Amelia's Outrageous Adventures: Rachel's Second Day in Paris! (With photos of lots of good desserts)

Two weeks ago I went up the Eiffel Tower with Josephine using pre-booked tickets. Everything went smoothly, as there's a special line for people using pre-booked tickets. But then I got an email warning me that one of the elevators had broken and for my upcoming trip with Rachel lines could be as long as two hours. So on Saturday we arrived at the Eiffel Tower at 9am even though it doesn't open until 9:30, just so we wouldn't have to wait two hours in line. When we got there, the line consisted of about five people. Over the next twenty minutes more people showed up, and by 9:25 there was a line of about thirty people with prebooked tickets. The line to buy tickets had about 150 people in it. In the last five minutes, a group of German boys showed up on our right, and a group of Spanish tourists (or Portuguese, I have trouble telling them apart) showed up on our right. I could tell that both groups were thinking about cutting into the line, so I told Rachel to get ready to throw some elbows. The Canadians behind us laughed and started saying the same things. "Don't let those Germans get in front of you, we've been waiting in line."
Just then, the Eiffel tower employees began to open up the line. Instead of moving the metal barriers aside, they swung them in a big circle out into the line. Everyone had to back up to get out of the way, and in the resulting reshuffle, one of the Spanish tourists tried to get into the line. He was about 14 years old and looked a lot like Justin Bieber (he had that Bieber haircut and everything!). He bumped into me, so I intentionally bumped him back and I moved to block him from getting into the line. He bumped me again, and I accidentally elbowed him. He bumped into me again, so I turned around and started yelling at him in broken French "this is a line, and you're not in it" I had completely forgotten that he was Spanish, and probably didn't speak French. His tour guide replied to me in French and tried to act like they weren't cutting the line, and I was trying to figure out what to say when the mother in front of me stepped in. She was Swiss, so she answered in perfect French and told the tour guide in no uncertain terms that she had been waiting for two hours and the tour group was cutting the line and they needed to quit pushing! It was awesome! Then they let us go forward. I shot a dirty look at the Justin Bieber lookalike as I walked in.

The Eiffel Tower was awesome as always, although it was pretty cold and foggy, the disadvantage of going early in the morning. Still, I can only imagine how many kids I'd have had to wrestle with to get into the Eiffel Tower later in the day.

After the Eiffel Tower we went to Fauchon, considered by some to have the best macarons in Paris. We each got three macarons, but the waitress must have liked us because she gave us an extra one! She said it was a little bit broken, so it couldn't be sold. She also got us cups of water. I don't ever want to hear anyone saying Parisians aren't nice!

If you've never had one, "A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from the Italian word maccarone or maccherone. The confectionery is characterised by its smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the "foot"), and flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth."

Delicious!!!

This was the first time I'd had shiny macarons!

Then we went to the Grands Magasins, the two biggest departments stores in Paris, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. They're too expensive for real shopping, but they're amazing for window shopping!

Picnic lunch on the rooftop of the Galeries Lafayette

The Eiffel Tower

The Opera House

It's been suggested that after my travels are over, I should write a food blog, as my love for food has become evident on this blog. I wasn't sure about this, but then I looked at the photos I took today. After the Grands Magasins, we got more macarons. The guy in the macaron shop recognized me (I've been there three times in the past month) and asked if I live in the neighborhood. I said sadly, no, and explained that actually I'm studying law at Oxford and I've just taken three trips to Paris in the past month. He told me he studied Law and Philosophy at the Sorbonne. I wish I could have studied law at the Sorbonne.

Chocolate covered macaron!

Lavender and something flavored macaron

Cheesecake flavored macaron

As we were eating our little snack, we got some live entertainment in the form of this guy doing tricks with a soccer ball. (and the guys illegally selling Heineken to the tourists)

In front of Sacre Coeur

Then we got dinner. I really wish I'd thought to take a picture of it, as it was a greek pita wrap with french fries in it! After dinner we decided to take a stroll before getting dessert, so we walked around Notre Dame. Because it was Saturday evening before Palm Sunday, there was a mass going on, so Notre Dame was especially incense-y and crowded.