Saturday February 14, 2004 – Day two
What you’ve all been waiting to read about!
Since we did not get in until 3am and it was vacation we slept until 11am. I love not having to get up early!! When we did get up I made Sam wait in the hall until I hid his gifts. I made him find them by figuring out clues I had placed all over the room It was fun to watch him try to make sense out of my nonsense!! I think he enjoyed it though and I know he liked his chocolate and wallet (he had lost his earlier in the semester). While I was getting ready he sneaked out and bought me a dozen red roses. They were by far the most gorgeous roses I’ve ever seen. They smelled so good and were soft as velvet.
We changed hotels that morning and moved to Hotel Des Arts, it was the classical Parisian hotel. The walls were green velvety cloth with flowers painted on them and the bathroom was bright red tile. The maid wore a tasteful version of the classical French maid uniform. The desk clerk was a greasy Frenchman with a heavy accent, but very nice and very helpful! I was much happier with this hotel and it was so cute!
Once we finally got moving we decided to walk everywhere. We left the hotel and walked through the Latin Quarter. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a crowded Parisian street it was probably like the Latin Quarter. Imagine an old winding cobble stone street ascending up a hill lined with three or four story buildings with little store fronts on each one. There were fruit stands, flower stands, fish stores, bread stores, pastry stores, crepe stands, trinket stores, confectionaries, and tons of street venders. As they say “If you want enjoy true Parisian life you’ve got to spend a day in the Latin Quarter”. Sam and I both loved it—the smells, the vendors, the food, the music, the people – this was the everyday side of Paris. As we walked we daydreamed about living in Paris and decided that if we ever did we wanted to live in the Latin Quarter!
When we left the Latin Quarter we crossed the river and walked past the Louvre and explored a bit. He took me into Tiffany’s and we looked in the window of Damiani Diamonds (I would later find out that he was just trying to throw me off!) After our window shopping we walked in the direction of the Eiffel tower and stopped in a café to have dinner. We had the best crêpes with hot fudge and whip cream on top. Once it was dark enough we walked to the Eiffel Tower.
It was so cold! When we were standing in a cue for tickets we bought a hat and some souvenirs. After waiting in line for thirty minutes we got on the elevator to go up the tower. It was neat to watch out the window as we rose above the city. We stopped on the second viewing deck and walked around, the view was amazing. After strolling around the second deck we went to the top of the tower. When you first get out of the elevator you are inside. I was kind of bummed at first but then we saw the stairs to go up and outside! Inside we walked around looking at the lit up maps under the windows. They were nice because I knew what I was looking at! Once we had our fill of the inside we decided to go brave the cold, the crowd and the wind at the very top. When we got up there and I looked down it was breath taking. We just happened to look down at the view of the Musée Du Cinema with the color changing fountains and when I looked down at the Tower leg I noticed it glittering. The whole Eiffel Tower glitters every twenty minutes or so and it looks like something out of a fairytale. Sam and I slowly walked around the top and pointed out all of the illuminated buildings. We had fun deciding which building was which!
Did you know that Mr. Eiffel had an apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower? Now they’ve cut away the wall and put up a giant window so you can see inside his apartment. There are life size wax people in the apartment and it’s furnished like the early nineteen hundreds. After we had frozen and seen everything I decided to go back inside and warm up. When we got back inside Sam said we had to go back up. At this point I was thinking he was acting a little weird. He also said how hot he was and that he was sweating. I thought that it was weird but decided to keep my mouth shut so I didn’t ruin anything!
Once I had warmed up a bit we went back up. As we were walking back up the stairs he asked me what my favorite view was. Now I was really suspicious! I told him the view of the color changing fountains. When we got back outside he told me that we had to walk around the building. I was really wondering what was going on now! We had already walked around it two or three times! After circling it once he had me walk around it twice more.
On the third time around he stopped me at the fountains and we stood there and watched them change color and dance. He asked me what I had wished for the night before on the boat under the bridge. Of course I did not tell him—whishes you share don’t come true! I asked him what he had wished for and he said “that we would get engaged in Paris”. I turned to look at him and he was down on one knee. I said something like “get up! What are you doing?!” He said “Will you make me the happiest man in the world? Will you be my wife?” I thought for sure I was dreaming! He pulled out the ring and put it on my finger as I said “yes!” He got up and we hugged and I cried a bit. Two ladies took our picture and congratulated us. I think I stood there and stared at it for five minutes
We decided to walk back to the hotel; it was only like five miles away! We walked down the bank of the Seine as he told me about asking my parents and I asked him a hundred questions. I think we both had ear to ear grins the whole way back to the hotel!
I tried to call my family and Ashleigh about ten times that night because I wanted to tell them all about it but I did not get through to either one, but it was okay because I was so incredibly tired, I bet we walked twenty miles that day. I laid in bed looking at my ring and before I knew it I was off in never-never land dreaming about my princess wedding:)!!
Ps- the rest of our trip will be posted tomorrow! Sorry it has taken so long to get this up. We got back to Lithuanian and school work hit us hard :)
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