Adventures in France, Day 2

The morning started off with tearful farewells to Momma as she headed home. We tried to leave early enough that she could come with us to the Eiffel Tower, but it was not to be, so we went together as far as the train station. The kids and I made our way through the depths of the Montparnasse Métro, which is pretty labyrinthine, and eventually got to the right train. Not too much later we arrived at the Hakim Bei? station. One very brief wrong start and we quickly arrived at a point where we could see the Tour itself. A quick photo, then we threw ourselves into the massive crowds milling about and the endless lines waiting to go up. In fact, I've never seen lines so long. Hold on...something's wrong with these lines. They're not moving. What's going on?

Aha! I see, it's not open yet. OK, what time is it? 10:15. Huh? Further investigation required. This is NOT a time to fall sheeplike into the back of a line waiting for it to go somewhere. No, we must assert ourselves! (Or at least our right to information). We explored to the South tower, where the stairs are (and, not surprisingly, the shortest line) and asked the people up front if they knew when the gate would open. "Um, no," they said, "maybe not at all." It turns out that the security staff had been on strike yesterday and it appeared they still were today. But nobody really knows, except that opening time was an hour ago and nothing's happening. A whole lot of wishful thinking going on. We joined in for about twenty minutes before quitting.

But NOW what to do? We wandered (aimlessly) down the Champ de Mars, past the protest at the Ecole de la Guerre (Malcolm says "School of war? that's like war school, I bet"), and onto the train where we redirected and headed for Montmartre. Promises of food once we got off helped keep the troops on their feet.

Arrival at Abbesses, up about a thousand stairs just to get out of the Metro! After a short walk we found a small shop selling panini and picked out a couple for our lunch. The local children came home from school and set to work delivering groceries. We took ours down the street and sat in the sun to watch the funicular riding up and down the hill, empty. Also closed, but still working. Fortunately we were strong enough to make it up the hill, now in bright sunshine, to Sacre-Coeur. Admired the incredible view, peeled off a couple layers of clothes, argued with Malcolm about whether he could spend his money on a binocular view. The parental answer was no, and as it turned out he couldn't reach it anyway. But he was somewhat mollified in his need to SPEND by buying a candle for us to light in the church. I bought one too and we all cried a little while we stood together with the candles.

After we went out in the sun again M and I stood in line for the toilet for about half an hour while the girls invented a game on the stairs. Meanwhile a guitarist was holding forth on the front steps and attracting an enormous crowd, singing Bob Marley and such. Cool. Then we went off to find ice cream, but first we gave in to an artist and overpaid (but maybe not too much) for a crayon portrait of the three kids together. It's nice but Seanna looks like 5 or 6 year old Seanna, with rounder cheeks than she has now.

On around through the crazy square full of sidwalk artists, down the hill, the kids stopped to sit in the sun and play a game with stones on the sidewalk while I took a short nap. Not on purpose, mind you. Then we continued down, eventually ending up in the Cimetière Montmartre, which is quite a hodgepodge of tombs and monuments. Kind of disorganized, actually. Again we went onward to find the train, but first another half hour in the dingy depths of a mall waiting for everyone to finish in the WC. Arrival back in Montparnasse, through the labyrinth (how do I get OUT of here?), out in the wrong direction as usual, found our way to Hippopotamus (a little slice of the US--Applebee's maybe? TGIFridays? Not quite as much fried fried as those places, but similar) for dinner. Even Ben and Jerry's for dessert. Home, baths, bed...Disney tomorrow!