A nice and easy day!

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Allo!

Well, another lovely day in the incredible city of Paris! Up at the usual time, but both R and Mom went down to the boulangerie this time. Mom found some other pastry with raisins that she seems to prefer to croissants – we both think she’s crazy, but that’s as may be! Did a little apartment cleaning, then headed out.

Today our objectives were St. Sulpice church, Notre Dame, a walk through Ile St. Louis and Place des Voges. We also had to pick up tickets that we reserved on-line at FNAC for the Inca Gold exhibition at the Pinacoteque near the Madelaine. So…bus to St. Sulpice. They are still cleaning up the second tower there, but one is finished and looks incredible! (I think that all the publicity that they got from “Da Vinci Code” may have resulted in unexpected attendance and riches, which is definitely good for the church!) Besides the sun line inside, it’s a fairly plain church, and the stained glass is not particularly noteworthy!

From there we caught another bus to Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame. Boy, I’ll tell you, the crowds around some of the sights are incredible!! (We’ve decided that the next time we come to Paris, it will probably be in winter or early spring; MUCH prefer dealing with the weather to dealing with tourists! If there is a global recession happening, it doesn’t seem to have happened here! There are a lot of people!) Joined the mob scene into Notre Dame, but it’s very difficult to enjoy the different chapels and the lovely stained glass when there is really a crush! Extracted ourselves successfully and headed out to the little garden behind the church – past the incredibly l-o-n-g line of folks waiting to climb up to the tower…some of them are probably still waiting in line! Through the garden and cross the bridge on to the second island, Ile St Louis where we used to stay whenever we came to Paris (before I discovered the Luxembourg)! Had a nice walk down memory lane, and looked into some cute shops without managing to buy anything! (No room to put things…)

As we were now almost at the other side of the island, R figured it would be just as easy to walk to Place des Voges as find another bus. This put us back through the St. Paul Village neighborhood again; very attractive place, especially the little city hall there. Once around the Place – beautiful garden in the center with lots of people enjoying the sunshine, then found a bus to take us back to St. Germain for FNAC and lunch.

Went to l’Entrecote, just off Blvd. Bonaparte, and were early enough to get right in. L’Entrecote (thanks, Bill!) was recommended to us several years ago, and I think this experience was even better than the last one! Entrecote has one thing on the menu – entrecote (beef steak) – but they do it exceedingly well there. They ask you two things: How do you like your steak cooked, and what do you want to drink? We ordered a bottle of the house red, and then sat back to enjoy the meal. First was a green salad dressed with a mustard vinaigrette. Then came half of the steak with a lovely mound of home-made French fries and secret sauce for the steak – just incredible! We all managed to eat just about everything put before us, and even had room for dessert this time! R had red fruits (which was cheating just a bit, as it included blackberries). Mom had raspberry sorbet that she said was great, and I had a terrific tarte citron (lemon tart) topped with strawberries and a scoop of real vanilla ice cream, with a strawberry coulis. Wow!

Dragged ourselves over to FNAC and picked up our tickets for tomorrow. Back to the flat for a complete collapse!

Up again around 5, and ready to head out again. We took a bus that we hoped would take us to Gare du Nord so we could catch another bus out to Chateau de Vincennes, but because it was rush hour, we were only able to get as far as City Hall. So, changed plans and headed in the exact opposite direction, traveling along the Seine as far as Radio France. From there we walked across the Seine and to the Ile de Cygnes (island of swans) to take a look at Paris’ second Statue of Liberty, which is at the end of the island. Beautiful view; lovely late afternoon! Walked the length of the island and emerged out at Bir-Hakim, where we caught the bus back to the flat. R and Mom had tomato salad for dinner tonight; I’m still digesting my lunch!

Lovely day; more tomorrow!

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