Nemours and 58 Tour Eiffel

This morning, we piled into the family van with Nathalie and her five boys to visit her sister Caroline in Nemours, a town about an hour and a half south of Paris. I hadn't seen her since she had last visited Canada over 14 years ago. Caroline and her husband now have three children, all under the age of three. Yowza. 

We stayed for a lunch of shish kebobs, tabouli, salad, bread and cheese, and for dessert, chocolate cake (or as her oldest daughter excitedly chants, "gâteau chocolat!"). 

After lunch, we went for a walk through the picturesque little town to the Chateau de Nemours, a castle built in the 12th century for a nobleman of Louis VII.  

The River Loing

awkward pose with Jean

Chateau de Nemours

This evening, we had a reservation at 58 Tour Eiffel, the restaurant on the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower. As we walked through the Champs de Mars, the great lawn leading to the tower (where we had enjoyed a bottle of cheap sparkling wine a few days earlier), we noticed how much busier it was today. The wine and beer peddlers were hustling as usual, and I was tempted to try and get a better deal than the €7 we paid last time. 

Our dinner was a three course fixed menu, with about four options per course. Everything about the meal was very well done. Ash had prawns followed by salmon, and I had smoked salmon followed by roasted Guinea fowl. For dessert we shared a plate of cheese and a coconut square. Each course was very rich, but fortunately they kept our wine glasses topped up throughout the evening. We left feeling so guilty about how much we ate, that we opted to take the stairs back to the ground level. I'm sure we hardly made a dent in our calorie intake. Oh well.

Afterwards, we did our best to snap up some pictures of the tower at night, and I fulfilled my quest to get a symmetrical shot from underneath, looking up. 

Ooooooh....

Aaaaaaaah.....

When we got home, we had a chance to FaceTime with our puppy back home, who turned ONE today. Happy birthday Marty!

Tomorrow, we plan to relax at the apartment for the morning, and then make our way to Champs-Élysées and maybe the Arc de Triomphe before dinner at a pretty fancy shmancy restaurant, Le Diane, which was a wedding gift from Ashleigh's brother, Ryan. Another great day to look forward to. 

Dormez bien!