Today Sarah and I got up when the alarm went off (yay!) and after breakfast, we checked out of the hostel. We stowed our backpacks in the luggage room then headed over to the Eiffel Tower. Even though it was a bit misty, we were determined to have a picnic at the base, rain or shine. Thankfully, it stopped precipitating once we got there and Sarah and I decided to save a buck and have some extra fun by climbing up the first 2 stories of the Tower. The first étage (story, for all you non-French speakers) had the best view of Sacre Coeur- you could really tell that it was on a big hill from the altitude we were at- and when the sun shone on it, it turned bright white! 
We rested for a bit then kept going. The next story was pretty much the same deal, so we just bought our tickets for the elevator to the very top. By the way, those steps are crazy- not that they were flimsy or anything, but it was not the greatest feeling walking up 700+ stairs and being able to see the ground through penny-sized holes in each step!
We waited in line for the final elevator and when we got close to being let thru the turnstile, Sarah discovered that she had misplaced her ticket! This is a typical Sarah thing (she was my roommate for a year and she lost her keys or cell phone practically everyday!) and so she sat down next to the line and checked every pocket in her coat and bag until she found it. I decided to just go ahead since I knew she'd catch up eventually, so I crammed into the elevator with a bunch of people and we zoomed to the top! That was another scary minute since there are big windows on all sides and all I could think about while we were moving was "tower of terror!"
I scrambled out of that thing first and took a stroll around the enclosed part of the top level. Sarah and I met up and we popped out to the outer platform and into the wind! We took a bunch of "wow-look-at-my-crazy-wind-swept-hair-on-the-Eiffel-Tower" pictures (which were a lot of fun). The strange thing was on 2 sides it was very windy, allowing us to take our pictures and on the other 2, no wind at all! Weird!
" wow-look-at-my-crazy-wind-swept-hair-on-the-Eiffel-Tower" after photo
After our fun, we had to get going so we could do our picnic and then catch our train. We felt that a baguette, cheese and wine would be a very appropriate lunch for our romantic picnic, so off we wandered thru the nearby streets in search for an open food place. It was a little late for lunch and we eventually became aware of the fact that every food store, including big supermarkets, were closed. However, we came across a bakery (baguette- check!) and finally, right when we were beginning to think our lunch was going to be just some bread, we found a tiny convenience store. We picked up some cheese, grapes and some 3 euro wine and headed back towards our picnic spot. We had wandered quite a ways away, and grabbed a bench at the far end of the park (by the Ecole Militare). It was at this point we discovered that the wine had a cork. Bad news for us since neither of us had a corkscrew!After our romantic picnic (come on- in Paris, right by the Eiffel Tower!) we headed back to the hostel, but I got us kind of completely lost on the way (failed the navigating part of this trip). It should have taken us 20 minutes, but an hour later, we had our stuff and we on our way to the train station!
On to Rome!
Since we were unsure about how to get to Rome without it taking under 24hours, we asked the info desk guys (who were extremely helpful) and they booked us on an overnight train straight to Rome! Needless to say, Sarah and I were elated not to have to switch trains at 4AM then hop on a ship like we originally planned! All we had to pay was 25 euros to book a sleeper bunk and we were good to go! We headed to the station our overnight train left from, which was thankfully not a very far walk. On the way, we rested a few times (very necessary with the huge packs we were carrying) and once some guy came up to us and after being very friendly and chatty, asked us a very startling question. The conversation: dude: "Are you enjoying Paris?" us: "Yep." dude: "Do you guys smoke hash?" us:"Um... no." dude: "Ok, enjoy France!" and off he went! We were both like, did that guy just try to sell us drugs?!? We beat it after that and got to our station with about 45 minutes to wait.
Once there, we ate some more of our leftover picnic and Sarah contrived to get our cheap wine open. It was terrible. We chucked it after a few sips (I think I was hoping it would get better or something, but no, it didn't). Our train showed up and Sarah and I found our compartment. It was so awesome! We went crazy once we got there, claiming the top bunks, lowering 
the shades, moving the ladder around and taking pictures. We were also excited not to have any roommates (and none showed up the whole trip- bonus!)
