The shop wasn't closed! Since it was the end of our adventure, Martha and I allowed ourselves to go a bit crazy buying sweet goodies. I bought a cookie tin which we partially filled with cookies, or biscuits as the French call them, and chocolate covered olives. (Just so you know, chocolate covered olives just taste like chocolate. They don't taste like olives at all. The olives make for the chocolate to be less sweet, but it still tastes just like chocolate.) I also bought a sachet of caramels for a friend. Martha bought a tin of caramels for herself. We dragged each other away from buying anything else and exited the store with out signature mustard yellow La Cure Gourmand bags and our goodies.
We passed back by Notre Dame, and snapped some photos, on our way to the metro. We needed to get all the way across Paris in order to visit Le NordSud restaurant for dinner, and then return for our 9:30 appointment at the Eiffel Tower. I was unsure of how Martha would react to the NordSud. I had only been once and loved it, but the food was 'very' french and could be pricey too. The very same sweet waiter I'd had back in October for my GRE sat us down near the window. He commiserated with me over the fact that they were no longer serving the pasta I had enjoyed back then. Martha and I settled on french onion soup with an appetizer of smoked salmon on toast. *I used to love salmon till I had it tartare here in Toulouse, TWICE, and now the texture turns my stomach a bit.* I ate almost my fair half of the salmon, and thought to myself that hopefully soon I'd get over my recent issue with it. We loved our soup. The wine was lovely as well. Sadly we were in a rush to make our appointment at the Eiffel Tower, so we didn't get to stay for dessert. If I go to Paris again, I WILL visit NordSud again. It's just a fabulous, charming place with great food and great staff.
The Eiffel Tower at night I had already seen. I'd seen it from Trocadero though. This time, Martha and I had gotten tickets for the second observation deck so I'd actually be IN the Eiffel Tower at night. The tower was beautiful as we approached it. She really is magnificent by night all lit up and shining against the velvet sky. From a very short line, we stepped into a huge elevator that took us up to the second observation deck. As we looked out over the city below we were able to make out Sacre Coeur in the distance, Trocadero, the Arch, and Notre Dame. It was really cool to see the boats on the Seine below us. Even more interesting were the little flashes of light from the crowds at Trocadero taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower that we were standing in. The coolest thing, by far about being on the second level was the moment that the tower began to sparkle. A collective intake of breath happened, the flashes at Trocadero quadrupled in quantity, and seemingly everyone on the observation deck lifted their cameras and phones to record the sparkles.
After that, and after we'd looked out from every side of the observation deck and through the souvenir shops, we made our way back to the hostel. It was late, we were tired, but it had been an afternoon and evening in Paris to remember.
The next day we woke up, took the metro out to Charles de Gaule, and came home to Toulouse where showers and naps and junk food happened, photos and videos were shared, short convos with missed boyfriends took place, and final hours were spent recalling all the wonderful things about our adventures over the past 10 days.
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