Paris, Day 4 – The Eiffel Tower, Mini Burgers, The Louvre, & Lost Luggage

It’s our last day in Paris and I’m definitely not ready to leave. But it was technically an unexpected part of the trip as a whole. I thought we were originally going directly to Italy but was delighted to learn of our long “layover” in France. Oh what an amazing few days. Sigh…but wait! There’s more!

We decided to squeeze in a few more touristy things before heading out. A trip to the bitty top of the Eiffel Tower and a stop by the Louvre it is!

We had attempted to climb the Eiffel Tower two other times prior to today but the timing and weather didn’t allow for ideal conditions. So, made a third attempt which was successful this time around!

If you’ve been to the Eiffel Tower you know that you have an option to either walk up or take a large elevator thing up. One of Chris’ life goals was to (yup, ‘was’ ‘cause we did it!) walk up this beast and I was all for it. Woo! Besides, the line to get in for walking was way shorter too. Score!

It turns out that they only let you walk to the second “floor” and then elevator you up the rest of the way. So we took the stairs as far up as we could and had an awesome time!

Au revoir, ET!

After an exhilarating view of Paris from the tippy top of the Eiffel Tower it was time for some vegan noms.

Another recommendation from Aurelia led us to MOB. The server told us that this place is 100% vegan but according to Happy Cow two of their sauces might contain honey. So I’m not entirely sure but either way, aside from these two sauces, this place is all vegan and mighty delicious!

MOB – 99% vegan

30 Rue Charlot
Paris, France 75003

We also learned that MOB started in NYC, they’ve got a location in Brooklyn! And opened their Paris location in Ocotber of this past year. Sweet! It’s another restaurant that’s located in a really cool part of the city. Just something about it. Quaint. Busy. Adorable. Perfect.

They’ve got these really cool “sausage’ like jobbies hanging from the ceiling. They’re actually made of dried fruits and nuts. Our server let us a try a piece and it was pretty good. People will come in and purchase these ‘logs,’ some not realizing that it’s not a meat-based food at all!

The menu on this day allowed for a three item combo—a cup of corn chowder soup, yucca fries, and a mushroom burger. We’re in!

I love that they’re going for a fast food style dining experience here. With burgers that resemble sliders, with a White Castle-esque appeal, unique yucca-based fries, a side of sweet ketchup, and delicious soup, this place gets 4/4 gold stars for sure. Not only is the concept and delivery great but the food is really delicious too. One of my favorite veggie burgers ever (Chris’ too!). The orange colored sauce on the veggie burger reminded us of McDonald’s “special sauce.” Yum! Chris also noted that he felt like the burger was a nice balance between the full faux meat effect and the real deal. Which basically equates to best of both worlds.

Couldn’t leave without a cookie. Yums!

One more touristy stop before leaving this gorgeous city. This one is pretty self explanatory so I’ll let the pics do the talkin.’

It’s a sad day…to leave such a beautiful place. I’ve never felt more at home away from home. Visiting with old friends, making new ones, and experiencing the world from a different angle, if even for a little while, is nothing short of eye opening and marvelous. Neither one of us wanted to leave but it was time. More adventures await…just two short flights away…in Italy!!!!! But we must get there first!

Our flight from Paris to Frankfurt got off to a late start so when we arrived in Frankfurt to jump on our connecting flight into Florence we nearly missed the connection all together. But we made it! This also meant, no time to seek out vegan food in a Germany airport. I wonder what we would have found. Hm. Anyway, all was not lost! My friend Rachael kindly put together the best going away/Paris care package. It included a large baguette (of course!), vegan cheese, a fruity spread, and chocolate. If we didn’t have this we most certainly would have gone to bed very, very hungry as the remainder of this day was a bit unexpected.

So here we have dinner on day four, during our flight from Frankfurt to Florence—baguette, cheesey spread, and chocolate for dessert. It worked out perfectly because there wre no veg meals available on this flight and you know what, I think this meal was better than anything we would have received on a plan anyway! :) Thanks for saving our bellies, Rach!!!!

Once we landed in Florence (OMG we’re in Italy!!) it was time to wait for our checked luggage at the carousel. Waiting… waiting… others collect their belongings…waiting…and then there were four of us left. The carousel stopped turning and we knew what it meant. Lost. Luggage. Welp, there’s a first time for everything, yeah?! :)

The necessary paper work was filled out and all we could do at this point was go pick up our rental car and head to our hotel. We’d be able to collect our luggage the next morning.

Shuttle to the car rental location. Oh but what’s this?! Our car rental carrier is closed? But the other rental companies are open. Um. So we attempt to rent a car from one other rental company but they didn’t have anything available. Gah! However, we’re lucky we did stop in this other place (Avis) because the woman working this night was incredibly kind. She helped us sort out a nearby B&B, a taxi to the B&B, a map of the surrounding location, and made two out-of-our-comfort-zone foreigners feel a bit more at ease about the situation. She was so nice, in fact, that she did all of the calling and arranging for us. After hours. After she helped her last customer. She stayed to help us. So, so amazing! This is by definition, outstanding customer relationship management. And the most incredible part is that technically, we weren’t her customers. But ya know what, from the single act of this kind, unbelievably helpful Avis employee, should I ever need to rent a car in the future, you bet your bippy it’ll be from Avis!

So we made it to our B&B. Not too shabby for the cheapest place in town. And at least we have these sweet overnight goodie bags from the airport! :)