Today, we visited the pyramids!

Yes, we visited the pyramids. And, NO, we didn't go to Egypt. The pyramids that we visited were made of glass and are found at the Louvre. Have you been to the Louvre before? The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and the second most visited museum in the world. It is overwhelming.

Fortunately, we had a tour planned.

Nathalie was our guide. Her and her husband (Jean Claude) offer tours of the museum focusing on artefacts that strengthen faith in the bible. It was amazing! I can give you the details of the company if you are ever in Paris and want to take this tour.

Kylie took some notes and I should have taken some too because as I look at my photos, there are a lot of things I can't remember about these artefacts. Having said all of that, here are some cool pics I took and hopefully over the coming weeks, Ill be able to check out KJs notes....

Gives meaning to placing enemies as a stool for feet

One of the many artefacts with the SUN

Kylie said that this statue could pass as someone 'famous' today

See the 'Imitate their Faith' publication RE: Esther. 

Kylie is pointing at the tetragrammaton on the Moabite Stone. I think this is a replica

A common way of impaling criminals in Roman times

Venus de Milo. The second most famous piece of art in the Louvre. Runner up to.....

The Mona Lisa.

LOTS of people were there to see it. It was bigger than I expected.

Our two guides.

We had lunch with our guides and this family from the UK, also on our tour. We'd never met any of them before, but we share a faith and immediately were like family.

As you would have heard on the news (and on my blog), the rain was pretty heavy in Paris. So much so, that the Louvre closed its doors the afternoon we visited. We were not there when it closed but heard about it. So glad we got to visit!!!

Seriously, this is an AMAZING place!

A photo posted by ब्रूनो (@mynameisbrunob) on Jun 2, 2016 at 6:17am PDT

Next stop - the Eiffel Tower! We had tickets to go up and we were SOOOO excited about that. But, the weather was not so good! Oh well - at least we were rugged up for the event. We had pre-purchased 'skip-the-line' tickets. But, of course, because one of the lifts was not working, we still had to wait in line. But, we still had time for some fun pics.

We're here.....

A photo posted by ब्रूनो (@mynameisbrunob) on Jun 2, 2016 at 7:16am PDT

You can't even tell that the weather was so bad!

I don't think either of us expected the view from underneath. It is spectacular to behold.

I said to Kylie 'Lets try to get the most unflattering photo of ourselves.' This was the result.

As I mentioned, we were waiting in line....because I was taking pictures and taking videos, rather than being right up near our tour guide, we were the last ones in the line from our group. Behind us was this nice family with two small children from an English speaking country. We were chatting nicely. But, one thing about waiting in lines is that people are close up against one another. So, while I was chatting to Kylie, I felt someones hand in my pocket. Let me rephrase that - I felt the flap of my jacket move. Immediately, I turned around and rather than being the family right behind us, it was another guy who somehow just appeared. I said 'WHAT DID YOU JUST TAKE FROM MY POCKET?' And, brazenly, he just said 'I am here waiting in line - leave me alone.' It was the strangest experience. He was caught in the act - and yet stayed there directly behind us. And, very close. So close that he would come up behind us and Kylie would just say 'CAN YOU PLEASE BACK OFF!'

We had nothing in our pocket - but it didn't stop me from being super-paranoid. Kylie brazenly took photos of the guy. When we got to security, we immediately reported him for queue-jumping as well as for attempted pick-pocketing. But, nobody at the security checkpoint spoke english.

Smile!

It was the most bizarre sequence of events. He stayed right behind us for the whole time - he even rode up the elevator with our group. He would get too close to people from our group and Kylie would ask them 'Do you have your phone?' because he would start speaking on different phones (I think I counted that he had three phones in his hoodie.'

When we got to the top, we were finally able to tell the tour guide. She said 'I was watching the lady in the hat.' Seriously, placed like this are a pickpockers paradise. Everyone is excited, distracted, crammed into tiny little spaces - and forget. We would see people put their iPhones into their back pockets and we would go to them and tell them not to. There are signs everywhere warning, but i guess everyone needs reminding. If he took something from me - it was a receipt or a brochure. I had nothing for him to take.

So, it put a bit of a dampner on our visit. But, when we were at the top - we resolved to not let it spoil our visit. We were, after all, at the EIFFEL TOWER! And, what a view!

Lets not forget - it was SUPER-COLD!

The funny thing about being pre-occupied with the fact that someone is going to pickpocket you is that you tend to forget that you are are going up really high really fast. It was pretty high. And, once you have waited in line to go up, then it goes without saying that you had to wait in line to go down too. Our guide left us at the top but suggested that if you walk down the stairs from Level 2 to Level 1, you can get in the lift there. So, thats what we did.

So, as our guide suggested - we were waiting for a lift from Level 2 to stop at Level 1. Im not sure that the guide has ever done what she suggested that we do because when the lifts arrived from Level 2 they were jam-packed. We waited a while with no-one able to get into the lift at Level 1 so we made the decision to walk DOWN from Level 1 (recall that we also walked from Level 2 down to Level 1). Level 2 is 115m from the ground and Level 1 is about half-way.

We had such an AMAZING time at the tower - Kylie posted this video of us talking about our experience there.

There was one more thing that we had to do on this day. In planning, I was very good in that I had scheduled that we were going to be having 'rest-days.' But, in reality - these 'rest' days didn't end up being too much of a rest. And, sometimes, as I was 'living' the days that I had planned - I had to think to myself 'WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?' Some days were just too jam packed. Maybe not jam-packed but, why did I book dinner at 8:45 when dinner at normal time of 7 would have meant that we would get an early night?

But, before I tell you about what we DID that night, let me tell you about something that I planned for that night.....

So, I was looking at a friends trip photos on Facebook and they did something that I thought would be amazing - have dinner ON the Eiffel Tower. There are a few options for this based on how much you are willing to pay. What I was 'willing' to pay was to buy a bucket of chips from the fast food outlet at Level 2. But, as a special occasion, I thought I would book a dinner at the mid-level restaurant. I say 'mid level' because its the only restaurant between the super-high exclusive 'Le Jules Verne' and the Fast Food buffet. Having said that, there wasnt anything mid-level about the price of the restaurant. lol! It was ALOT of money. And, I didn't feel comfortable about spending all of that money without at least discussing it with Kylie. But, I didn't want to spoil the surprise.....

I framed the question very carefully. I said something like ..... 'I want to organise something very special when we are in Paris, but I can't tell you what. And, its going to cost a bit of money, but i can't tell you how much.' If you were asked that question, what would you say? Of course, she asked 'How much? Where?' I held out for about five minutes but then I caved and told her what I had planned. 

She said 'Can you SEE the Eiffel Tower?'

I replied 'No - you are ON the Eiffel Tower.'

And she replied 'Its a really nice thought, but I think I would prefer to have a really nice dinner LOOKING at the Eiffel Tower.'

I was completely dumb-founded. But, after I got over the shock, I thought to myself 'Its actually a really good idea.' So, I set out to find a restaurant that had amazing views of the tower. There is ALOT to choose from - after all it is a MASSIVE tower. And, thanks to Trip Advisor, we can find out that location aside - what is the restaurant REALLY like?

And, this is the view from the restaurant I found;

View from dinner....

A photo posted by ब्रूनो (@mynameisbrunob) on Jun 2, 2016 at 11:10am PDT

There aren't a lot of high-rise buildings in this part of town. But, even so, this restaurant (called Les Ombres) was on the rooftop (Level 5) with an unobscured view of the tower (and a glass roof). It was SPECTACULAR. It was better than I imagined. And, Kylie loved it!

And, so did I! The food was amazing, the service was great. We had a glass of Pommeray which was awesome. The view ...... just amazing! And, good thing I booked for that time because we were still there when the tower started sparkling! Its so amazing to see.


In fact, I loved it so much, it wasnt until our Uber was more than half way home that I realised that I left my bag under the table. Yes, the bag with our passports in it. So, with a taxi driver, you just tell him to turn around and the meter keeps running. Not so easy with Uber (and, not so easy with a non-English speaking Uber driver). And, with a phone that is flat. So, what we had to do is;

1. Charge the phone
2. Tell the Uber driver to STOP.
3. Use the Uber App to call for another Uber to pick us up form our present location
4. Enter the address of the restaurant because the driver didn't understand what 'Please take us where you picked us up' means
5. Hope that the driver of the car that we are in get the job before anyone else gets it

After all of that had been sorted, we called ahead to the restaurant (again, with very limited English speaking hosts) to let them know that we had left a bag there. We got back there and the women said 'No, sorry. We cannot find it.' She gestured as though she was looking for a ring. Then, I gestured back and said 'No, Im looking for a BAG.'

Aaaah. I understand now. She took me in the store room and showed me the bag. I was relieved ..... until I realised that it wasnt my bag. Then, another bag ..... nope. Not mine. I said 'Can I just look under the table?' and THERE IT WAS!! I was so relieved!

And, THAT was our day! Thanks for reading.