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The Streets of Paris; ...self-explanatory
Topic Started: May 17 2009, 04:37 AM (992 Views)
Llian Eppes
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Llian apparated Juls to the 7th arrondissement (or district) in Paris. Paris was divided into several districts because it was such a large city, but Llian had chosen the one that the Eiffel Tower resided in. It was on the Seine River and most certainly a popular tourist site. The weather was nice that day, which Llian was grateful for.

He had apparated them in a cluster of trees just a few hundred feet from the massive tower itself. Llian couldn't remember the last time he had been there, but watching the bustling Parisians and hearing the conversations in casual French around him, Llian almost immediately felt completely refreshed as he only could when he traveled abroad. There was something about visting a different country that just got to him every time. It was new, revitalizing, and refreshing.

Glancing down at Juls, he said, "All right: here we are. And I must say, I have to give myself credit for the fabulous door-to-door service," he joked. "Right from your bedroom to the Eiffel Tower itself."
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Julianna Eppes

For a minute, Juls kept her eyes closed. Apparation was something one could get used to, but side-along was never pleasant. That was the first reason. The second reason was...weird as it was, Juls thought sight was an over-appreciated sense. She could hear the people, the language rolling off tongues, some harsher and less known, others so fast even she could hardly keep up. And naturally, all the English. American-English, specifically. Tourism.

The smell was unique as well, not as wet and muggy as England had been when they left.

Finally his words made her open her eyes and see the trees, then past them, the Eiffel Tower, and she grinned.

"Door-to-door. Of course, a fabulous job. Were you expecting a tip?" She teased, but she reached for his hand and all but bounced out from the line of trees. Little kid in a candy shop.

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Llian Eppes
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Llian laughed. "A tip? No, but if you're offering..." He trailed off, following her as she took his hand and led him out towards the tower. There was a small line of people waiting to go up starting on the east pillar. The two joined that line, waiting as those ahead of them purchased their lift/stair tickets and headed up.

"So, would you prefer to head straight to the top, or would you like to eat lunch first? Altitude 95 is on the first level. It's a great place." It was rather difficult to get in without a reservation, actually, but Llian was pretty good friends with the manager there, so he figured he could just call in a favor. Especially after what happened in Barcelona... Luc owed him.
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Julianna Eppes

Juls just shook her head, answering cheerfully, "I wasn't."

She flashed him a cheeky grin, and then stood on her tippie-toes, looking over the heads of the people in front of them. There weren't many, she just wanted to see...everything. And everyone. Faces, voices, stands, colors, lights. Take the most out of the short time they had and keep it to remember.

His question made her sit back on her heels as she contemplated it. It was an interesting decision, because she really didn't know. She hadn't thought about what she wanted to do while there, other than being happy she was. It was just...relaxing. Freeing, to be there.

"How about..." She glanced at their hands, and then at the tower, and said, "How about you choose, because this is your day trip, and I'm only here to make sure you relax, you workaholic you."

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Llian Eppes
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Juls' excitement to be there was contagious, and Llian found himself even more relaxed than before. It was nice to be out with someone who shared his excitement to just... go places.

When she asked him to choose, he had to think about it for a little before replying, "All right. I say we go up to the top first and enjoy the view." Honestly, the third level of the Eiffel Tower was one of Llian's favorite places to be. It was so freeing to be so high above everything, to - just for a little while - not be limited by standing on the ground. It was a wonderful escape.
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Julianna Eppes

When Llian made his decision they were next in line, and Juls couldn't help it; she turned to him and dead-blank, "So stairs, or elevator?"

The amusement, however, behind the question wasn't entirely hidden; her eyes were still laughing, even if she looked completely serious otherwise. At the same time though, she wasn't sure she could be serious, despite trying to. She was acting like a kid, she knew, but the relief of being out of that room shocked her a little bit, and bloody hell, they were taking a 'day trip to France.' Who takes day trips to other countries? It was so cool.


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Llian Eppes
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Llian laughed. "Elevator. Definitely elevator," he said. "I don't know about you, but I don't pride myself on exercising ability. I'm just a skinny little guy who can't climb stairs," he laughed.

Turning to the man in front of them, Llian paid for the two tickets and offered his arm to Juls. "Well? Shall we head up?" he asked. Luckily it didn't seem that crowded that day. He wasn't sure why - it seemed like a prime tourist time. But he wasn't about to complain.
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Julianna Eppes

Juls arched her eyebrow and pretended to look him up and down for a minute, before she allowed herself to break into a smile, "Skinny little guy. If you sayyy so. Elevator it is."

Llian paid for the tickets, and she said, "Thank you" before sliding her arm through his.

"To infinity and beyond." She muttered, looking around them as they headed to said elevators. She'd never actually been there. Wasn't that stupid? She lived in France for the majority of her life and she'd never been up the Eiffel Tower. Lame, but true. She never had the time.

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Llian Eppes
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Llian and Juls boarded the elevator, waiting for it to fill up with other tourists. When the elevator was full, they started going up. It didn't necessarily go very quickly, and it seemed to take a while to even reach the first level. Once they did, about half the people got off, and at the second level, more people got off. There were only about five people left on the elevator to go up to the third level.

Looking around, he could see the pedestrians getting smaller and smaller. No, really? But it helped to focus on looking somewhere outside of the elevator... open spaces were good. When the doors finally opened to the third level, the remainder of the people exited the elevator. Llian held out his hand to Juls as they exited. The view of Paris from the top of the tower was amazing, particularly since it was a nice, clear day.
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Julianna Eppes

Juls had to admit; she never liked having to go up elevators. She was a sucker for scary movies, and elevators were just the epitome of horror-movie set. Wires breaking, lights flickering off and on, falling down the shafts. And besides, for usual things, why use an elevator when you could just walk, or apparate?

Clearly they couldn't do that here though, and so, on the elevator they went. The first few minutes were exciting, the up motion, all the chatter of the people in with them. But when they stopped, and then stopped again, more and more people getting off, she became restless in the space. They weren't here to ride on the...fantastically fun...elevator, obviously. When she glanced at Llian, he was watching people on the ground, and she directed her eyes that way.

Towards the ground.

Lots, and lots of feet down.

Because she hadn't focused on the fact that they were going up stories and stories, she'd been alright. But seeing, just how far they were to the ground? She gasped a little bit and then looked up instead, humming silently to herself. Luckily, the elevator stopped and the next thing she knew they were walking out onto the third floor, maybe squeezing his hand a little tightly when she looked out.

She could admit easily that it was beautiful. Definitely worth it. But that didn't make the adrenaline rushing through her system go away, and she couldn't stop looking down. As much as the height startled her, she loved it.

"We're really far up." She then said, laughing at the slight squeak in her voice. No shit, really?

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Llian Eppes
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Llian took a deep breath of relief as they finally exited the tiny, enclosed space of the lift. It was so tiny, that he had really been getting claustrophobic. Now they were high up and free. The view was incredible, even right from stepping off of the elevator, despite not standing at the balcony edge.

From what he could gather from looking over at Juls, she hadn't necessarily enjoyed the ride up either. He just took her hand as they exited the elevator, grinning at her statement. "That we are," he said, nodding. "276.13 meters to be exact," he quipped, then explained, "I used to be a tour guide to pick up some extra cash while traveling."

Their hands still joined, he led her over to the edge. "What do you think of the view?" he asked, looking more at her to observe her reaction rather than the view he'd already seen dozens of times before.
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Julianna Eppes

When Llian told her exactly how high they were, Juls closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. And when she opened them, she was fine again. Fear was simply a state of mind. If you were capable of fearing something, then you were capable of feeling the exact opposite. Still, she crinkled her nose at him and laughed, "Thanks for that. I really needed to know how high we were."

When they ended up at the edge, Juls looked down, for a second, smiling at the people who were waving up (she thought they were waving up, they were kind of small) and then looked out. Because of how far up they were, it seemed like you could see all of France. Because of it being such a clear day, she could see the sun sparkling off the water, the architecture seeming immaculately bright in contrast to the green of the land and the trees, the roadways and the bridges and the horizon...there was so much to see, and for a moment, she just took it all in.

It was breath-taking.

He asked her what she thought, and it was with completely unhindered delight that she answered, "This, is possibly, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." And when she glanced at him to see him watching her? She just smiled.

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Llian Eppes
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Llian grinned. "Well, of course you needed to know," he replied. "It's important information." Of course, in the grand scheme of things? It... wasn't really all that important information.

He fell silent for a moment, enjoying the view... and enjoying watching her enjoy the view. He leaned over on the rail and swept his eyes across the sights of the busy streets of Paris.

At her remark, he smiled and said, "Well, then it looks like I have some more places to show you, that's for sure." Of course, the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was a really nice one, but if he had to rank it amongst everything else he'd seen? It wouldn't even crack the top 10. Maybe top 20. Maybe.

"Not that the view isn't fantastic, of course. I mean, if you look over there," he said, pointing in the direction he was talking about, "you can see the Arc de Triomphe. Of course, it's most well-known these days as being on the Champs Elysees, which has all the great shopping and designer boutiques." Llian shrugged. "We are in the fashion capital of the world, I suppose."

And then, just because he couldn't help himself, he cracked a grin and added, "I bet they have great dressing rooms."
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Julianna Eppes

Juls nodded, her face transforming, just for a moment, into solemn agreement when he said that how far up they were was important information. Unfortunately though, she was incapable of keeping it up, and her grin just came right back.

"World tour." She then reminded him, laughing as she said, "With lots of beds, right?"

Her gaze followed his finger, and she stepped forward a little bit more, repeating after him, "Arc de Triomphe. I know what that is." Again, she smiled, "Been there once or twice. But it's been quite a few years, and believe it or not, I've never been up on this. It always seemed more of a touristy thing but...I slightly regret that now."

His last comment just made her laugh again, and she said, "But then we'll miss out on the restaurant's bathroom..."

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Llian Eppes
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Llian nodded. "Of course. And now I have some ideas as to where we're going to go. Places with amazing views are definitely on the list," he commented. "And yes, there will be lots of beds." Those were a necessity, to be sure.

"You know, it's amazing how many people live in France and don't actually visit the Eiffel Tower. I guess it's more of a 'tourist' thing to do," he said. "And hey - life's too short to have regrets. At least you're here now," he said.

"And.... you do get to experience the restaurant bathroom," he added with a laugh. He had honestly sort of been kidding about the bathroom thing, but if she was up for it... well, he was certainly more than willing to go along with that. Hey, who else could say they had sex on the Eiffel Tower? Well... actually, Llian was pretty sure he didn't want to know the answer to that.

"Speaking of, are you hungry?"
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Julianna Eppes

Juls grinned, "I'm up for anywhere. As long as we don't get there by like...jumping out of a plane and skydiving. Because I would probably forget to pull the thingie and just go SQUISH! on the ground. Or just hold onto you and scream the whole time. I tend to like the ground."

Simple fact: Wolves can't fly. And you don't tend to see them in trees, did you? They liked the ground...

But...actually? She said that, but sometime in her life she probably would end up doing it. Just because she disliked letting something as trivial as what could go wrong stop her from experiencing things in life. Like he had said; Life was too short for regrets.

"I am, and I owe you thanks for that." She shrugged, looking over the railing again. His next comment just went through one ear and out the other. Juls heard him, obviously, but she wasn't entirely sure how to respond other than to laugh. So she let it be.

"Well, first we have to go find my stomach. It's down there, somewhere."
She then teased, pointing to the ground.

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Llian Eppes
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"What, you don't skydive? It's kind of fun," Llian replied, amused. "I've only been once, but I think it's worth a try. And trust me.... you don't forget to release the parachute." It really was the only thing you thought about until you were safely floating to the ground. Personally, Llian loved the thrill of it. It wasn't his favorite thing to do, but definitely something he believed should be experienced.

At her last comment, he simply grinned, saying, "You know, that does work out perfectly. The restaurant's somewhere down there as well. What do you say we head down?" he suggested, offering his arm to her.

"Stairs or elevator?"
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"I haven't, actually, ever done that. The idea sort of freaks me out. You're jumping off a plane, thousands of feet in the air, and hoping that when you pull this little string, a biiiig, non-torn parachute will slow your inevitable impact to the ground. That's putting a lot of trust into the manufacturer of the parachute." Juls shrugged, "I'm not saying I wouldn't ever, do it. Just that I wouldn't....jump up right now and say 'Lets go to Atlantis and get there by skydiving!' You know?"

She just smiled and took his arm once again, nodding in consent. "Food does sound good right now, actually. And as for stairs? There's like, over a thousand, aren't there?"

And going down stairs was harder than going up them, technically.

"I'm going to have to take a rain check on the fantastic chance for exercise and say lets take the...slightly, faster, elevator again. Is that alright?"

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Llian Eppes
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Llian nodded. He could understand her point, to be sure. It did involve putting a lot of faith into all aspects of it, and it was actually a little frightening. But he did say, "It's not always such a huge leap of faith. They check and re-check those parachutes before letting someone jump out of a plane with them. I mean, let's face it: the people that run these programs are only human, and they hate lawsuits just as much as anyone else," he laughed.

As she spoke, he headed with her towards the elevator. "All right, elevator it is. I'm sure we can find some other way to get our exercise in," he said with a hint of a smirk.

They got in the elevator, and it headed slowly down until they reached the first level again. They were still rather high up, although much closer to the ground than before.

They reached the restaurant, Altitude 95 , and Llian brought Juls inside. [click here for another picture.]

He had a quick word with the host, and, although his French was a bit rusty - and still laced with more of an Italian accent when he spoke it - they were being seated in a couple of minutes.

They were led to a small table, decorated in the silver and gray that was the restuarant's color scheme, and handed menus before the host walked away. "So, what do you think?"
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Julianna Eppes

"I guess that's true." Juls allowed, before grinning, "It still freaks me out."

They ended up in the elevator, and she laughed, "I'm sure we can." And what better place to do it? Exercise, get your adrenaline going, and then eat, so your metabolism is working...fantastic. Absolutely wonderful. The elevator really was slow though, and she bounced on her toes for a few minutes, giving herself something to do. Stop, and go. And then finally they were on the first floor, and she walked out with him, glancing out the window to see the difference in height.

That was a little bit more comfortable, she would definitely not hesitate to admit that. Her attention was instead caught by the place they were going into, and she looked around her, taking in the wood floors and the metal design. It was definitely unique.

She payed attention to the way Llian spoke to the host, and once they were seated, she couldn't help asking, "So just how many places have you been?"

Juls couldn't exactly place a region or learning style with his French, and she was curious.

"I think it's a very nice place that honestly wouldn't have seated us this quickly, no?" Juls just smiled, "I like all the metal working. It's different. Not the typical wood floors, crystal glasses, cushy chairs type place. Tasteful, and unique."

It had her approval, even if said approval didn't mean much.

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