We arrived in Paris on Tuesday evening around 6:30pm. Because time was not a factor and in order to conserve cash, we elected to use Paris’ world-class public transit system to reach our hotel. This entailed taking the RER (rapid, limited stop train) to an interchange with the Metro (subway, tram, bus). Only a little worse for wear and 20 Euros lighter, we made it to our hotel -- on the other side of the city -- in about an hour. Try doing that in Toronto during rush hour!
We headed to our room, organized ourselves, and walked next door to an adjacent recreation complex that housed, among other things, a McDonalds. (For those keeping track, we hit “Mickey D’s” only 3 times on our trip…once in Prague and twice in Paris…for convenience only I assure you! It had nothing to do with food quality.)
Our first full day in Paris started at about 9am. We headed to the Metro station closest to our hotel and purchased a day pass. (We did this both days and it proved to be a convenient and cost-effective way to move about the city.)
We popped up at Place de la Concorde and were immediately struck the by the immensity of the open spaces in this part of the city. Our biggest challenge was to get our bearings and orient ourselves to the map. (Note: there is a total lack of “grid layout” to most of the city streets -- check out the views from the Eiffel tower and you will see what I mean -- so it’s very easy to become disoriented; everything we read about getting around Paris strongly suggested having good maps and we concur!)
We wandered around a bit and then grabbed a late breakfast at Café La Coupe D’Or (“Or” is“gold” in French and gives one an inkling of the both the quality AND the price of the food). Afterward, we caught a noon tour bus around the city core (We did this in both Vienna and Prague and it is an excellent way to get a guided overview of sights after which you can focus more specifically).
We exited the bus at the Eiffel tower, walked underneath this impressive old structure, snapped a few pics and planned to come back the next morning. From there we crossed over the Seine, hopped the Metro, only going a few stops, and surfaced at the Arc de Triomphe. We then strolled down the Champs d’Elysee, “window shopping” at some of exclusive stores that line this famous avenue, continuing through the Jardin Des Tuileries -- where we stopped for a glass of wine and a rest – finally ending at the Musee du Louvre.
We had already decided to pass on the Louvre (we just didn’t have time to do it justice), choosing instead to take in the Musee D’Orsay which houses works from the mid 19th century to the early 20th. We are not “art people” but found it extremely moving to view the original works from Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, and many others; the creativity, passion, and variety of styles in evidence was truly awe inspiring.
We left as the museum was closing and headed out for a walk along the Seine. Getting a trifle peckish, we searched for a place to enjoy a “nice meal” (you know the kind: throwing the reigns off the budget a wee bit for a memorable meal). We found a nice little Italian restaurant just a few blocks off the beaten path that seemed, on the surface, to fit the bill nicely. When we arrived around 7pm, it was empty; by the time we left at 8:30 it was buzzing with obvious “regulars”. The meal was excellent both in value and quality. We clearly had stumbled upon a jewel.
Our day ended with a beautiful sunset cruise with “Bateau Mouche” along the Seine. I’ll let the pictures paint that part of the story…
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