This is the day we had planned on going to see the Palace of Versailles, but it was closed. So we planned to just have a relaxing day walking around and eating and just seeing where the day takes us.
We began with petit dejuner (breakfast) at Cafe du Marche on Rue Cler. This is highlighted in the Rick Steve's book as a quick, inexpensive, friendly place to dine. Well....things must have changed since Richard was there as service was slow and not very friendly, but the food was decent. I had the traditional Parisian breakfast of orange juice, cappuccino, croissant. Tony had the same but with the addition of a cheesy omelette. Yum.
After this we walked a long Rue Cler and I suddenly decided I wanted to get my hair cut. I saw a small hair salon, went inside and greeted the lady at the front desk, Bonjour! Parlez vous Anglaise?" (Hello do you speak English?) to which she responded, "Un pou" (just a little). "Je vous drais un coupe." ( I would like a haircut). Then I got the impression she was asking me in French if I wanted the haircut today, right now? To which I nodded my head and said, "oui!" She responded with "twenty minoots". There were three ladies working at this small salon and none of them spoke English, only tiny little fragments. I found it funny that, up to this point, I had encountered SO many French people who spoke great English and when I'm about to do something semi drastic, could turn out terrible, I have found the people who do not speak English. But life is about taking chances so I went for it, and it turned out great! A major bonus is that they have ipads at each station so I took the liberty of googling a picture I had seen of an actress and pointed to that when the hair stylist came over to look at my hair. The only little hiccup was when the young receptionist brought me a hot coffee and tripped as she was setting it down on the counter in front of me and spilled it all over my lap. Luckily they had already put one of those capes on me so it didn't get ALL over me, just little bits of my knees. I figure it wouldn't really be a "Lisa experience" if something like this didn't happen. Those of you who know me quite well can attest to this. My life is essentially one giant I love Lucy episode.
But I left the salon with a fun new cut and was quite proud of the successful communication and with my bravery at letting someone come at my hair with shears when we didn't even speak the same language.
After a few hours of strolling in and out of different pastry shops, of course eating a long the way, we wandered over to the Eiffel Tower since we hadn't actually seen it in all its glory during the day time. It is a sight to see for sure, but I think it is actually much prettier at night, especially when those sparkling lights are going off. Tres Magnifique!
After this we headed back to home base to regroup, and then off to the nearby by Monteparnasse Tower which is a very modern looking tower in the midst of all these old building in Paris. I wasn't too excited to be heading towards this thing as I found it to be a bit of a blemish on the face of old romantic Paris. However, upon reading an excerpt from the Rick Steve's book he mentions that while this building is a bit of an eyesore and seems entirely out of place many people say the top of this building is the best view of Paris because you can see all of Paris and none of this building! Ha! I hadn't thought of that! We went up to the almost top where they have an entirely enclosed observation area with a cafe and gift shop. It was amazing to get a birds eye view of this beautiful city. Coming here at sunset would be AMAZING!
After this we headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner, with a wee bit of a shopping detour along the way. ;) we got all dolled up and headed to a restaurant Tony had heard about on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows. The restaurant is called Le Dome and let me tell you, it is Le Yummy. We had an appetizer of salmon tartare which was so good. For our main courses I had a type of fish I had never heard of before called Turbot. It was pan fried and came with spinach and some risotto, and then a mini gravy boat full of the BEST hollandaise sauce either of us have ever tasted. I poured it on everything on my plate and Tony found things on his plate to pour it on as well. Tony's main dish was black cod with creamed sweet potatoes. Both of us were is heaven the food was so good. The ambiance and style of this place reminded us of The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle. Waiters looked very sharp and treated us very well.
We were stuffed at this point and decided to call it a day as the next morning we would be hopping on a plane to fly to Italy!