Latin Quarter, St-Germaine, Napoleon, and Tour Eiffel

Mr. J and I were exhausted from all the walking we did the previous two days, so we didn't get up very early on our third full day in Paris.  Once we finally get ourselves out of the hotel, we headed to the Latin Quarter, which is one of the most popular areas in the City of Lights.  It houses the Sorbonne, the old University of Paris, which is  now a group of different universities.  Before we did much walking around the area though, we ate lunch at a fast food Japanese restaurant near the Sorbonne.  lol.

After the Sorbonne, we walked to the Pantheon, an old church that is now a secular mausoleum.

This pendulum was used in an experiment in 1851 to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.  Pretty cool, huh?

One of the more famous people buried in this building is Victor Hugo.

After the Pantheon, we walked down Boulevard St-Germain.  It's great for shopping (think NYC's 5th Avenue), and it was so much fun to window shop.  In my excitement to shop, I forgot to take pictures of some of stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry.

I wanted to buy one of these massive bottles of wine so bad, but it was impossible to bring back home.  lol.  Keep in mind that Mr. J is 6'2!

I took a pic of this Paraguay embassy since it looked more like a chic museum than an actual embassy.

Since we could see the Tour Eiffel from Boulevard St-Germain, we decided to keep walking there.  On the way, we stopped by L'Hotel National des Invalides, which is a group of museums and monuments dedicated to the military history of France.  Napoleon is also buried here. 

We checked out the weaponry museum quickly since we only had an hour left until closing.

This is the shrine above Napoleon's tomb.  Fancy!

Napoleon's tomb:

Napoleon III's tomb isn't as fancy, he just got writing on the floor:

The building that houses Napoleon's tomb, from the outside:

After we finished looking around Napoleon's tomb, we decided to walk towards the Tour Eiffel.  We also stopped by for coffee and a quick snack at a restaurant close to the park right before you get to the tower.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it.   It was a fantastic people watching spot too.

I know this is a very typical Paris picture, but I love it.

The line to get to the top was deceivingly short.  This was the only irritation we experienced the entire week.  Mr. J was not happy.

Don't look down during the elevator ride if you're not too fond of heights.

View from the platform, where you switch elevators to get to the top:

The line to switch to the second elevator was quite annoying and long.  We were cold, starving, and impatient at this point.

By the time we reached the top level, it was already dark.  Listen to the guidebooks and avoid the super long lines by going first thing in the morning or towards closing.  If it was this insane in October, I can't even imagine how much longer the wait is during peak tourist season.  Eek!

We were famished after another long day of walking around.  Like the first night, we decided to have dinner close to the hotel and chose La Casa di Sergio (77 Avenue des Ternes).  Once again, I didn't take pictures of our meal but check out the website for some photos.  We ate on the terrace despite the rain that night.  Tres romantique!