Monday the 2nd of November

Monday November 2nd was a chilly day following rain in Versailles.  We enjoyed Sunday with Mike's family going to Church in their ward.  Everyone was friendly and helpful with our lack of language skills in french.  My meager high school french was put to the test introducing myself.  Je suis Max.  Just a fine demonstration of speaking skills.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  It was Fast Sunday so we ate about 4:00pm.  Jill had prepared great fajitas and salad.

Our travels today carried us to the Eiffel Tower.  Mike met us there as we entered security before riding the tram up into the tower.  The view from the top is wonderful.

 Looking east over the Seine River that dissects Paris

 

Views of beautiful church domes

 

Looking north to the high rise section of the city.

 

The wait in line to get on the lift up into the Tower is about an hour.  Well worth it. We learned that, during the occupation of France by Germany in the 2nd World War, Adolf Hitler came to Paris and wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower.  On that particular day the lift wasn't working so he climbed the stairs.  After he left a workman was about to fix the lift in a few moments using a simple screwdriver. 

I wanna look. 

Windy day for all of us.  Austin and Jill 

  Huddling close, its chilly up here

The gears of the lifts.  This tower was erected in 1889 for the World's Fair and was scheduled to be torn down 20 years thereafter.  It was saved when speculation of some financial gain from promotions arose.  Today it is visited more than any single location on the globe.  Estimates say that 200 million people have visited this spectacular wrought iron icon of France.

 

Mike the photographer.  Let's find a warm place to enjoy some lunch.  Sure enough we found a restaurante close to Mike's office near the Arc de Triumph. 

 Beautiful day in Paris, made all the more enjoyable with the companionship of our family members living here. The next great event is when all of us are together.  Busy family members and their commitments to work and schedules prevents that most of the time.

 

Beautiful clouds north of the city.  

Train rides with the King of Trains - Austin G.  I really like his Cars jacket with the finish line accent.

Our enjoyment is enhanced by safe places to stay, family close by, good food and easy transportation.  Speaking of food we must eat a baguette or two every day.  Pastries for breakfast matched with fresh orange juice do wonderfully.  Don't forget the 85% chocolate.  In Italy we ordered hot chocolate only to be served 2 cups of "chocolate syrup".  Two sips and we ordered the hot milk only to end up with five cups of hot chocolate.