Monday in Paris

Well our second night of sleeping was better for Grace, worse for me.. Woke up (WIDE AWAKE) at midnight....couldn't fall asleep again until after 3am...and G woke up sometime between 2 and 3.. Needless to say, we didn't get up again until basically lunch time.. But we're on vacation.. It's ok to sleep in.. And since the clock is not set in the apartment and my cell phone is dead (and didn't convert to local time anyway)...my sense of time is all distorted...It's weird not knowing what time it is, but not really caring at the same time.. It's also strange not checking for text messages every 5 minutes...I finally figured out how to set the laptop to local time so I do actually know the time when I am in cyberspace...
The first thing on our agenda today was the grocery store...We have an apartment so we can actually save on breakfast/snacks/drinks...So we headed to the store down the street to get some essentials..(in my life that is peanut butter, bread, diet coke, cereal, milk)...It's amazing going to grocery stores in other countries.. First of all, if you want to use a large cart it will cost you 1 euro. So we used a basket. The first thing we saw was an entire aisle of yummy refrigerated snacks- chocolate mousse, pot de creme, rice pudding, flan, etc... I wish I could take them home! The cheese section is also amazing but Grace wouldn't let me linger..she says "I HATE CHEESE". There is even an actual cheese shop on the corner I haven't had the chance to go in yet. France is heaven for wine drinkers..There are wine shops everywhere. Sadly (or luckily) for me I don't really care for wine. At the checkstand the cashier got angry with me because apparently you are supposed to weigh your produce (in this case, 4 bananas) and get a sticker with a price before you get in line. And unfortunately she didn't speak English (and I don't speak French). So she had to do it for us.. C'est la vie. Now I know.
After unpacking the food and having a snack we set off to try to catch the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower (even though now it was nearing 2 and the Batobus only runs until 4:30)..We walked down to the Seine at the Hotel de Ville..Then we waited at the place to catch the boat but got tired of waiting so G suggested we take the Metro instead (which is cheaper). We had some leftover Metro tickets our neighbor Tesa gave us.. I am not sure if 5 year olds have to pay but I did because I'd rather not get in trouble for not paying for her (and it's not worth trying to ask when you don't speak French). We had to change trains and somehow we screwed up and exited the station so we had to use two more tickets! (Lesson number two of the day)...The next train took us to the Trocodero station where we exited and got our first view of the amazing Eiffel Tower. We made our way to the tower (first taking some pictures and letting G ride a carousel) and waited in line for tickets.. The top of the tower was closed (lame)..but G was having a hissy fit saying she changed her mind and didn't want to go.. Well for me this one was non-negotiable. She reminded me of when I was a kid waiting in line with my dad to ride a roller coaster at King's Dominion and deciding I was too scared to ride it. My dad said "Tough. You are riding it". And I did. And I was fine. So we got to go to the second level and the view was amazing.. Even though it was an overcast day. After leaving the Tower we were walking to the nearest Metro station but decided to take a bus instead (they use the same tickets). We caught a bus that took us to the Opera house past the Place de la Concorde and Place de la Madeleine. I wanted to show Grace the largest Department store in Paris- Galleries Lafayette. It was all lit up for Christmas and had amazing Christmas window displays (like Macy's in NYC). We had dinner on the 6th floor (there are many restaurants in there- we wanted sushi but settled for chinese because the sushi restaurant was closed. I did not tell her there was a McDonalds on the 5th floor). Then we checked out the kids floor. Found a baby gift for our new niece who should be arriving tomorrow and then splurged on an outfit for miss G. It will have to go under the Christmas tree.
When we left the shop we finally saw our FIRST CAT! He belonged to an old woman who was homeless and he was wearing a jacket and sitting on a carrier. We gave her all our change and she kissed Grace's hand and let us pet her cat. I wanted to take a photo of him (he was a handsome brown tabby) but I didn't want to be rude. We got back on the Metro to the Marais and found our way back to our neighborhood. Grace decided she wanted ice cream so we found a cafe that was still open and she got framboise glace and I got a melted (death by) chocolate treat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Grace wants to play a game of Old Maid that we bought at the store tonight so I have to wrap this up...3 advil and 1 ambien should = a good nights sleep. Let's hope. Until tomorrow...