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Hi!

I'm a day late with my usual scrapbooking post, but better late than never I guess! It's a photo heavy post today as my layout of the Eiffel Tower spread over 4 pages!  First was the Musee Rodin though.

We pretty much went to the Musee Rodin to see the Thinker sculpture.  We'd seen the back of it from the Hop On Hop Off bus several times but we wanted to see it up close.  The Museum had 2 entry prices.  It was only €2 to tour the gardens and a bit more to add in the Museum.  As the Thinker was in the gardens we only paid the €2.  It was a lovely day to wander the gardens and see the sculptures.

I was actually a little surprised by the number of his sculptures I knew, even though I didn't know they were Rodin's.  I think most tourists pose by the top left sculpture.  The cheeky ones do the Beyonce pose, but I wasn't feeling cheeky that day!  Outside the museum was a light post where people leaving the museum leave the stickers you are given upon entry. We skipped that 'tradition'.

We then strolled around to the Eiffel Tower.  I'd prebooked a behind the scenes tour and we had a little time to kill before it started so we grabbed something to eat and sat and people watched.  We got scammed into having a portrait drawn of us and paid a ridiculous amount for a really bad caricature.  Sigh, you live and learn!  I'm glad I booked the tour as only one of the three lifts was working on the day so it was at least a 2 hour wait in line to ascend unless you wanted to take the stairs.  No thanks!  We got to go underground near the tower to a radio control room that was used during the War.  It's now mostly used as storage and as a secondary kitchen area for the restaurants on the Tower.

We then got to skip the line (yay!) for a behind the scenes look at the Tower itself.  We saw the machinery that powers the lifts and heard more about the history of the Tower.  We were then taken to the second level of the Tower and some of the landmarks pointed out to us.  I'd planned the timing of the tour so we would be on the Tower as the sun set.  It was very romantic!  It was also very cold up there, so we enjoyed a hot chocolate while we waited for the sunset.

We also went right up to the top of the Tower.  It was a bit scary in the lift as you can feel the structure swaying a little in the wind.  The views are incredible though!  We were up there while the lights were flashing on the Tower so we could see all the flashes going off as people took photos of the lights from the Trocedero.  The bottom right photo shows the finishing line of a marathon race.  It was on the second level of the Tower.  I felt so sorry for the runners - they started out near Versailles and after running all that way they had to finish the race by running up the stairs to the second level of the Tower!  There were quite a few runners getting treated for cramps at the finishing line.

As we were waiting in line to catch the lift back to the ground level we heard a few Australian voices, and then a whole lot more!  Some of them were runners and their support people and others were diners in the very posh Jules Verne restaurant.  We all had a chat while we waited and laughed about how you can't get away from Aussies - you're bound to find some no matter where you go!

Bye for now,

Tina