Mom had a special surprise planned for Christmas night: dinner in the Eiffel Tower restaurant!
We went a bit early and did some exploring in the Trocadero area near the tower.
Then it was time to go up. We got our ticket and headed to the elevators. There were many other people waiting to eat in the restaurant too. There were many Americans, but also other nationalities. Some of the men were wearing tuxes. Some of the women were dressed to the nines. There were couples and families, some older and some with small children. Next to us was a couple who lived in Texas, but were from Brazil and Australia, respectively. On the other side, a family of four from Texas: an adult married couple and one set of their parents. The tables were very close together, so we talked a bit with both throughout the evening.
They started us off with some sort of caviar mousse thing and champagne. Très delicieux. Then foie gras with pumpkin-y paste stuff and a dark chocolate drops, paired with white wine. Then veal with a mushroom sauce and a red wine. (All of the controversial foods at the Eiffel Tower!)
While eating the veal, Mom and I joked about going to McDonald’s afterwards, because we were still hungry and weren’t convinced the dinner would fill us. Everything was delicious, but the portion sizes weren’t huge and we hadn’t had much to eat that day.
After digesting a bit and dessert, we changed our tunes.
We were nice and full (but not too full) after our desserts of macarons, apricot gummies (reminiscent of Chuckles gummies, according to Mom), a small cherry cake and the entree of dessert: a apricot mousse on top of a small cake all contained within a dark chocolate shell.
We also talked our waiter into another glass of red. Since it was 11:00 p.m., a coffee just wouldn’t do.
After dinner, Mom and I walked up to the 2nd étage for a look at the city lights. It was pretty darn cold up there. Of course we did get warmed up after walking up the 10 flights of stairs in between the two floors.
After so much walking this week, we were definitely feeling those stairs.
But the view is definitely worth the walk.
After doing a couple of loops around the 2nd étage and getting my pictures, we headed back down. We said our au revoirs to the Tour Eiffel for this visit and headed back to our apartment.
The next day, today, we would begin the next phase of our adventure: London!
