JFK => Eiffel Tower

While at JFK waiting for our flight (which was delayed by an hour), saw the Michael Jackson news. Experienced no any particular sentiments...

On American Airlines flight we got the shittiest seats in the house - last row next to the bathroom. The food and service on the plane is not nearly as good as Air France, but the space between the seats is a wee more. On the communal TV on the plane, saw "Last Chance Harvey" (Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson) - great acting, especially by Hoffman, but overall quite predictable and not exciting. We slept through the rest of the flight interrupted only by especially noisy restroom patrons and by toilet flushes.

At Charles De Gaulle airport - power outage (how?!). Jet bridges are out - had to use an old-fashion stairs to the tarmac. Walking next to Boeing 767 makes you appreciate its large size better. The passport controls and baggage, despite the outage went quick and we were on the way to our apartment withing 30 minutes of arrival.

We met our "landlady" Yetunde at the apartment (transfer from the airport was like 70E). The flat is smalling but immaculately maintained with great many detailed instructions.

After a quick break, we went through a good number of usual tourist traps to get it out our system. Walking tour of Montmartre, Place Piggale, formule lunch. Then we took a hot and overcrowded metro to Arch de Triumph and from there walked to Eiffel Tower. Despite today being a workday, there was a long line of people trying to get on top using the elevator. Instead of waiting, we climbed the stairs - there was no line and the entrance fee was much smaller. At the end, the climb didn't feel like much at all... It is only 110 meters (to the second level) or about, what?, 30 standard flights?

Max was a great trooper - his only complain the entire day was that he wanted to buy a hat - fedora style.... He saw it in one of the little stores in Montmartre, I said - "no", and he is whining about it still...

Since Paris is much more to the North than where we live, the sun stays up much longer. It was almost ten o'clock when we finished our climb to the tower, but the sun was still out.

From the tower, we took a cab home and called it a day. From Montmartre to Eiffel Tower in one day - not bad. I'll post some pictures later.