France: Second day in Paris

We slept a little bit later this morning, but still made it down to breakfast at 8:15. This hotel had a delicious breakfast with cooked to order eggs which was a nice treat. We had a lot to see today and were able to see all of it, with time to spare before meeting Vincent for dinner. We went to the Eiffel Tower and then to Galleries Lafayette. We went to the roof of Galleries Lafayette to see the view of the city. We bought our Pierre Herme macarons there as well. We ate lunch at a nearby brasserie, Le Marquie. I enjoy french onion soup and eat it everywhere I can while I am here. This was not my favorite as it was very salty and not very much cheese, but I was hungry and ate every last bit of it. We ate a couple of macarons and then rode the metro to Ile St. Louis for our real dessert, Berthillon ice cream. Bertillon serves little tiny scoops so we each got two scoops. I had chocolat and salted caramel, Danny had passion fruit sorbet and chocolat, Noah had salted caramel and honey nougat, and Hallie had chocolat and hazelnut. They were all so very good. Tres bien!! We walked over to the Pont de l’Archeveche to see if our love lock was still there and to let Noah and Hallie secure theirs. We had seen a report that locks had been taken off of the bridge and that glass panels had replaced sections. To our surprise, our lock, the lock of our friends the Bristers and also Ben and Ashley’s lock was still there!! Hallie and Noah were able to hook their lock to Ben and Ashley’s since ours was buried underneath. They then kissed each other and threw their key into the Seine. There have got to be a million keys down there! From there we walked to Saint Chapelle which was at the top of Hallie's list of things to do in Paris. She studied about it in her French history class. The last time I was there, the glass was under restoration and now it is complete. The windows are stunning. While we were in line for security, Danny met a man whose father also served in WWII. They shared stories about their fathers which helped to pas the time. This man was in France touring some of the places his father had fought in as well as having a vacation with his family. After this we came back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Hallie and I had one chocolate shop left to visit and found it easily. We had dinner at Vincent and Sophie's with their children except for Axelle. Laurene and Benjamin also joined us again. Apolline prepared our meal for us of Chicken with olives and roasted potatoes. It was very delicious. For an appetizer before dinner, Augustin made stuffed mushrooms with goat cheese. Danny said they were delicious too. Albane made chocolate chip cookies for our dessert to accompany the pastries Sophie purchased. Everything was wonderful.  All of Sophie's children enjoy cooking and have been cooking at a young age. I think this is fantastic! Hallie didn't feel well during dinner but we gave her some medicine and after awhile she was able to rejoin us. Vincent drove us home so we could see some of the city lights. It was after midnight when we arrived at the hotel but we didn't mind as we were enjoying our time with family. We enjoyed it so much we forgot to take any pictures!!!! We will sleep a little later in the morning before we begin our last full day in Paris. Until tomorrow...