Our lunch reservation was at noon but because the French are always late, I resisted my typical urge to get us to the restaurant at 11:55 (I am my father’s daughter….). As soon as we rounded the corner and saw it—I wasn’t quite sure if I could find it again so quickly—I took Suz around another corner to detour through a beautiful old passage, Galerie Vivienne (I also posted a picture of this on 1/14/07). After walking through its beautiful hallways, we arrived fashionably late (10-15 minutes) at Le Grand Colbert.Considered one of Paris’ most beautiful restaurants, the long dining area is divided by art-covered glass panels and palms, the wood is dark mahogany, and the lighting is soft. It has the Zagat endorsement; the food was wonderful; the staff
was very, very friendly. Despite the fact that the restaurant has become more popular since the movie “Something’s Gotta Give” was filmed there (one of my favorites), I think we were the only tourists—and it was still packed when we left after 2:30. (The French lunch lasts nearly two hours.) PS--and who knew? This restaurant was a favorite of French writer and actress, Colette, who lived upstairs and ordered her lunch to be sent up to her Palais Royal apartment every day.The rains held off as we walked different streets and neighborhoods back to the apartment where we changed into warmer clothes (in preparation for the frigid Eiffel Tower area later in the evening). And then we walked to the Louvre to take the Da Vinci Code audio tour. We LOVED that, too!! Jean Reno, the guy who played Captain Bezu Fache (the lead detective) narrated the tour, which took us by the key scenes and paintings covered in the movie as well as many different pieces of artwork that he explained as we strolled through the Grand Gallery. The music, sound effects, and clips of dialogue taken from the movie just added to the whole ambiance of the experience. We highly recommend it and felt it was well worth the 20 euros we paid.
After bundling up again, we rode the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and popped out of the station just as the 9 PM lights began to twinkle—an “ahhhh” moment all the while we marched up Napoleon’s old parade grounds (Champ de Mars) in front of his military school (Ecole Militaire) to approach the huge monument. After enjoying the marvelous structure and sharing 
stories about the history—taking more pictures, of course—we put these two tired bodies back on the Metro and came home. A very special day in the city of love. (No, we didn’t see any proposals—it was actually pretty quiet at the Eiffel. Then we realized that everyone was still in the middle of their Valentine’s dinners!)PS--Come to find out, we lucked out at the Louvre last night. They were on strike during the day and although they were allowing people in, no one would help you and we couldn't have rented the audio tapes had we visited at that time. We went after 6 PM because I could get Suz in for free with my Louvre card--and everyone was back working again!
