Day 2: The Green Line

We caught our bus, but this time we went upstairs - the buses are all doubledeckers and open on top.  I had read the tiny arrows on the map wrong, so the Eiffel Tower was further along than I thought.  We had saw some cool sights, and eventually made it to the tower!  The bus actually circles the tower and then stops almost where it had first reached the tower.  But no one realized that, so when the driver stopped in traffic several people opened the back door and got off, and he started yelling at them.

We finally got to the stop and got off.  I was immediately accosted by a young woman asking me if I spoke English.  I automatically said yes, so she asked me to sign her petition for deaf mutes.  I started to sign, while holding on to my bags, until I realized what the scam was.  Sign here, where are you from, what's your donation?  I said no, and started to walk away.  She tried to follow and guilt me into donating, but I kept walking. 

We needed a bathroom, and decided to go to a cafe and sit and have a snack.  We had seen a few on our drive around the tower, so we read a few menus and found an expensive cafe.  The waiter suggested we have a tart, so we did!  It was a slice of a big tart.  It looked like someone had made a "crust" in one of those round pans with the rippled edges.  Then they put down a thin layer of custard, and put fresh raspberries, strawberries, and kiwi on top.  Cut a slice and then spray whipped cream around it.  It was good!

The bathroom was amusing, though.  Bathrooms in France are really hit or miss.  I remember the last time I was here, the only decent bathroom was at Normandy, which is run by Americans.  The bathroom was a small area with a sink and hand dryer, and 2 doors: one for women, one for men.  Each toilet room was basically toilet-sized.  When I came out, there was a smiling gentleman in a suit waiting for the men's room.  He was by the sink, so we switched spots, so I could use the sink and he could continue to wait.  It just seemed weird.

Rejuvenated, we headed back to the tower and wandered and took a few photos.  We found the public toilets, which were full, and probably why we saw a man peeing in the park, behind a wall.  We didn't feel like going up the tower, so we headed back for our bus stop.  There were some camouflaged guys with machine guns walking around.

We got some good seats up top, and some good pics. Then things went weird.  We went by a sight, and made a u-turn, and our audio recording said "Because of the demonstrations, we will have to change our route."  We noticed several roads were blocked off.  One of the bridges was closed and had a huge amount of police officers on it.  We finally made it to our next stop, and changed buses, so we could just ride the next route.