Zurich and Paris: Part IV

Read Part I here, Part II here, and Part III here.


Supposedly, whatever you do on New Year’s Day, you will do for the rest of the year. If so, I will have quite a happy 2008. We started the day with brunch at a quintessential Parisian boulangerie, or bakery-café. I ordered a croissant and a cappuccino. I rarely drink any kind of coffee, but this cappuccino was by far the best I’ve ever had. It had just a tiny bit of espresso, lots of milk and froth, and dark cocoa sprinkled on the top. I could watch the man making the cappuccino and watched his little daughter watching him. Everyone involved was enjoying this drink!

After brunch, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We waited about an hour in line before we could start climbing. Once we started climbing the 1665 steps, we probably could have gone straight to the top, but instead, we stopped at every landing to take pictures. Between the three of us, we have close to 300 pictures! The design of the tower is breathtaking and gave me a little more appreciation for the tedious statics and structures classes I took as a civil engineer in college. It’s amazing to think that people actually had to put all of those iron bars in place, bolt and weld them together, and paint them, too! I certainly wouldn’t be volunteering for that job!