A French Meal and a Sparkling Tower

Monday was mostly a long driving day as we made our way from Lucerne, Switzerland to Paris, France. For the most part of this trip the scenery changed very little, and thus (truth be told) Beth and I both nodded off a number of times (it had been an early morning!) A couple of stops at the European equivalent of the Husky Truck stop and finally we arrived at Paris. We were entering the city around 5 PM, and we got a good taste of the gridlock that Paris experiences often. It took a long time to make our way into the heart of the city where our hotel was located, but eventually we made it safe and sound. Once we checked into our rooms and had a few moments to get settled, the tour group headed out for supper, we had been promised a true French meal.

The restaurant was a quaint little place called the Le Montebello, it was just across the river from Notre Dame Cathedral in the very heart of Paris. It was a true multi-course meal (though not nearly as fancy as the one in Babette’s Feast). There were some in our group who had the snails for the appetiser, but I wasn’t that brave and stuck with the French Onion soup, which was pretty safe, and pretty tasty. The best part of the meal for me was the mashed carrots that came with the main entrée, that was the biggest surprise and I really loved how it tasted.

You could tell that our tour group was getting more familiar with each other because the conversation got very loud during the meal. One of the biggest topics of amusement was going to the bathroom, which required going up a very tight spiral staircase - some people almost got stuck. The meal and the setting was a great introduction to what the city of Paris had to offer - lots of flavour and character.

After the meal our tour guide Elzo took us on a quick drive through the city centre, pointing out all the various monuments and buildings as we made our way through the City of Lights. At one point the bus stopped and Elzo told us to hurry off the bus because we were going to see something that only happens for 5 minutes a night, the Eiffel Tower sparkles. No sooner had he spoken when lights began flashing on and off all over the Eiffel Tower - it really did look like it was sparkling against the darkening evening sky! Then just as suddenly as it began, it was over. We loaded back on the bus and made our way back to the hotel…our appetites for Paris had been whetted and tomorrow would be a full day.