I'm An Eiffel Tower Junkie
Today was very overcast in Paris. Not too cold ... just very damp. I was out walking over to the 15th arrondissement and in order to do that, I had to walk through the Champs de Mars. The Champs de Mars is the park where the Eiffel Tower "lives." I have never seen the Tower in the foggy dove gray winter weather of Paris. What a beautiful sight the softness of all that steel against through the winter profile of the trees.
From my apartment 7 stories above the street, I could see the Grand Lady just barely this morning. I love the color of Paris in the winter.
I decided to spend the day in my neighborhood and just hang out at all my little haunts. This is one of my absolute favorite neighborhood bistros. It's called "Le Royal Tour." In the summer, you can sit out under the awnings and stare at the Eiffel Tower. It's like a dinner theatre.
It's not a fancy place but the food is good. I am going to make a confession to you but don't tell anyone because it makes me sound boring. I ate Sunday lunch here yesterday as well. It was packed to the rafters with French families enjoying their Sunday meals and I seemed to be the only non-French person in the place.
A group of older Parisian women sat together and one lady told me that they were women who worked with the French army in WWII. They were indeed a feisty group of ladies and a quite elderly one kept raising her arm in the air yelling "paté, paté, paté".
Now, this is my favorite meal. Roast chicken with hand cut fries but that's not entirely all of it. The piéce de la resistance" is the GRAVY. Oh my God ... the gravy.
Now here's the other little twist to this story. I had the same meal yesterday as I had tonight. Even the same wine and dessert. The dessert isn't French. It's Italian with a French kick. Tiramisu with the most delectable whipped cream and a splash of some liquor I wish I could identify but the cream dulled my brain.
After dinner, I went walking to visit my addiction. The tower was beautiful
against the darkening winter sky of Paris, and the bare trees
just add the other interesting point of texture against the sky.
Winter in Paris is beautiful. There aren't many tourists around and you can enjoy
the wonders of this fair city along with all it's citizens.
Once in a while, you get the feeling that you could just live here.
And tonight, as I climb my ladder up to my bed, I will be able to look out into the night sky and see my Eiffel Tower twinkling her lights at me at the top of every hour.
Bonne nuit Eiffel Tower.
All photos taken by Meg Mitchell.
