We had originally planned to go to Paris Disney today, but the weather threatened rain, so we postponed it for a day. Instead, we headed to Place St. Michel for a free walking tour of the city. We ate croissants while we waited, and then were led on the tour by a young French woman named Camille. She took us primarily through and along the Seine area, across various bridges and islands, stopping near the Louvre for lunch at McDonalds/Starbucks, and then proceeding through the Tuileries garden, Place de la Concorde, and finishing at the Grand Palais.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Eifel Tower. We had lunch under the tower, some sort of hotdog and fries, which was terrible, and then bought tickets to climb the tower (Judy stayed behind). The line was fairly short, and the prices were surpringly reasonable. The climb was essentially a long winding iron staircase that climbed up one of the legs of the tower. About 20 floors of climbing took us to the first platform, where we paused only briefly to look around before climbing higher.

Another 20 flights took us to the second viewing platform. This platform was smaller and was very crowded. The window to purchase tickets for the elevator to the top was closed when we arrived due to the crowd, but we resolved to wait it out until it reopened. After a bit it began to rain pretty hard, causing the crowds to jam together under the sheltered area, resulting in standing room only for quite a while. Eventually the rain stopped and the crowds thinned a bit and the ticket window opened. After standing in line for a very long time, we boarded the elevator and rode to the top of the tower.

It was very high and seemed even higher because it was somewhat exposed. The view was incredible, of course, and the sun came out while we were at the top. After posing for pictures, we rode back down and then climbed down the staircase to reach the bottom. From there, we took the metro back to our area and had dinner at a pasta place near the room.