London Calling

Bon chance Publius

Congratulations to my big brother for earning his degree in architecture. Believe me when I tell you he earned it. As far as I'm concerned he's the Roger Clemens of architecture school, without the $28m salary...so far.

This is a first for the blog in that it's being updated almost as soon as the events are happening. Kirsten and I are in Paris for the weekend and we spent a wonderful afternoon getting our paws into the City of Lights.

I came down for work on Thursday and Kirsten arrived today. After polishing off the last of my responsibilities we headed out for a stroll down the Champs Elysees (as you do). So after taking in L'Arc de Triomphe and sauntering down France's most famous street we took a reggie on FDR blvd. and crossed the Seine. Seeing both sides of the river and the traffic going up and down it makes one realise what special property a river can be in a city (for the opposite see Philly). As one of my favorite things in any city is to visit the tallest structure and take in the city, we made our way over to Le Tour Eiffel to see how long the line was.

We'd been warned that waiting in line could be several hours. Thankfully at 7PM the only significant hold up was all the people jumping the queue because they had dinner reservations at the restaurant on the 1st level. After an hour we finally we made it to the top (after 2 elevator rides) and was it ever impressive. To think from one spot we could see Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Sacre Coeur, Place de la Concorde and so many other sites that are so well known. The only down side was London weather followed us to Paris so the clouds, wind and rain made standing at the top of the tower a little less than enjoyable/romantic.

After finally reaching the ground again (30 minutes) we took the Metro to the Saint-Germain area to find some eats. We found some back roads lined with place after place; passing up such global favs as Japanese, Italian and Greek we settled on a lovely corner French bar/bistro. Kirsten was in search of steak frites and I had to celebrate someones graduation by eating his favorite treat. Polishing of a bottle of wine, foie gras, steak frites and filet de canard we were well satisfied with our first hours in Paris.

Now back at the hotel we head to bed ready to use the whole day to further explore what is a most enjoyable city (and practice the language a little more).

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Friday, May 11, 2007