Long day!

Friday, August 22, 2010 - addendum.
We returned home via bus and rested and relaxed again, the set out for a dinner of crepes. Most of the crepe restaurants in the city are located on Rue du Montparnasse in the shadow of Tour Montparnasse near the theatre district of Paris. Indeed, much of Paris is designed such that all or most of one commodity can be located in only one area of the city (although there is a creperie near our apartment, and a few others sprinkled across the city). If you want fabrics, buttons, or sewing supplies, the Montmartre area is the place to go. If you want musical instruments, music books, sheet music, guitar and violin strings and other music paraphernalia, the area just outside the Gare St. Lazare is your spot. (This does NOT apply to wine, bread, cheese, medical analysis laboratories or optical shops – these are on every corner!) We ate our savory crepes and wine and finished with some dessert crepes. Delicious! We stopped into a large (by French standards) Monoprix store for some water, and were surprised to discover that it appears to be France’s answer to Wal-Mart – there were kitchen goods (some really cute dishes), clothing, bedding and, on the lower floor, a grocery store. From there bought tickets and headed to the top of Tour Montparnasse, which offers a 360-degree view of Paris from 59 floors up. It is the tallest skyscraper in France. It is said that the Tour Montparnasse offers the best view of the city because it is the only place where one does not have to look at the Tour (Tower)! (Ironically, this is the same claim made by Guy de Maupassant, who loathed the Eiffel Tower and ate lunch there daily so that he did not have to look at the tower.) “Its simple architecture, gigantic proportions and monolithic appearance have been often criticized for being out of place in Paris's urban landscape and, as a result, two years after its completion, the construction of skyscrapers in the city centre was banned” (thank you, Wikipedia). Whatever may be said about the Tour Montparnasse, it offered us a splendid view, with the City of Lights laid out below us in every direction. We stayed until after 10:00 to see the light show on the Eiffel Tower, then headed for our apartment.