First Day in Paris
Pinch me, I can’t believe I’m actually in my favorite city in the world! This is my 10th visit here and probably my last. I’m finding I can’t walk more than a couple blocks without having to stop and catch my breath. I hate slowing everyone down. Enough whining. On to the fun stuff.
We slept in and went for a hearty breakfast in a nearby cafe. My chocolate chaud was pretty bitter, they don’t sweeten it here. I added a bit of sugar and it was better. Maybe I’ll try tea tomorrow. Then we came back to the hotel to get items forgotten-gloves, hats and scarves. Boy did we need them later in the day. Everyone but me has use of phone outside the hotel so I just go where they tell me. We started walking the 20 minute walk to catch the Tootbus that is a Hop on-hop off bus. Yes, it’s really called the Toot bus. Once we got going the right direction we discovered it was more than a 20 minute walk,especially with me being so slow. Then they couldn’t find the correct street where the bus stop was. We were near the Arc de Triomphe but didn’t know which side street to look for. There are 12 streets that radiate out from the Arc and I wasn’t walking around all of them! So we did the smartest thing we could. We hailed a taxi! It got us to Notre Dame in 15 minutes. We had an entry time of 1;30 and got there by 1;20. Since the fire and restoration, they now require reservations. It’s free to go in but they ask for donations, so is it really free? The outside looks so much cleaner than before. But I was really amazed at my first look at the interior. Before it was so dark, it was like night time. Now it’s bright and beautiful. I was in awe. I walked around the sides and took photos of things I didn’t even know were there. I also stopped by the gift shop and donated a few Euros to the cause. I am truly impressed with the restoration that has gone on there and is still ongoing.
From there we walked around the side of the building, stopping a a couple souvenir shops along the way. Behind the cathedral and across the bridge to the next island are 4 cafes, 3 of which I have eaten in. We chose the other one because it’s owned by the Berthillon ice cream company, supposedly the best ice cream in Paris. I had a salted Carmel crepe, really healthy lunch. But it was good. We were going to order ice cream but we were too full. As we were walking along the bridge we saw a huge turtle sunning himself on a ledge by the river.. There was a woman next to us with her 4-5 year old grand son. We told her about the turtle after looking up the French word for turtle. The boy wasn’t too excited. When we went into the restaurant we were seated next to them. The boy was pretty shy but he got ice cream and a sugar crepe. That’s a nice afternoon snack.
From there we found the Toot bus stop and rode the bus
to the Eiffel Tower. You can’t just walk up to the tower anymore. You have to go through security and have your bags checked.. Then we were able to walk around under the tower. No one was interested in going up and we didn’t have tickets anyway. So then we went to find food. There were some tents set up across the street so we went to investigate. They were selling different food things-mostly dried. Then we picked one of the 3 cafes on the block and had a lovely dinner. We celebrated Verna’s birthday. I even had a gin and tonic, yum. After boeuf Bourgignon, we ordered dessert. I had a lemon tart. It was delicious. I ate half and Betty finished it off. We were smart this evening and found a taxi right away. He went to the wrong place at first but we finally found the hotel.
‘Now we are snuggled in our room, getting ready for bed and another fun day tomorrow. Let’s hope the weather holds.
‘Photos; the arc de triumph taken from the middle of the street on a green light, a photo looking straight up at the inside of the tower, 2 photos of the inside of the restaurant and one of the outside, and Notre Dame photos.
