Relais Hotel Vieux Paris

I love to walk along the Seine early in the morning just after the sun has come up. Crisp morning air, you sit on a wall along the river and realize that you are in Paris...(People are probably frightened off by the huge grin that dominates my face at this moment...;) )My first trip to Paris. I was so excited that I went out to explore at 0430. In the dark in February. Did I have a map? No. Did I have any idea of where I was going? No. Happily I ended up at a Metro station (After a long walk) and took a Metro to the station just south of the Eifel tower. I walked to the tower and stood directly underneath it looking up from the inside. Then I noticed the base of the corners of the tower. I climbed up on the concrete blocks, took off my right glove, and put my bare hand on the tower. It was so cold, and yet the shiver I got was not from the cold. I jumped down and walked over to a bench and sat for a good hour just staring at the thing. I was actually there, I realized, sitting in a park looking at the Eifel Tower. Not in a magazine, not in a TV show....but really there. It was my first trip to Europe, and for me, the Eifel Tower had always been the 'YOU HAVE BEEN TO EUROPE' measuring stick.