July 26: Some Climb Towers, Some Write Novels

After his ride in the morning, Dan took the children to the Arc de Triumphe and the Eiffel Tower, leaving me at home in the apartment alone so that I could work on my novel. I made spectacular progress on the novel, and he and the kids appear to have achieved a certain amount of height -- an element of sight seeing that I do not relish and did not miss. Here's his picture from the top of the Arch:



And here are the children up there:



They next attempted to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but the very tippy top place was closed, so they did the second level:



Later that evening, I took a walk by myself, feeling very high on noveling and being in Paris. I had my little netbook with me and imagined I might duck into a cafe or something, and write a few scenes. I looked back up at the apartment and saw the outline of Dan in the window -- it was strange seeing his familiar shape in the middle of that building. I walked down Rue du Fauberg St. Honore, which was very quiet, and ran into a lot of closed sidewalks and gendarmes and other more exotic looking police types, outside embassies and whatnot. I'm pretty sure the President of France has his home on this street -- that could account for some of the security. Then it began to lightly rain and I trotted home quickly.