minutes or so. Turns out she was taking pictures, and we were going to go to this horseshoe-shaped building to get a picture of the tower twinkling (they have a bajillion lights on it, and they twinkle every half hour for ten minutes, I think all night long). Lindsey got past us somehow when we stopped to wait for her, we scoured the plaza, she scoured the area by the building. It was freezing cold. Not a great time, basically, but we caught up with each other, everyone agreed that it was no one's fault, and we headed home. Everything was fine. We got dinner at a pizzeria about a half mile from our apartment, and when we got back, we looked at the day's pictures and called it a night.
I really wish Spring Break would last forever. Vacation is such a nice thing, and I know that it's such a privilege and that the times in life when we can sleep until whenever and do whatever and be accountable to no one and nothing are rare. In a few more days, it will be back to a busy life. But even though the break will be over and it'll be back to work for all of us, we really do have it so good. This has been a great bonus.
I'm too tired to give you the whole rundown on today. I'll do it in the morning maybe. I stopped this entry when we went out this morning and picked it up after we got back, only you can't tell where. Ha. Today, in a nutshell, was the Louvre, Montmartre very briefly, and a little jaunt through Gare du Nord, which was great. Tomorrow, the rest of Montmartre, hopefully a portraitist, one of the world's greatest flea markets, and whatever other grand finale stuff comes our way. Should be great. Don't miss the next episode.

Kent